Warm Glowing Warming Glow

Goodbye to Stars Hollow

I was even more wrecked by last night's Gilmore Girls series finale than I expected to be.  I don't think it's just a matter of not wanting the series to end because hey, there's another hour of the void I have to fill.  There's enough else on, plus 150 or so episodes floating around on ABC Family and DVD.  I think I was actually responding to how sad the send-off was.  One of the things that the show always did very well -- under both the Palladinos and Rosenthal -- was to make every story relatable: I don't have that much in common with Lorelai or Rory, I often don't even like either of them very much but I really, really could relate to the sadness of Rory leaving Stars Hollow.  I'm not sure what else I wanted to say: I thought it was a really good finale and we couldn't have hoped for a better one.  It's probably good the show didn't try to limp on through another season -- even a 13-episode one.  Um, no Mrs Kim in the finale, though.  That disappointed me, but thinking back, I think we last saw her in the shower episode ("Will You Be My Lorelai Gilmore")?  That was a good summation for the character.  Anyway, thanks for everything, Emily Kuroda.  You were usually better than the writing. 

I was sort of in and out during Veronica Mars last night, no strong responses.  Um, Chris Lowell was pretty funny last night . . . Pitchfork got a huge and very persuasive shout-out -- I almost never read that anymore, but the more Piz talked about it, the more I thought "I'm going to visit Pitchfork, right now."  Oh, I liked the Mac-Max stuff.  I'm still a little down about her dumping the hot vegan, but Tina Majorino and Adam Rose have good chemistry. 

The Perfume Called Stars Hollow

Kind of a funny Lauren Graham interview here -- I wouldn't put too much stock in it, because I think she's too smart to say anything really revealing about the network or Scott Patterson or the various executive producers, but it's a nice read regardless. 

Ooof!

So much for a shortened eighth season of Gilmore Girls.  The CW just announced that the show will end in a few weeks.  Here's the story.

Couch Opening!

Gilmore Girls.  Um, having a hard time coming up with comments about this.  Did anything happen?  I usually like Gilmore Girls -- all shows, really, except Lost -- when nothing much is doing, but  this episode seemed to move past nothing doing to some other, less amusing place.  Let's see . . . some housekeeping on the Lane-Zack-twins front, a lot of name-dropping of indie rock venues and bands, per usual.  Black Cat!  9:30 Club!  First Unitarian!  I know those places!  Magic Stick?  In, um, Detroit?  Also, apparently, important in that annoying way where sometimes Lane or Zack has to explain.  Were any of the bands they mentioned real?  Grizzly Bear was one of them, I think, but I hadn't heard of the others.  The Miss Patty-Babette revue was a bit of a let-down, but the Lorelai karaoke was good, just because did we know that Lauren Graham could sing like that?  I wish drunken "I Will Always Love You" (Dolly version, not Whitney) had not been sung in the key of Lorelai-and-Luke-work-their-way-back-to-each-other, because I'm a little embarrassed by my investment in that story.  I don't really have anything to say about Rory and her apparently dimming post-Yale prospects or the prospect of a proposal from Little Lord Patronizing.

Veronica Mars.  Quite the little civics lesson.  Shall we review?  Underage drinking = wrong.  Graffiti = wrong, but = OK if someone in your family was injured in Iraq.  Muslims = not terrorists, but possibly = mildly chauvinistic, but definitely love freedom + America, and therefore = manageable.  Aside from all that, there was some good stuff -- I think it was almost worth the tedious, overwrought fake I.D. agitprop to see Keith cleaning house at the Sheriff's Department and using Wallace and Piz to do it.  Plenty of screen time for Percy Daggs, Tina Majorino and Chris Lowell, some of it very funny.  Good music this week . . . So, to sum up, kids, don't drink and cross the street and, if you're going to have sex with someone who comes from a different religious background than your own, draw the blinds so your illegal alien fiance can't take photos.  Good night!  -- Peter   

The Minotaur Is Talking

Am I still the only one who's enjoying the David S. Rosenthal administration of Gilmore Girls?  What was wrong with last night's episode?  Not a whole Hell of a lot.  It was funny.  The town meeting was especially good.  We got follow-through on the Logan-might-be-a-scumbag storyline that consumes me so thoroughly: Lorelai still doesn't trust him.  Awesome.  Best of all, Rosenthal and co., having gracefully redeemed Luke during the first half of the season, and less gracefully (come on, give me that) liberated Lorelai from the botched marriage to Christopher, are rushing us to a Lorelai-Luke reunion.  -- Peter

I Miss the WB . . .

