Hello, friends!
"If you're out on the road.
Feeling lonely, and so cold.
All you have to do is call my name.
And I'll be there on the next train."
Do any of you have shows that you watch a lot, not necessarily because they're your favorite, but because they are comfort shows? One of mine is Gilmore Girls.
It's my little sister's ultimate comfort show and through her influence I also watch it when I need a smile. You can also tell her sway because she included a picture from Gilmore Girls when she made my header for this blog. I have a long and complicated history with this story but today I'm not going to go deeply into my thoughts on the show as a whole itself, just celebrate some of my favorite parts.
Yes, I have an ulterior motive, which will become clear soon. Stay tuned.
There aren't spoilers for these, just some messy ramblings. If you haven't ever seen Gilmore Girls I hope this gives you a look into what the show is through all my abstract thoughts; if you have seen Gilmore Girls, then I hope you enjoy my sneaky references!
I will say that some of these I've only watched once, so I may not remember all the side plots for each of these episodes, but they have elements that make me smile and think, "Yeah, that's a favorite." It is strange that my favorites aren't the ones I watch the most, but these are my favorite because they capture what I think is the essence of the show.
Summary: If you don't know, the show Gilmore Girls is about single mother Lorelai Gilmore as she gets her daughter Rory through high school and college. All of this is backed by a quirky town that she has escaped to to not live like her high society parents.
I had a list to decide between to take the last spot and I rewatched this one to try to decide, and voila, my decision was made.
I still don't understand the ridiculousness that is this title, but that goes for a lot of the episodes. Emily and Richard navigating high society and being annoyed that Lorelai brought her daughter instead of a man makes me chuckle.
If you haven't seen this show, I think the reason so many of come back to it again and again is for Stars Hollow itself. It has such a fun energy and community. The Firelight Festival has all of that, especially with Kirk and his walkie talkie.
So much energy that we're running away from each other.
I love how chaotic Liz is, but even more than that, I love how much Liz adores Luke. It's precious and makes me so happy. Siblings for the win.
This has some good stuff with Richard. Lorelai working through issues with her parents, I am sad to say, lasts the whole show. But that's good, too, because despite all the hurt they are all really trying to become functional. I like this episode for that, for all the work they go through.
And the Santa burger is so disgusting.
You can't have a Christmas scene without some heart strings being pulled, and this does just that.
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| Iconic. |
This is just a classic. Starting with sleeping through the alarm ("It didn't purr!" "...What?") and then the introduction of all of Rory's new classmates, this is solid. And it has great Lorelai and Rory moments like the above gif.
I did not watch this show chronologically for a long time, but when eventually I decided to I was amazed of how much of the credits pull from this episode.
The Chilton years are great fun but it takes a lot for the students to accept Rory. I could choose a ton of different episodes to check off Chilton, but this one is quintessential.
I'm sure all the Gilmore Girls fans can tell a lot about what I think of the show just based on my favorite episodes. If you are one, you know what I mean. And I think this is the one that reveals my hand. If #10 didn't already give that away.
This is up here because it is the introduction of one of my favorite characters, the one and only Jess Mariano. If you're not a fan of Jess, please don't run away, I will explain myself! Not today, but I will explain myself in the future. I have a whole post about him planned.
This show is basically made up of moments in Luke's diner, but the picture above is one of my favorites. Taylor trying to be the big authority all while Lorelai does anything she wants tells a lot about Luke's tolerance. The kids wanting fries and Lorelai just wanting a donut.
Luke going through all the different tactics of trying to raise someone is what I am here for.
You guys may notice that there aren't any season 5 or season 6 episodes in this list, and that this is the only season 7 episode. That's because those seasons annoy me greatly. For this being my comfort show, I only usually rewatch seasons 2 and 3, with occasional episodes from seasons 1 and 4.
This here is the finale. And it did such a great job with wrapping everything up. I've just watched it the once, but I'm pretty sure I cried. It has all the Stars Hollow charm and community along with big decisions which are hard decisions.
I got into this show for one relationship and one relationship only. But slowly another one began to grow, and this is the culmination I could only dream of.
