the loud bassoon guide to television: gilmore girls

Gilmore Girls (WB)
2000-2007

I hooked up with Gilmore Girls either late in its first season or early in its second, at a time when I was ready to give up on television entirely. I'm a monogamous sort – I typically have one favorite show at a time, only one that I'll actually go out of my way to watch – but I'd tired of my previous TV paramours, and felt maybe it was time to spend quality time with a good book instead.

Stumbling into Stars Hollow, a bubble world community populated by organically quirky, fast-banterin' whitefolk, I found the sense of place I'd been seeking since my previous favorite show (Freaks & Geeks) was canceled. Here were people who breathed pop culture references, passionately loved music, and brought all the neuroses I myself enjoy into the spotlight. These were my peeps.

The writing was consistently inventive and strong, with fully fleshed-out characters I could love and/or hate, performed by a uniformly excellent cast. The superfresh Lauren Graham and her squirmy adolescent sidekick Alexis Bledel made the best comedic pair since, like, William Powell and Myrna Loy. Their chemistry as a young single mother and the daughter she had at 16 was unstoppable, fueled by ultrasmart, überhip dialogue and realistically weird plotlines.

The support cast included the amazing Kelly Bishop and a surprisingly likeable Edward Herrman as Graham's wealthy parents, and a strange-brew crew of friends and neighbors, highlighted by dependably dry Sean Gunn as local weirdo Kirk. They were the same sorts of characters you'd find in Northern Exposure, but with none of the contrived eccentricity or outright lameness. They even had Grant-Lee Phillips in a recurring role as town troubador!

It was refreshing to discover a show not afraid to show off its brains, wit, talent, and optimism. Gilmore Girls simply tap-danced around any potential competition for my "favorite show" honors. No other show seemed worth watching.

Sure enough, as it always does, it came to pass: friends to whom I'd preached the gospel (but never expected to actually sit down and watch such a "chick show") started watching. Then, even more startlingly, coworkers started watching. Soon it seemed I could not escape people engaging me in conversation about Gilmore Girls.

And as it always does, this sent me into deep retreat, scouring TV for a show I might have for my very own (that's a central criterion for "my favorite show" … no one else is allowed to like it). There was no suitable heir, so I entered one of my twice-a-decade "I don't watch TV" phases.

These phases inevitably end with a relocation and a new roommate who wants to get cable. So I gradually found myself dropping in on Stars Hollow again, having been away a couple of seasons, to see if the Girls would have me back.

Now in its fourth year, Gilmore shows some distressing signs of aging, the most unfortunate being the inexcusable addition of Chris Eigeman to the cast as Lorelai's new boyfriend. And I was surprised, then suprisingly suspicious, of Kid in the Hall Bruce McCullough showing up as a gay nanny (he plays it as unconvincingly as Stanford on Sex & the City).

To make matters worse, Michael York is also now on the show … as an exceedingly creepy love interest for high-strung Paris (Liza Weil). I'm all for Paris finding her sexuality, in fact I secretly long for it, but Michael York? Yuck! No one ought to have to kiss that man.

Rory and Paris are now roommates at Yale, which offers some of the prep-school elements from their days at Chilton, but the delightful contentiousness is gone. Lorelai and Luke are still untogether, but both seem bored by even considering it anymore. Dean is married; Jess went away. Sookie has a baby, but Jackson is no longer around for some reason. Lane is working at Luke's Diner, but does not seem to have her rock band anymore.

So maybe you can't go home again. The writing is still witty, the references still shockingly cool, the music still meticulously selected … but somewhere along the way, the balance between humor and drama shifted, and now the show feels a lot more like Providence than is comfortable for me to sit and watch. I never thought I'd be fidgety trying to sit through an episode of Gilmore Girls, but the time has evidently come.

I'll always reserve a special slot in my heart for GG; after all, it did hold my "favorite show" title for at least a year – but times change, people change, and you must move on to what makes sense to you in the present. I'm now dating The OC, but we're cool with me watching other shows sometimes, so I can keep in touch with the Girls. But with Chris Eigeman hanging around 'em, maybe I'll just watch from afar by reading episode recaps and/or fan fiction.