Saturday Night with the Gilmores

Today I finally gave in and bought a new DVD player after the one I've had for three or four years decided to believe that no DVDs exist a couple days ago. (It's actually been acting up for about half a year now - sometimes it thinks there's no disc, sometimes it thinks it's open and stops in the middle of a movie - but I will keep anything for as long as I can until there's absolutely no way I can use it.) And I got it just in time for Netflix day.

I've been re-watching Gilmore Girls, disc-by-disc, for the past few months through Netflix (after spending the months before that re-watching One Tree Hill), and I'm in the final season with one more disc to go after this time. What ever will I do with my free time after that...Oh, right, there's that whole school/work thing - what free time?

Some people may think "Gilmore Girls? You mean, that WB chick show that aired with all the other primetime teen soap operas?" Call it what you will, but how many CW shows do you see today that are about a successful single mother - who owns and runs an inn despite having been pregnant and on her own at sixteen - and her above 4.0 average daughter - who would rather read than get wasted, ended up at Yale and, eventually, writing for some newspaper that I won't remember the name of until I watch that last disc. Unlike today's "teen" shows, which focus on rich kids' social and sex lives, Gilmore Girls was brilliantly witty, smart, and as much for adults as it was for teens.

The show follows the lives of sarcastic, "cool" mom Lorelai Gilmore and her daughter, sweet, booksmart, big-blue-eyed, Rory (short for Lorelai) Gilmore in their adorable small town of Stars Hollow, Connecticut. Lorelai goes from running an inn to buying her own while trying to find "the one," while Rory goes from small town public school to expensive and competitive private school (paid for by Lorelai's estranged parents who force themselves back into her life by making her return the favor with "friday night dinners") to Yale.

The show is full of "coffee coffee coffee" (as Lorelai would say), witty and sarcastic remarks, and a plethora of pop culture references (my favorite: "Hey, did anyone ever think that maybe Sylvia Plath wasn't crazy, she was just cold?" as said by Lorelai while she and Rory are huddled by their open stove for warmth while waiting for Luke - of Luke's Diner, and secretly in love with Lorelai - to fix their broken window.)

So, say what you want about Gilmore Girls, but having been a bookworm, alcohol free, almost straight-A teenager, it was nice watching a show with a character my age that I could actually relate to. And now it's both fitting and interesting (and scary, at times) to have gotten to the final season during my "Gilmore Girls through Netflix" phase as Rory prepares for and freaks out about the real world as she finishes up her last year of college - just like me!