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GILMORE GIRLS
An essential part of the small-screen conversation…
2000–16 AVAILABLE ON DVD, BD, DIGITAL, NETFLIX
Created by Amy Sherman-Palladino (who went on to score another smash with The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), Gilmore Girls follows the lives and loves of small-town coffee addict Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham) and her gifted teenage daughter Rory (Alexis Bledel). Forced to seek financial aid from her parents (Kelly Bishop and Edward Herrmann), Lorelai steadily mends her fractured relationship with mum Emily: Gilmore girl number three, and arguably the show’s MVP.
Mind you, there’s no shortage of competition in the comedy-drama’s setting of Stars Hollow, a (fictional) Connecticut town filled with eccentrics and hunks. Rory finds herself torn between three of the latter: needy Dean (Supernatural’s Jared Padalecki), tempestuous Jess (Milo Ventimiglia) and flashy Logan (Matt Czuchry). Meanwhile, the will-they-won’t-they relationship between Lorelai and good-hearted grump Luke (Scott Patterson) forms much of the show’s narrative. But its real backbone is the motherdaughter dynamic, whether it’s between Lorelai and Rory, Emily and Lorelai or the strict Mrs Kim (Emily Kuroda) and rocker Lane (Keiko Agena).
Elsewhere, Melissa McCarthy shines as dotty chef Sookie, while Sean Gunn (yes, Guardians of the Galaxy’s Kraglin) steals scenes as the multitalented goof Kirk.
The show – which built a devoted following across seven seasons and one four-part revival – had a way with words, too. To aid its distinctive style of dialogue delivery, a coach was brought on during Season 3. ‘Talking slow has never been our zeitgeist,’ Sherman-Palladino has said. ‘In life, I feel like people talk faster than they do on screen.’ It tracks, then, that the cast could get through a page of dialogue in under 25 seconds – shaving half a minute from the industry standard.
As well as serving up scores of one-liners, the dialogue performs a vital storytelling role. Typically, much of the action takes place off-screen -Rory’s car crash, a spot of boat theft - but is vividly recapped by characters as they spill the goods. ‘I thought [Gilmore Girls] didn’t sound like anything else,’ said Graham. For her, it grasped the fact that, ‘In life, nothing’s all funny, or all dramatic - it’s both.’
True, some elements of the show haven’t aged terrifically well -Lorelai’s love of troubling Rain Man rip-off Riding the Bus with My Sister (2005), for instance. Yet the show remains vibrant, touching and blissfully escapist. ‘There’s not a lot to watch that is comforting,’ said Graham. ‘That’s a big part of what entertainment is. It offers you a magical place to go and a place to imagine yourself in.’ Sounds like an apt description of Stars Hollow itself…
A VERYS PECIALE PISOD
RAINCOATS AND RECIPES S4, 2004
After years of flirting, Lorelai and Luke finally acknowledged their unspoken thing with a kiss during the momentous S4 finale. Meanwhile, Rory, after sending Jess packing, gives into the stillsimmering attraction between her and old flame Dean. These town-shattering events are complemented by a masterfully juggled array of subplots, memorably capped by Kirk streaking through the streets.