Gilmore Girls had its hundredth episode yesterday. It involved a renewal of the grandparents vows, allowing the usual chance for some interpersonal crisis to develop. The episode was pretty good overall, though Rory's dad and the current guy she is interested in both are characters that annoy me -- pretty boy types that complicate the girls lives without offering much in return for the audience. They are basically WB cuties without some of the real character weight that makes some of them worth my time.
I must say, however, the look of pure disgust and anguish on Lorelai's face at the end of the episode, after finding out about her mother's attempt to break up the relationship with Luke was a dramatic highlight. This season had too many moments that did not seem to be emotionally real or fully so -- that moment was definitely not one of them.
West Wing also was a very good episode. Christopher Lloyd guest starred as a law professor helping to guide newly free ex-communist nations in the writing of their constitutions. He expressed the basic need of instilling a basic constitutional tradition. An underlining spirit that guides the interpretation of the words. [Meyer v. Nebraska was used as an example, a 1920s decision that overturned a ban on the teaching of the German language, arguably a result (so felt Justice Holmes) not compelled by the document itself.*]
A spirit that at times seems to be lacking these days, surely to the degree the tradition is one we should wish to follow. Meanwhile, Toby was worried about the long term stability of the document, including the dangers of exporting our presidential system, which does not quite follow just the words of the Constitution. The other plot about Iran and the president's illness was also well done.
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* "Without doubt, it ["liberty" protected by due process] denotes not merely freedom from bodily restraint but also the right of the individual to contract, to engage in any of the common occupations of life, to acquire useful knowledge, to marry, establish a home and bring up children, to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience, and generally to enjoy those privileges long recognized at common law as essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men. ... [A]nd it hardly will be affirmed that any Legislature could impose such restrictions [the targeted law] upon the people of a state without doing violence to both letter and spirit of the Constitution."