 Gilmore
Girls, Season Seven
Our rating:
3 out of 5
Rated: TVPG
reviewed by: Charity Bishop
When the CW cancelled Gilmore Girls midway through its seventh year,
fans across the world mourned the loss of the quirkiest show on television.
Filled with wonderful, eccentric characters and having coined its own series of
"Gilmoreisms," it was a lighthearted and fun romp through the lives of a
mother-daughter duo.
Shortly after her
catastrophic break up with coffee shop owner Luke Danes (Scott
Patterson), the impulsive Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham) finds herself
dating her high school sweetheart. Having had an on and off again thing
with Christopher since before their daughter Rory was born, humiliated
and ashamed, she does her best to hide him and their relationship from
the town. But Christopher is the one person she has never been able to
turn down and before she realizes it, they are a certified couple. Her
parents Richard and Emily (Edward Herrmann, Kelly Bishop) are thrilled,
and her daughter Rory (Alexis Bledel) doesn't quite know what to think,
but then she is dealing with matters of her own. In her final year at
Yale, Rory is facing the work force and her own doubts as to how far her
desire to pursue journalism will take her.
Rory's
boyfriend Logan (Matt Czuchry) has been doing exceptionally well at his
father's investment firm and with their relationship intensifying, there
may or may not be a proposal in the future. Rory's best friend Lane
(Keiko Agena) must also deal with some unexpected news shortly after
returning from her honeymoon. The seventh season is not the strongest in
the saga of the Gilmores. It seems to lose some of its focus midway
through before doing its best to wrap everything up to a satisfactory
conclusion in the last handful of episodes (probably when the cast and
crew learned their renewal had been rejected). The result is that it's
still the same show we know and love but not quite as lighthearted as
former seasons. True, hilarity ensues and the witty banter is still
there, but some of the episodes are lacking a certain spark that defined
earlier seasons. I was also not pleased with the fact that the writers
twisted characters' personalities to suit their own ends, making them
completely different from former interpretations. Christopher, for
example, makes a complete turn around in the seventh season and goes
from a supporting man to a jealous and angry individual who is so self
centered, he has his phone off during one of Loreali's most traumatic
moments. Fans of the Luke / Lorelai pairing will also be disappointed,
since they hardly share any screen time together this season. There are
a handful of liberal leaning political comments, and a mild endorsement
of Obama's campaign.
Content wise the show has never been graphic and
that's good, but it does imply things: Lorelai and Christopher wake up in
bed together in their first scene in the premiere. They share a hotel room
in Paris. Rory lives with Logan whenever he is in town. There are a few
innuendos. Lane mentions a very awkward, unpleasant, and painful honeymoon
encounter. Mild language appears on occasion. There are rarely any instances
of violence (Christopher and Luke do punch each other out and manage to
topple the town Christmas tree while doing it) but there were one or two
things that bugged me, namely
the show's take on Christianity: the one religious
individual in town is depicted as being a very cross, demanding, narrow
minded woman who banned rock groups and hair dye from her house. Lane, as a
result, has pretty much cast of all religious affiliations and states with
pride that her children will never darken the doors of a church unless
they want to go, which leads me to believe Lane no longer attends
either. Given that she held to almost all her principles in earlier seasons
and her faith influenced everything about her (from the way she dressed, to
remaining a virgin until marriage) this bitter change did not seem in
keeping with her value system. That being said, for a secular show the
content is appropriately tame and the dialogue is witty. It's not perfect,
but it is an amusing take on a program that keeps us laughing one moment and
crying the next. What else could it be but Gilmore Girls?
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