[6.2/10] Not my favorite outing for the show. The main story, featuring Lorelai going head-to-head with Taylor over building her new Inn, was mostly a dud. Taylor works best in small doses, and having him be a persnickety jerk to our protagonist for a whole main plot just made me want to ring his supercilious neck. That’s all well and good for an antagonist, but it doesn’t really amount to much, just some declaration that Lorelai is going to be ruthless in business now, and the same inn ground-breaking we were inevitably going to get. It wasn’t particularly funny, it wasn’t particularly enjoyable, and it doesn’t really teach us anything new or interesting about the characters either.
The Dean/teen drama story didn’t do much for me either. There’s some rich material to be gleaned from seeing someone you once loved getting married, or from being upset that someone who once loved you somehow stopped, but rather than delving into that meaningfully, “Chicken or Beef” just gives us some stock melancholy glances and cliché drunken ramblings. The one good part of this bit is Luke feeling compelled to say something to Dean, stopping himself, and then simply warning Rory not to attend the wedding without explanation.
To top it all off, the humor in this episode was a little cornier than usual. Michel (who has hair now) running around a modern hotel with earpieces feels like “can you believe kids, today” kind of bit. The town exchanging all their mail thanks to an incompetent new mail carrier is also some stock wackiness. And even though it ends in a nice moment with Lorelai and Kirk, the malfunctioning security system was pretty corny too.
Overall, not a strong episode for the show, mainly due to elements being elevated that should be side dishes at best.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2017-10-24T21:25:42Z
[6.2/10] Not my favorite outing for the show. The main story, featuring Lorelai going head-to-head with Taylor over building her new Inn, was mostly a dud. Taylor works best in small doses, and having him be a persnickety jerk to our protagonist for a whole main plot just made me want to ring his supercilious neck. That’s all well and good for an antagonist, but it doesn’t really amount to much, just some declaration that Lorelai is going to be ruthless in business now, and the same inn ground-breaking we were inevitably going to get. It wasn’t particularly funny, it wasn’t particularly enjoyable, and it doesn’t really teach us anything new or interesting about the characters either.
The Dean/teen drama story didn’t do much for me either. There’s some rich material to be gleaned from seeing someone you once loved getting married, or from being upset that someone who once loved you somehow stopped, but rather than delving into that meaningfully, “Chicken or Beef” just gives us some stock melancholy glances and cliché drunken ramblings. The one good part of this bit is Luke feeling compelled to say something to Dean, stopping himself, and then simply warning Rory not to attend the wedding without explanation.
To top it all off, the humor in this episode was a little cornier than usual. Michel (who has hair now) running around a modern hotel with earpieces feels like “can you believe kids, today” kind of bit. The town exchanging all their mail thanks to an incompetent new mail carrier is also some stock wackiness. And even though it ends in a nice moment with Lorelai and Kirk, the malfunctioning security system was pretty corny too.
Overall, not a strong episode for the show, mainly due to elements being elevated that should be side dishes at best.