And tonight’s ep is:
Just Like Gwen and Gavin. Knowing he has let too much time go by, Luke (Scott Patterson) is still unable to tell Lorelai (Lauren Graham) about the existence of his 12-year-old daughter, April (Vanessa Marano), and he is thrown into a panic when April wants to hang out with him at the diner. When April and Lorelai both show up at the diner and begin chatting, April innocently explains that Luke is her father. Lorelai tries to be supportive, even offering to postpone the wedding date, but Luke’s reaction to this idea leaves her confused and hurt. Back at Yale, Logan (Matt Czuchry) takes unusual steps to win Rory (Alexis Bledel) back, and the newspaper staff rebels against Paris’ (Liza Weil) reign of terror at the Yale Daily News. Meanwhile, Stars Hollow holds its annual Winter Carnival, and Lorelai and Rory run a booth featuring their dog, Paul Anka, as a fortune teller. Sherilyn Fenn guest stars as Ana Nardini. Keiko Agena, Liz Torres and Sean Gunn also star.The episode was written by Daniel Palladino and directed by Stephen Clancy.
Great. A Daniel Palladino episode. (Also, didn’t he used to hyphenate like ASP?)
Man. I didn’t want to write another cranky post about Daniel Palladino, but it’s not a subtle thing anymore — I’m really sick of his writing on this show. It’s bad enough that he writes every character all fraught and stressed, with the tension ratcheted up by several notches, and that it never lets up. But it’s not just the pacing; it’s the whole tone of the characters. For example: ASP has a gift for scattering pop culture references through the show in ways that let us feel Lorelai’s and Rory’s sincere enjoyment of them. When DP does it, the references feel forced, but worse: they’re all slightly mocking put-downs of the things they refer to. It turns the characters from people who delight in pop culture into snarky, pretentious twits. It’s completely wrong and upends one of the liveliest aspects of the show.
Then there’s his plotting. He’s got plots hinging on that staple of bad tv comedy, the wacky misunderstanding. (Lane’s uncle? Please.) He’s got plots revolving around preposterous behavior that noone would put up with except that the script requires them to (Paris’s ludicrous treatment of the newspaper staff). I mean presumably this is all supposed to be funny, but as I watch it I just want to shout at the characters to cut it out. And I really hate that he completely sidestepped the problem of how to deal with the complicated relationship between Rory and Logan by coming up with the mysterious Lorelai letter. (Which we never get to hear, even a hint of what was in it, because that would mean he had to actually write a letter that “genius” or “brilliant” or whatever it was Rory called it, whereas this way it’s all a lame gag bit.) SO ANNOYING.
I don’t think Daniel ever hyphenated.
I heart Karen.
The weak plotting. The character assassination. The lack of any type of finesse. (sigh) I want my show back.
The only parts of the whole episode that rang true to me were where Lorelai & Sookie were watching the syrup people (drinking syrup – ugh!) and the end, where Luke was a basic idiot guy saying he was overwhelmed and Lorelai was a typical woman, offering to postpone the wedding even though she doesn’t want to and the whole thing ended where neither one of them really understood what the other wanted.
I have been there people.
Otherwise – blah. And could someone please explain why Lane would even want that idiot back? And why didn’t someone just punch Paris – these are Yale college students for God’s sake – what do they have to be afraid of?!
Karen nails it, as usual. But, Paul Anka in a swami outfit! (Although, was there some kind of weird special effect when he stopped the wheel? It looked almost like they reversed the film in that bit).
You’re right about Doggie Swami. Thanks for salvaging a happy memory from this episode!
Maybe DPs problem is a matter of his being more accustomed to writing for sit-coms? I recognized his name on both “Roseanne” and “Family Guy” — I had the flu yesterday, and ended up watching more TV than I probably should have. Neither show was renowned for their subtlety. I hadn’t really thought about it (I blame the flu), but in retrospect the entire episode seemed ham-handed and a little shrill. And it sort of pisses me off that we apparently don’t have a new episode to look forward to next week, either.
I did like the Swami though.