The Juno Effect

It is possible... that time has tempered my love for the Gilmore Girls. You see, at first I was confused as to what, exactly, I was supposed to do with this secret obsession I possessed, for which the world at large was sure to judge me. I watched the show with a hunger fueled in part by my Catholic addiction to guilt. Like, you know how some people quit cigarettes and take up excessive eating? I quit feeling guilty about my Major Life Choices and compensated by feeling guilty about my leisure activities instead.

But the great shake'n'bake of time disperses breading and spices evenly the more time it has to shake, and then it bakes. As such, I feel like I'm finally in a place to crack this crispy crust and talk about what's right and wrong about this show.

I came into GG knowing nothing whatsoever about what it was all about, besides the fact that Ben's sisters really liked it. I never saw the floral DVD packaging. I never saw the WB's godawful advertisements or show lead-ins or the portraits of Lauren Graham and Alexis Bleidel air-brushed until you can barely distinguish their facial features. Sure, there were other hints. Hair and nails, which are done up like the prom regardless of where the ladies are at, but it took until the last season--when Rory's hair was not only, whatever, super... hair... done, but also bouncy and done up all whickety whack--for me to notice. THEN even I had to step back and say, whaaaaaaat?

In fact, the first time I encountered the public image of GGs as a pjs and ice cream show for shallow, depressed women was during an improv comedy show, through a character played by a deeply unfunny guy in a wig using a stupid "i'm a girl" voice and pretending to be depressed and watch GG all day long in his/her bed and whine about his/her boyfriend, and I was so deeply offended I almost can't enjoy improv comedy at all anymore.

So, maybe that's how the show was sold, but it is miles away from what the show was, which was basically... if you take the movie Juno, make Ellen Page's parent's suck and be filthy rich, and have her run away to have the baby, which she keeps and supports, then fast forward 16 years (let's remember this is a character drama from Hollywood about overcoming hardship, and not a political statement). Actually the only thing to take from the movie Juno is an extremely plucky, funny, protagonist who reveals noble and surprising inner strength as she bears up against pressure of the Pregnant Teenager taboo and tries to follow a moral path. The rest of the series is about how the mother surrounds herself and her daughter with a supportive and eccentric community in which they can both thrive, struggle, and learn, before birthing the young 'un out of the womb of Star's Hollow into the world at large (wait till I find that speech, it will be an extra shiny dialogic gem). Yeah there are boys, yeah there is crying, and yes the show can, occasionally, make you sick with displays of New England old money, whiteness, and privilege, but at the end of the day it's funny. The banter is on par with, say, a House (ok maybe not House) or a Scrubs or Buffy.

And it was different than the usual shit on television.