Gilmore Girls returns tomorrow night.  I have news about next season, as well.  According to Michael Ausiello, the show may return for a shortened eighth season.  I don't know how I feel about that, except that I kind of doubt it will happen: I'm guessing the show is not cheap (the recurring cast alone . . . ) and the CW seems to be doing much better with its reality shows than it is with its scripted ones. 

Best Wishes, Howard and Non-Mia!

I think in general, in thinking and writing about my shows, I'm guilty of concentrating on the things that don't work and not paying enough attention to the things that do.  For instance, even though the series finale of The O.C. reduced me to tears, I mostly wrote about how annoyed I was with the plot contrivances of the first half.  I similarly fixated on the flaws in the resolution of the rape mystery on Veronica Mars, ignoring the stuff that was really good about it. 

I'm going to try to reverse that trend here and report on how good Gilmore Girls has been for the past few weeks, while noting -- briefly! -- one tiny, temporary, but really notable problem. 

I feel like the last handful of episodes have returned the show to its emotional core, by giving us good, nuanced stories about the central familial relationships.  The fall-out from Richard's heart attack has been funny and broad, but at the same time, pretty believable.  (In a weird life-imitates-art moment, I was nursing a death flu with a bowl of miso at the exact same time Richard railed against miso as part of his invalid diet.)  The storyline has provided some great Lorelai-Emily scenes, including this week's stunning return to the Emily v. Mia, mother v. surrogate mother conflict.  (Here's my problem, though: it was super-distracting that Kathy Baker and her mullet were playing Mia.  What the Hell happened to Elizabeth Franz?  She was lovely.  Mia's kind of a bullshit character, anyway, but I liked Franz.) 

Lorelai's mediation of the Lane-Mrs. Kim battle last week was pretty awesome, too.  One of my favorite things about Mrs Lane is that, unlike most of Stars Hollow, she doesn't worship Lorelai and Rory, and yet it was pretty sweet when Mrs Lane gave Lorelai that -- assumedly very valuable -- doorknob at the end.

The Luke stuff is also good.  It's clear that Rosenthal and company's agenda is to rescue Luke's character from the horrible, horrible beating it took last season, and I have to say they've been very successful.  I really enjoyed the twist last night's subplot with Lane and Zack took; Scott Patterson had a couple of nice, dry line readings.

So there -- that's almost 100% nice, isn't it?  -- Peter

"I've been controlling animals since I was six."

Another week of Sweeps stunts:

24.  Wow.  James Cromwell is a bastard.  "Don't make me murder my grandson."  That's the most passive-aggressive threat ever.  Kind of a thrilling chase at the end, with Milo and DoomedSisterInLaw. 

Heroes.  Eh.  Felt like reading water until next week, when, according to the NBC promotions monkeys, "Someone's going to fly, someone's going to die."  I'm trying to think if we learned anything new or saw anything cool.  Oh, Sylar can now melt pots and pans.  That was cool.  Jessica as member of the Linderman equivalent of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad was kind of fun, although it got less fun when Parkman survived being thrown out a window. 

Gilmore Girls.  Chris and Lorelai . . . I wasn't really paying attention during their final break-up scene, because I was listing all the lost opportunities in my head: I think it was a serious mis-step to give Emily that speech about how Lorelai has to learn to compromise if she wanted to save her marriage and then never pay that off.  Rory and Logan . . . I was hoping they were going to play Rory's crush on the T.A. a little differently.  I'm still waiting for Logan to be revealed as the philanderer we all kind of know he is.  Maybe the Rosenthal regime likes Logan?  I still find him smarmy.

Veronica Mars. Well, hell.  A week in which Veronica doesn't do anything completely atrocious.  That alone was an improvement.  Plus, we had some serious progress in the Dean Begley, Jr. mystery.  Plus, an interesting A-plot, although I'm going to be sad next week when we learn that pretty, pretty Josh murdered his father.  Not enough Wallace, either: couldn't we have excised a few scenes of Logan getting life lessons from Little Girl God?

Lost.  Slept through, which is too bad, because it sounds like it was a good one?  Stuff happened?  Should I give it another chance?

Ugly Betty.  Another good episode: some funny stuff from Michael Urie, Mark Indelicato and Becki Newton, continuing excellent handling of the Alex/Alexis subplot, good mix of subplots overall.  I wonder if the network is giving the producers notes about how often Eric Mabius has to be shirtless.  Otherwise, I don't understand his story last night.  Oh, right -- stuntcasting!  Lucy Liu is still kind of lost on me.  On the other hand, Jerry O'Connell was pretty good as the homophobic jackass. 

