Year: 2000-2007, 2016
Genre: Family drama
Seasons: 7 + revival
Episodes: 154 + 4 parts in the revival
Summary: Love, life and loss in a small town.
I’ve heard people talk about this show for years and I thought it was only loved because they wore rosy glasses.
Seven seasons later…
I REGRET NOTHING!!!!!
Ahem.
Turns out this show is pretty good.
The last show I reviewed (Psych, my review) is episodic, with a minimal longterm story. This is the opposite. By the end of the show, a story has been told.
We follow Lorelei and her daughter Rory as they navigate the trials and triumphs of their lives in a small Connecticut town. Lorelei, a single mom, manages an inn while pursuing her dream of owning her own establishment one day. When Rory gets accepted to a prestigious school, Lorelei has to ask her estranged parents for a loan, forcing a rekindling of their relationship. Rory’s life alters in unexpected ways as she’s thrust into a foreign world and soon finds herself changing in the face of academic and love troubles.
The first four seasons are the strongest. The dramas don’t feel forced, the characters stay relatively likable and it has this wonderfully warm and cozy aesthetic. A lot of drama does occur, but I didn’t get incredibly annoyed by it, which I normally do in the face of stupid people doing stupid things. It’s a well-crafted, smartly written, heartwarming story.
The final three seasons have the most warts. By the time I neared the end I wasn’t enjoying myself as much and the ridiculous conflicts charred my mutton. They’re not a complete flop, but compared to the earlier seasons, they’re diminished of coziness and riddled with poor story choices.
This show’s comfort and cuddly levels are great. The sets, clothes, soundtrack, and early 2000’s film quality immediately struck me as sweet and refreshing. I didn’t watch a lot of tv during that era, so it holds no nostalgia for me, but seeing the less technologically advanced lifestyle made me wish for that seemingly simpler time.
The comedy seems very natural. The offhand remarks, the witty replies, the sarcastic deliveries and the ease with which the characters interact all speak to a talented team of writers. The pop culture references alone deserve their own analysis; too bad most of them went over my head. I was especially clueless concerning the music they listen to. I know Simon & Garfunkle, but pretty much every other band mentioned I’d never heard of.
The miscommunication, lack of communication and overreactions to the eventual communication is never ending. Like, I get it. Drama. But when they encounter the same conversational troubles over and over again without arriving at a resolution, it gets ridiculous. How have these adults not learned anything? And then they make promises to dispense with keeping secrets from each other and ten seconds later they’re keeping secrets. Drama that could be fixed with a simple conversation is one of my least favorite tv tropes.
So what about the characters?
Lorelei’s my favorite of the female characters. She has massive flaws, like being argumentative, petty, afraid of commitment, and unjustly mean; but she’s a driven, intelligent, vibrant mother who’s done well for herself despite the hills she had to climb. I thought it was a nice touch to make her a skilled seamstress, even though it would’ve been nice to see her learn some cooking. Her top problems are the relationship with her parents, and how she raised Rory to believe she could do anything she wanted. With Emily, her mom, Lorelei never learned to let go and their continued aggressiveness with no solid solution is unrealistic and tiresome. And with Rory…
She never learned to fail. Praised as smart, exceptional, and capable of taking on the world, she freaks out any time a bump appears on the horizon. Whether it’s school tests or romance or her career, she never grasps that the world is not her footstool and some criticisms are not only valid, but a vital part of maturing. At the start I really liked her because she wasn’t some dumb teenager. And then she starts to tumble and fumble her way through every aspect of life. As long as she’s not talking with a boy, trying to be a journalist or flailing around school, she’s good. Although I really think she should’ve gone for owning a bookstore and never been a journalist.
Over the course of the show Rory has three major boyfriends. Disappointingly, I’m not all that crazy about any of them. Dean is dependable and nice enough but he’s jealous, needy, makes horrible decisions and is kinda boring. Jess has the attitude, leather jacket, and unreliableness, but he makes a great duo with his uncle, Luke. Logan has the most potential by the end of the show (he had plenty of stupid moments) but now that it’s been about a month since I finished watching it, I’m having trouble describing him. For me, he’s ultimately forgettable. In the end, Rory’s a terrible girlfriend no matter who she’s with.
After the first episode, I knew Luke was IT. I’ve mentioned that I like grumpy men with a soft center, and Luke exemplifies that archetype beautifully. He’s hilarious, helpful, thoughtful, dependable, and just an all around decent guy. He makes some real dumb moves, which seem more for drama than because his character would actually do it, but I still looked forward to every one of his scenes.
The grandparents seek to be involved in Lorelei and Rory’s lives and the things they do to achieve that can be a smidge fishy or downright reprehensible. I still like both of them, and their genuine desire to help the girls is sweet. My own grandparents weren’t involved in my life so seeing their love and support of Rory touched me and made me wish I’d had even half of what she did. It also made me want to slap her for how she sometimes treats them. Their relationship with Lorelei is fairly valid until, like I said, it becomes unwarranted and stupid. Just forgive each other and move on already.
The rest of the cast is pretty likable. There are some rough patches (Paris), and a couple duds (Olivia and Lucy) but then you have Sookie, Michel, Kirk, Lane, Jackson and a bunch of other people to make up for the lame-o’s. Christopher (Rory’s father) is interesting because I don’t dislike him as a person; it’s just his relationship with Lorelei and Rory I don’t fully support.
This is a show that’s perfect for those who love stories that focus on family issues, school life, growing up, finding love, making friends, and drinking lots of coffee.
And then there’s The Revival…
What. In the world. Was that? I was literally dumbfounded for the majority of it.
The story is a mess, it drags in all the wrong places and it’s lost the cozy charm. Maybe it’s because I didn’t wait to watch it, but the harsh differences stand out a lot and they left a bitter taste.
The negative story choices outweigh the positive but some of my least favorite parts were Lorelei’s speech at her father’s funeral, the musical number, the Life and Death Brigade thing, and basically everything else. AAAHHHHHHHH! The story they told is monumentally frustrating and insulting.
(It was during the musical that I stood there, slowly stirring cookie dough, too slack-jawed in disbelief to even fast forward as the heinous act unfolded. Why it couldn’t have been a forty second montage is a mystery to me.)
But in the spirit of fairness, it wouldn’t be such an abomination except for the fact that I’m expected to believe nine years have passed. I cannot, nay, I REFUSE to believe that this is where they landed after a decade. These people should be better now; how are they the same, or worse?
Rory is the chief offender. At the end of season seven she’s headed off on a presidential campaign and I really doubt that a stressful situation like that—where she likely failed often—would not force her to reevaluate her skills as a reporter. And yet here she is in the future, somehow still unaware at how sucky a reporter she is. How did no one point this out to her before? Her relationships are abominable. She’d already failed at being a regular girlfriend, but now she’s a selfish doxy. This is what her poor choices reaped and I have no sympathy for her.
Lorelei is one of the regressors. She still fights with her mother, she hasn’t learned to talk with Luke (how?!), and her maturity hasn’t happened. I guess she decided that the person she’s always been is still good enough for someone pushing fifty. No. It isn’t.
I still like Luke but I feel sorry for him. He waited for Lorelei to get her act together and he suffered because of it. By this point, he’s too good for her. Although, I hate the way he reacted to Lorelei and Emily’s therapy sessions ending.
But back to the fairness spirit: the bright parts are Emily’s arc, Jess, Dean, Kirk, and the wedding. Everything else can burn.
And as for the final sentence: major eye roll.
Do yourself a favor and either don’t watch it or put your expectations on the floor.