Nerdgasm Vol. 3: The Gilmore Girls

Okay. Writing this post might be completely unnecessary. I am only one of many, many bloggers out there (especially in the book-blogging sphere) who absolutely adore this show. I just consider myself one of their ranks. However, as school approaches and my mornings get earlier and earlier (thus increasing my coffee intake rather exponentially) I’ve rewatchd The Gilmore Girls with a kind of reckless abandon, regardless of the fact that I’ve seen every season an unhealthy amount of times.

As someone who lives without cable – HELLLLLO broke! – I have to rewatch all the DVDs I have (and that Netflix will let me borrow) and grow tired of them often. But I have yet to grow tired of TGG, picking out favorite episodes to reflect any variety of given moods. Feeling academic? How about that one where Jess, Rory, and Paris all sit around the kitchen table discussing Beat authors? Need a laugh? How about that scene where Michele has ennui and convinces Sooki she has it too? The scenes between Rory and Lorelai – whether peaceful in earlier seasons or stressful in later ones – continue to change my ideas of how people, especially families, can and should relate to each other. But my love for TGG goes beyond just it’s versatility. In fact, there are enough reasons that I’ve decided to dedicate an entire volume of Nerdgasm to it, if that tells you anything!

As a girl who grew up as a reader (seriously. I got the crap kicked out of me in school a couple of times because I thought kicking a ball back and forth or trying to swing a ball around on a string was stupid in comparison to books, and I was not afraid to share these ideas with the other kids kicking said balls or swinging them on strings) it was one of the most amazing things in the world to find a show about a girl who was like me. No, my grandparents weren’t loaded and my mom didn’t have me as a teen and there is NO WAY I could talk that fast – I’ve tried. But here was a girl who liked to read, loved school, and didn’t really see the point in drinking, doing drugs, or partying. She got along with her parents, liked her home and her town, and seemed removed from all the teen angst that seems so common on shows like Gossip Girl and Secret Life of the American Idiot Teenager who gets Pregnant and Band Camp. This love of books and learning was enough to infatuate me with the show forever more.

Of course, this wasn’t the only amazing part of the show, and has played only a part in the reason I’ve watched it so many times. Another incredibly amazing part of this show is just how real it feels. Granted, not all the situations, but the characters and their situations all feel as though they are people you could meet, could be friends (or enemies) with. The characters change over the course of the show – Paris being a key one that comes to mind – and even though I know many people hated the Rory/Lorelai rift, I like it because, if nothing else, it gave both of the characters to grow in ways they might not have otherwise. Even the less perfect parts of the shows – the ‘dark sides’ if you will, as when Dean and Rory sleep together even though he’s married, or Lorelai marries Christopher on such a whim of frustration and regression – seem to be logical leaps and progressions given the characters established.

Lastly, and perhaps most overwhelming in my TGG Nerdgasm is just the pure, lovely, and deeply imbued escapism and role-model-ism that the show wraps up together (yes, I know that’s not a word. Sue me.) Look at that town square, that gazebo, the yellow daisies left over after Max’s proposal to Lorelai – who wouldn’t want to live there?! Who wouldn’t want to live in a town where, to borrow from another great show, everybody knows your name, where you have people who love you and who are there for you in a way that isn’t present in a great number of towns. The setting is idyllic, the characters are crazy enough to be hilarious while not so much to be completely fantastical. And, under it all there is, for me at least, a kind of motivational factor. No, it’s never possible to exactly be a fictional character. But it does go through my head from time to time – what would Rory do? What would Lorelai do? And, to be honest, there have been times when asking myself that has led me to push harder on an assignment, pick up a book I might not have otherwise, or to respond with wit and kindness where meanness may have been my first instinct. And a show that can do that, ladies and gents, is a powerful show indeed!

Lastly, because I’m me and I can’t really do something like this without some kind of list, I’ve decided to put together a quick top five of my favorite Gilmore Girls scenes, and would love for you to leave me some of your favorites, too – there are so many out there, these top five are nowhere near all there is!

1.) The final scene, where Lorelai and Rory stop at Luke’s and, as the camera pans out, we’re presented with the exact same shot as the series began with seven seasons ago – it made me cry! There really isn’t any better way to end it than that.

2.) The Life and Death Brigade – Rory learns to loosen up, we get to see Logan being a little less of a jerk, and I’ve always wanted a guy to push me out of my comfort zone like that!

3.) The Max proposal – First of all, Max Medina is a TO DIE FOR man. Seriously, there have been dirty dreams about this rather large-nosed poet of a private school English teacher. Add to that a great proposal speech and a thousand yellow daisies, and consider this cynic’s heart melted!

4.) The scene where Rory can’t get all her books to fit in her backpack – the first true glimpse, I feel, of the depths of that girls addiction to books.

5.) The date scene between Luke and Lorelai – where he shows her that he’s been carrying around the horoscope she gave him the first day they met. I mean, who knew Luke was such a softy?!

Happy reading, guys, and if you didn’t catch Nerdgasm Vol. 1 or Vol. 2, make sure those get your fair attention too!