Shipper’s Log – Stardate 020607
This is the beginning of a long-gestating series where, basically, I talk about relationships in TV series. How civilized. Really, though, they’re integral to understanding the appeal, success, and sometimes failures of TV shows.
Anyways, watching Gilmore Girls this evening was quite honestly difficult. I don’t know what it is about Luke and Lorelai, this pair of star-crossed lovers. One runs an Inn, the other a Diner. One talks faster than the speed of sound, and the other one stutters over a majority of their words. They’ve been married to other people, engaged to one another, and yet somehow their relationship has always stayed the same.
It’s one of the considerations of any show coming to its conclusion, these relationships that are established in a show’s pilot and continue to gestate (Used it twice in one post, fancy that). In the case of Luke and Lorelai, the departure of showrunner Amy-Sherman Palladino was a huge blow to the cause. In her final episode, knowing that she wouldn’t be back the following season, she had Lorelai sleep with former flame Christopher and break off their engagement. Palladino introduced Luke’s long-lost daughter, which drove them apart, and nothing made sense in terms of their relationship.
It’s really a good argument as to why shows like Gilmore Girls shouldn’t even bother to have these relationships, because they become a burden as the series moves on into later seasons. In the same way that a show like Lost has a long-gestating mystery (Which I’ll be getting to tomorrow morning) that fans want to have dealt with as soon as possible, viewers of a show like Gilmore Girls want to see Luke and Lorelai together sooner rather than later.
However, as Luke and Lorelai have proven, the show just can’t end at its 5th season when the ratings are still strong (Although they’re floundering slightly as of late). It has to go somewhere after that, and it sometimes necessitates a wrench or two being thrown into that fairytale romance, resulting in more viewer dissatisfaction. It’s really quite unfortunate that the show can be mired in these relationships, cursed by their own romantic mythology.
The problem with Gilmore Girls, perhaps not shared by some other shows, is that it is so dependent on these relationships. While a show like The Office has a deep comedy tunnel to mine from, Gilmore Girls is about the girls named Gilmore and the men who court them. There are its comedic elements, its Townies, but it just isn’t the same as other shows. It is so mired in this drama, this starcrossed relationship, that the show hinges on its status.
And right now, it’s coming back into the forefront of the show’s drama. Lorelai married Christopher, against the better judgment of almost every viewer, but yet Lorelai was indeed just “marking time.” After a fight last week, after Lorelai rediscovered and wrote down Luke’s good qualities, Christopher left. Now, while this week’s episode was centered around Richard’s heart attack (from which he recovered), it was really about the obvious turn from Chris to Luke in Lorelai‘s mind.
It wasn’t about bypass surgery, but Christopher’s lateness and Luke’s usual awkward assistance in times of crisis. It was about unreturned calls and food deliveries. An episode where the show’s patriarch was having life-threatening surgery, but it wasn’t really about him at all. It was all about the eventual return to Luke and Lorelai.
I don’t think this makes for bad television, I want them to return to their relationship as much as anyone, but I wonder whether or not the show would be better off without it. Would there not be enough drama in a beloved character having a heart attack to drive an episode of Gilmore Girls? Would we be better off if Luke was just another Diner owner, and Lorelai just another Inn owner who occasionally crossed paths?
In the end I don’t think so. In the end I think it’s important for the series to have something to drive it forward. I think that it gives it something to move towards for its conclusion, and the tough part is getting it there. There have been bumps along the way, many placed in its path in a contrived fashion by Amy herself, but I think episodes like tonight’s prove that it has weathered the storm. The bond is still strong, and it is still driving forward to its proper conclusion of a happy ending for Luke and Lorelai.
Cultural Learnings 