MovieFreak

opinion presents the best-gathered episodes. Not that Gilmore Girls presents weak ones, but with a handful of favorites of mine that I can watch over and over it’s within reason the third season is the finest one.

While some of the dry soap opera parts do not interest me, I always find the writing quite amusing. Smart-smart writing is what I always say about Gilmore Girls. That holds to be true with the third season. One thing that really is comical and almost satirical about Gilmore Girls is its sense of being completely serious in a dramatic scene between the central characters, and then something silly is presented in the background with the supporting characters that surrounds the silly small-town of Stars Hollow. These moments really makes me chuckle. It’s an old comedic trick in the book, but when used in the right context can deliver a thousand laughs. This is one build up that makes the series funnier over majority of the sitcoms of today.

Another key element that I love about Gilmore Girls is its essence of not being watered-down.

Something I noticed with Dawson’s Creek seasons is a lot of filler story lines to move the series along. The same goes for WB’s 7th Heaven and Smallville. On the other end, Everwood and Gilmore Girls have strong story lines from beginning to end. While Gilmore Girls shifts from one direction to another (Rory and Dean break up, Rory and Jess hook up, and they break apart by the end of the series), it still has a strong lead that creates the build-up within the story lines, and keeps the humor as strong as possible.

There is never a strong story line that leans on the weak ones. There is enough of a balance that even the less liked story lines are strong enough to stand on their own. In other words, the entire series blends with its dramatic soap opera aspect, the silly over-the-top ness, the pop culture references, or just the satirical approach with the entire package. It’s hard to define Gilmore Girls, and while this may be a guilty pleasure with me and hard to get other fellas into this show, there is a lot on the table to offer various taste buds. Some people just watch the show for the mother/daughter aspect of it. I simply watch it for the subtext within the writing, the real depth of it, which is pure satire at best.

A story line that involves Jess (stand-alone story line with Jess) occurs at the end of the season, where his father shows up and Jess soon after, follows his father to California; a very unique and different setting for the Gilmore Girls series. Anyhow, ere was talk right after the season finale that year that a proposed spin-off series would involve that story line. It was scratched, which is somewhat understandable. The WB does hold success shows on their belts, but they also hold failed ones as well. And one thing WB did not want was another failed show evolving from a very successful one.

There was a really good article a couple of months ago in the Entertainment Weekly publication that explains in great detail the shakedown of that entire mess. I, for one, was disappointed it never went through. It certainly is not Gilmore Girls by a long shot but it seemed compelling enough. The entire sequences that took place within that story line involving Jess truly opened the door for a spin off series worth attempting.

I remember a spin off series that evolved from Dawson’s Creek that ringed around a side character that was newly introduced. Unlike that failure, this one had potential. Milo Ventimiglia