I am Lorelai in a few different ways, and one is that I LOVE snow. And this episode features some very good snow, indeed. I don't care if the snow looks fake, it's snow.
A snowman building contest, the town getting to stay at the Independence, sleigh rides! What else do you want? I love the whole medieval-themed antics and the confusion over the food.
The whole Rune vs. Kirk dynamic bubbling in the background just makes me want to see more. I don't remember much of Michel in this episode which is sad because he is fabulous and one of my favorite parts of the whole show. Oh, and I just remembered all the convincing Sookie had to do to get Jackson to be part! Good times.
I don't know why this is one of my favorites when you have the context that I watched this when I was learning to drive and then refused to go driving with my dad.
Ahem. All you fans know why I like this episode.
There are magic tricks! What's the problem with that?
I love how Luke asks Rory for help. And how she's very willing to tutor even if her student is uncooperative. Having been a tutor myself, this would drive me crazy (ha, did you see what I did there?) in real life, but I find it amusing in a show.
I like the talk about "You could be anything!" and getting to see Rory's reasons for why she wants to be a journalist, because we've heard about it up until then, but not why.
This also holds the prize for having some lines that absolutely BREAK ME. Congratulations.
I could probably do a whole post about my mixed feelings on the plot device that is the "basket sale". It is often SO problematic, but Lorelai sums up how it's cute and fun here. It's more light here than in other stories, and while Taylor takes it very seriously others are a little mischievous.
And why is it so cute? Sookie and Jackson!! The whole Kirk debacle is so very Kirk. Any time Sookie describes her food I get hungry, but a whole basket that is edible?? Amazing. Just saying, the real snack is Sookie because look at her here, she's STUNNING.
I also love Lorelai chasing Luke around his own diner in an attempt to have him save her from the truly pathetic. Priorities.
And of course there's the other sale of a basket. Ahem. Moving on before I get attacked but I promise that a post I write one day will be titled a line from this show.
Luke and the audiobook!! And how he mocks it and feels pathetic! And then---AND THEN---all of a sudden it works? Afterwards passing on the information to someone who really needs it is well done.
"I had this friend, let's call him Philip."
I don't love every second of it, it should be noted I skip over all the stuff with Paris because this was a really weird plot for her. But you get Jackson sleeping with the zucchini! ("Is that code for something?") The re-bonding moments for Lorelai, Sookie, and Michel are golden. Everyone is very stressed in this episode, but there is levity, too.
I'm not crying, you are.
This was one of the first ones I watched, and I loved it then. Now having the context for the whole 4 seasons leading up to it? EVEN BETTER. It's so soft and gentle and I want to be wrapped up in this episode.
Huh, Chloe likes all the episodes with a medieval/renaissance theme...maybe this means something...
This is in the top because I love so many of the plot threads. Lane, the boys, and Mrs. Kim? Hilarious. "You two are girls!"
The beginning, the middle, the end, I love it. YES, THE END. *arrow to the heart*
As the kids say nowadays, this episode lives rent free in my mind.
Anyway, this post is all a lead up to say that I have a new fan video up on YouTube, all about Lorelai Gilmore. There are spoilers, but I only really go into season 4 (and a few clips from 5?), so 6 and 7 and the revival are all out of it, so if you've seen that far, you can watch it!
I first heard this song through a fan video for Isabela Madrigal and I LOVED the energy. Last fall semester I had the brilliant idea that it could work for Lorelai and I've been playing with it every since. I only realized when I put this up that the song is called "Primadonna" not "Primadonna Girl", so my bad. Along with other editing flaws, I apologize for the poor quality for the images! My fan videos skills are completely self taught just for fun, so I only use screen recording and iMovie, but if you have any suggestions of how to make better quality without all the import and export problems, I'd love to hear it!
Several of the episodes I talked about above feature heavily in this video if that's any indication that I enjoy them. If there was any doubt.
Yes, there is a plethora of Gilmore Girls fan videos out there, but I still have so many ideas for more. Do you guys have a favorite Gilmore Girls fan video?
Thanks for reading and/or watching! What are some of your comfort shows? Which of you are Gilmore Girls fans? What are your favorite episodes? Tell me all your thoughts on the show!
Happy June, friends!
Chloe the MovieCritic
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