Cringe. But lovely. Also extremely cringe. And also extremely lovely. Nice song choice at the end, as usual.
I had no idea I needed angry Michael that much.
Brutal Emily Gilmore episode, which almost always means a brutal Gilmore Girls episode. Best of the season so far.
By far the worst directed episode Gilmore Girls has had so far. "That's What You Get, Folks, For Makin' Whoopee" has an awful camera work, terrible dialogues and its storyline ends up being just an excuse to fix the worst parts of Season 6. A perfect episode to miss the Palladino's as the showrunners.
The best scene to describe how this episode made me feel like is when Rory discusses Lane's situation with her and goes on her "moms aren't perfect" speech. During this scene, Alexis Bledel purposely looks regretful due to her early conversation with Lorelai. While the idea is not bad, 80% of these type of parallels that Gilmore Girls has always made seem seemed so subtle before. Now, with much worse and less sensitive directors, it feels completely artificial and unnatural.
And I REALLY hope that this won't happen, a show like Gilmore Girls cannot end like that. Take me back to when getting snappy and funny conversations from every character on a weekly basis was absolutely normal.
The scene where Rory keeps bugging Lorelai about the idea of secretely meeting Anna is the 1000th example we have of how the Gilmore Girls are closer to being friends than actually being mother and daughter. While this also makes me sad, I enjoy that Palladino's writing always emphasizes how bad this is for Rory in the long run.
They used the hand-held camera technique on Gilmore Girls. THE HAND-HELD CAMERA TECHNIQUE ON GILMORE GIRLS.
One can argue that Seinfeld was never the same after Larry Charles left as one of the writers when Season 5 ended. He was indeed responsible for some of my all-time favourite episodes (The Limo 3x19, The Outing 4x17, The Stall 5x12...), and the subtlety with which he tackled more darker, controversial themes was quite interesting.
However, even if the show lost a bit of its edginess, Season 6 may have been the most creative season Seinfeld had had thus far. I really don't think a moment such as Elaine picking George's wig and throwing it out of the window, for example, would be executed as well as it was here. Not sure if the show became funnier, but it certainly embraced its goofiness a bit more.
The way Rory said "WHAT??" the minute Lorelai told her she bought a dog.
"He looks like Matthew McConaughey between movies".
Finally an episode that has normal pace, at least by CW's standards. This one is focused on showing us that things are never black and white on Gossip Girl and does a very good job exploring Blair's insecurities. The last few minutes are probably the most heartwarming sequence the show has had so far.
WOW, I had forgotten how fast-paced this episode was. After first seeing it in my early teens, Gossip Girl's "Pilot" continues at the top of my list as one of the best entries any TV show has ever had as I reach the end of them.
There's something so appealing about how the makeup Blair and Serena wear makes me feel, about how Chuck's scarf matches his coat perfectly, or about the hostility in the characters' eyes when they taunt each other. Beyond beautiful cinematography and fashion choices that influenced an entire generation, I thoroughly enjoy the sense of adventure surrounding the show, some of the best tics that teen drama writing has shown us over the past 20 years are here. The motivations these characters have seem natural given their background and work very well when thinking of the series as a social satire, which avoids feeling that the fallouts between them are forced. We just met the characters and it feels like they're acting like themselves.
My only issue with the footage is the use of constant close-ups on their faces when longer interactions take place, which can get tiresome in a 40-minute run, I'll be keeping an eye on that for future episodes. (Can anyone really complain about seeing Chance Crawford's hair or Leighton Meester's lips closer?)...
A soundtrack filled with VERY mid-2000s music also helps us get into the time capsule that Gossip Girl has become by now, it also makes the pace over scene transitions go crazy. And I'm already guessing this will become an issue when the messy dramatic stuff (which every CW show is apparently required to have) overwhelms the writing and the archetypal aspect of our smuggy teens.
Portraying New York like this series does also helps us understand why these characters act the way they do. From the discussion between our female protagonists on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (I only found out this while researching and it already made me love this episode more!) to the vanity in the Walford's apartment, you can tell by the arrogance in every interaction that they love living in the Upper West Side, that they love being rich and spoiled.
Althought it's true that the shows' comment on loss of identity while growing up may seem superficial (good enough for their target audience), the pilot sets the possibility of deeper deliberations on how the relationship these kids have with their parents affect their reckless behavior. The strongest commentary is obviously about how the emerging social media changed what it means to be a teenager, as everyone is afraid of vigilance and judgment but, at the same time, they're the ones that vigilate and judge the most. And I have to say... it's LOVELY that a show that focus on such topics was the first one that succeeded primarily on the Internet instead of the typical US television metrics until then.
Overall, the first look we get at Gossip Girl not only presents the dynamics that the audience will experience on a weekly basis, but also brings up a series of questions that make us invested enough to watch the next episode: What will happen between Dan and Serena? Will their parents' rivalry (Is that really a rivalry? What happened between them in the past?) affect their feelings for each other? What are going to be the consequences for Chuck after sexually harassing two girls in less than 24 hours? What about Blair, will she have to choose between Nate or Serena in the near future? And, of course, the one that started the shows premise at the first place: Who the hell is Gossip Girl?
