‘Gilmore Girls’ Captures Everything I Love About America
In a world of drug-pins, you need ‘Gilmore Girls’ to keep the normal in TV viewing.
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Lorelai Gilmore, a privileged brat, gets pregnant at 16 and runs away from her parents’ home to build a life of her own. She chooses to not marry Rory’s father, much to her mother’s dismay. Now, while all that can seem like the onset of a tragic story, Gilmore Girls is nothing of the sort.
The show premiered in 2000 with 153 episodes, spanning seven seasons. Now that the show is about to be revived on Netflix with four new episodes. And it kind of completely captures the drama and euphoria that makes Gilmore Girls what it is.
*Spoiler Alert* for those who are finicky about this sort of a thing.
The creator of the show, Amy Sherman-Palladino, has managed to get almost the entire cast together for the revival, even Emmy winner Melissa McCarthy who was a series regular.
Throughout its run, the show has had a pretty long run of great actors featuring on the show.
And when it comes to paycheques, the Gilmores are raking it in. According to Variety, Lauren Graham (Lorelai Gilmore) and Alexis Bledel (Rory Gilmore) are getting paid a whopping $750,000 per episode. Which means they are earning more than the lead cast members of Game of Thrones and House of Cards.
Why I Fell In Love With The American Dream
The creator of the show, Amy Sherman-Palladino, writes from her heart. She doesn’t care about what “message” comes through from the show. And that is exactly why it works. Gilmore Girls was pitched to Warner Bros by the creator with a single line, “a mother and daughter who are best friends”. And boy, did Amy do justice to the theme.
She filled the world of the Gilmores with unswerving feminists. All without the “message” being thrust in your face. And it’s not just the central leads that defy gender stereotypes but also the supporting cast; whether male or female.
In a reel world, where characters die in order to move the plot-line forward and get into a meth-making business just for the kicks; Gilmore Girls brings back the normal in TV viewing.
The quirky townspeople in Starshollow equally contribute to making the show a cult classic. The characters surround themselves with family and friends who’re constantly evolving and working through familial relationships.
I remember watching the show when I was in school but it was really in college that I discovered Limewire and began streaming my favourite shows to watch them again (and again). That’s when I rediscovered the Gilmores. That’s when I re-watched every episode and got to learn something new, whether it was a pop culture reference or the stubborn way in which the Gilmores approached their life.
In a world of drug-pins and hardcore politicians, I like to switch back to the easy life of Starshollow, where the Gilmores are most famous for their rapid-fire banter (their scripts were two times the size of an average 40-minute episode). So they compensated by talking fast. Really fast. Added to that, you have Lorelai and Rory who have an encyclopedic knowledge of pop culture, and LOVE their coffee and junk food.
The first several episodes are kind of slow because they are establishing the characters’ back stories and help you to get acquainted with the crazy bunch. But it all comes together and takes great form as the plot builds.
So Gilmore Girls is not just a show...
(Source: Variety)
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