The O.C.  I totally fell for every minute of that.  I mean, not so much Taylor being helpless and stupid, and not so much Kirsten and Sandy's sense of entitlement, but Julie and Kaitlin bonding in the midst of adversity?  Yes.  Ryan appearing to be about to bleed out for the entire freaking hour?  Oh God.  You know, it's the penultimate episode, so I really kind of half thought that they could kill Ryan off.  Really effective, and the meta-stuff was kind of fun, and the trip down memory lane.  Seth trading the Range Rover for the shopping cart was a nice touch and good foreshadowing of decimation of the Cohen mansion. 

The Office.  This was maybe the best episode of the year?  Jim as a vampire?  Steve Carell channeling Ricky Gervais as a motivational speaker?  Creed?  I think any episode that has Creed in it, at all, is automatically really funny.  -- Peter

This Guy Likes Clown Porn

We're already a full week into Sweeps.  Consequently, we're getting "events" (disasters, gun fights, hostage situations, etc.) in lieu of episodes, for our dramatic television shows.  I'm just about caught up, and have some things to say.

Prison Break.  I picked the wrong week to skip, apparently.  Michael and Sara back together?  Sara beating up on Kellermann?  I would have liked to have seen both of those things. 

Heroes.  Dear Jeff Zucker, congratulations on your promotion.  Now, please fire the people who put together the promotional clips for this show, because they suck.  I hate that, week after week, we get the entire episode sketched out for us, during the first minute.  This week alone, those jackasses ruined two potentially suspenseful plot points: the confrontation between Sylar and Horn-Rimmed Glasses and the revelation of Claire's paternity.

24.  After a few boring weeks, I feel like we're back on track.  Yeah, the revelation of who's really behind Graem was heavily, heavily telegraphed, and I also don't really care about where that story's going.  On the other hand, McCarthy nabbing Morris is promising. 

Gilmore Girls.  A pretty dour episode, but not bad.  I actually mis-read the Emily ghoul/loving wife flip-flop they pulled and felt a little ripped off by it.  Kelly Bishop really rocked the whole episode, though.  Chris has completely devolved in -- what?  -- two episodes?  That reads as a little fast for my tastes, although I'm also completely ready for the Luke-Lorelai reconciliation, which says something : at the end of last season, I was ready to give up on Luke.  Meanwhile, when are we going to get the rug pulled out from under us with Logan?  I still don't trust him, but time is running out. 

Veronica Mars.  Two episodes in a row in which Veronica does something really, really bad: last week, it was blackmailing that judge, this week it was ordering Madison's car stolen.  I want Wallace to come back -- from wherever he is -- and kick her ass. 

Lost.  Less boring than I was expecting.  I liked the Juliet flashbacks.  Did anyone else notice that she was married to Edmund Burke?  First we had Locke, then Rousseau . . . How long until we meet Desmond's friend Frank Voltaire?

Ugly Betty.  Holy crap.  Best episode yet.  I can't believe how deftly they're handling the Alex/Alexis plot twist.  It's not just how cleverly and sensitively they're doing the gender reassignment subplot, it's how perfectly they're pacing the show right now.  It's rare to see a show where a fast pace and sensationalist storylines are balanced with character stuff, at all, let alone this well.  Michael Urie gets better and better, too. 

The O.C.  This is an example of bad pacing.  Just give us the damned earthquake already.  Oh, but the Kaitlin stuff was really good -- funny, not too tedious (unlike the Taylor-Ryan stuff), and well-acted.  -- Peter

Club Club

Not much going on today.  New Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars last night, both pretty good. 

On the former, it turns out that now the only storyline I care about is Luke's fight to get custody of April, a sure instance of the Willa Holland Phenomenon.  I really don't care about Lorelai's continued unwillingness to grow the fuck up.  The Lane pregnancy is only so-so -- most of that subplot was annoying last night, but the scene with Zack and the grocery bags was actually very affecting.  Keiko Agena's fat suit looks really weird and fake, which is distracting.  Please stop me from saying something harsh about the actress who plays (actresses who play?) G.G.  Trying to stop on my own . . . the "cookies made from scratching" bit was actually funny.

Veronica Mars was a Mac episode, which is great.  I think, based on interviews Rob Thomas gave about the first two seasons, the problem is money: Thomas is only budgeted for a certain number of episodes for most of the so-called regulars -- hence not much of Mac or Weevil, no Wallace last night .  . .  Anyway, last night was light-weight but enjoyable.  Glad that Mac got the cute PHAT guy -- I actually pegged the lab boy as Mac's love interest.  By the way, Tina Majorino is really good on Big Love, opposite Amanda Seyfried (aka Lilly Kane) -- weird that Majorino and Seyfried never shared scenes on Veronica Mars.

New Friday Night Lights tonight . . .