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Saturday, May 04, 2019

Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life

 And Also: The Peo­ple And The Books  discusses eighteen works of Jewish literature from two books in the Hebrew scriptures to the stories that inspired Fiddler on the Roof.  One attempt to apply reason to everything and another to mystify everything (sort of a Jewish Gnosticism) was a bit tedious, at least the discussion (with all the jargon), though I understand the charm of making what might be seen as an isolated God more approachable via a form of poetry.  As a whole, I found the book interesting and helpful to get a sense of stuff like the works of Philo and Josephus. 

I was a big fan of this show though less in later seasons when the characters started to outstay their welcome and not develop in interesting ways. The last season was "eh."  Lorelai and Rory always has a self-centered nature to them but the show didn't want to in effect punish them for it. So, Rory goes so far as cheating with Dean (her ex, who married) and the story had it like the wife's family were the bad ones for dissing Rory.  The story went just so far (including having Rory get reckless and have to do community service) but then stopped.  Lorelai also had a tiresome connection to her teenage boyfriend (and her rich boy bf), much less interesting than others like Max or Luke.  Rory's college boyfriend was boring. I didn't even see the full last season at the time.

But, early on, the leads were charming and Rory finding her way, her first love etc. was nice.  The original creator (not a fan of that last season and never getting to end things with four words that we never were told about) came back for this Netflix series about a decade later, four episodes matching the seasons of a year, each sort of a double episode. I saw it this week on DVD; no extras (shame) and liked it as a whole. Nice to see various old friends in cameos (Dean and Sookie in the final episode; others like Paris and Lane received more airtime; the old headmaster had a cameo but no Max).  The last episode had some tedious Wild (the book, not the movie!) content and an extended enchanted evening segments. But, as a whole, it didn't seem padded or anything.

The primary content gave each of the "girls" their own plot developments. Rory is having something of a crisis, both professionally and personally (she has a safe boring boyfriend and whenever she pops into London, she is with her college boyfriend Logan, who is engaged).  She has those last four word -- "mom, I am pregnant."  Alex Kingston plays a goofy Brit who early on wants her to work on a book. She later fills in as editor of the town paper (two old employees, who don't appear to do anything; does Rory write all the content?).  Per a suggestion by her old boyfriend Jess (a few scenes), she decides to write a roman-a-clef she entitles Gilmore Girls.  But, the episodes do not really provide much of a resolution to her troubles. We don't know who the father is.  Logan? Well, she very well could have slept with someone else too.

Lorelei and Emily Gilmore also have various plot developments, including dealing with the death (per real life events) of Richard Gilmore.  They both have issues to handle, moving on and clearing things up (thus the aborted "Wild" hike by Lorelei).  With Richard around, Emily lets herself go some, and you see some Lorelei in there (including a twisted naughty side).  And, Lorelei always had some more traditional sentiments (including always pining for her first boyfriend and she was comfortable dealing with her mother's world, even if she didn't like it).  Lorelei is living with Luke and one subplot has them thinking of getting a surrogate and turns out Paris is running such a business. Miss Patty popped up, but missed her.

Emily sells her home and the other two get married, so their plot lines end smoothly.  Emily overall gets more attention than the regular show often gave her, including dealing with a family of servants who speak some unclear language (we see subtitles at times).  Some of the supporting characters also have moments, including the mayor, Kirk (still with Lulu but instead of kids, they got a pig) and Michel (looking good in a bathing suit), who is now married and he/his husband are planned to have a child.

Near the beginning, it being "Winter," Lorelai said it smells like snow. It smelled to me like nostalgia. Again, minus a bit of material I'd edit out, mostly enjoyable.  This was released in November 2016, so maybe that was well timed.  It was said that Gore won the election in Stars Hollow. She didn't come up, which is a bit curious; maybe she was edited out, but Hillary Clinton probably did as well.

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