Gilmore Girls

Alex has requested I record some of my thought regarding our most recent Netflix show of choice:  Gilmore Girls.  She has posed me with quite the challenge; how do I:

1. Recognize that a network television series is going to be limited and not expect the same degree of  storytelling I would from other mediums (like a novel).

2. Not offend any of our readers who may have a strong attachment to the show (I know you're out there).

3. Leave some shred of my masculinity intact.

Its quite a balance to try to keep, but I love a challenge, so lets see what I can do.  First things first, I shall call on my engineering training to create five criteria to judge (showing why Alex doesn't usually let me post blogs), these are soundtrack, setting, cinematography, dialog, and acting.

I am most disappointed with the soundtrack.  While setting up scenes or in between dialog, the soundtrack of choice invariably is a mellow guitar with a female voice singing "La" repeatedly (edit: As we have continued watching this show I have noticed some "Ba"s and even an "Aaa."  Still, these variations do not alter this criticism.)  These tracks are different, but they are almost always the same tempo and feel.  The music does feel appropriate to the general feel of the series, but someone could have invested some work in diversifying the sound and the result would be a superior product.

The setting is really cool.  Located in Stars Hollow, Connecticut, the story utilizes the best of New England scenery (though the actual shooting occurred in California and Canada).  Several scenes are shot in giant stone or finely furnished buildings; if any sets were built and utilized for filming, it is to the credit of all involved that everything looks like legitimate four-walls-and-a-ceiling buildings, and if that's true, it makes the cinematography all the more impressive.

So as you might have gathered, I really like the camera work and lighting.  The directors really hit a sweet spot between the static setups that sitcoms of the early 90's were still using and the we-don't-need-a-tripod camera work that has become relatively popular since the production of the Bourne movies.   The number of angles, zoom settings, and lighting for any given shot are almost unlimited, and when I think about the care and planning taken to factor in all those variables, it makes me appreciate the entire show experience more.

The dialogue is both really impressive and somewhat beyond me.  All the characters are witty and intelligent; the dialogue is actually so quick that one website reports that a speech coach was hired to help the actors speak at the tempo the show demands while also enunciating well enough for television.  It is beyond me in the sense that the show was largely written by women for women, so Alex will often have to interpret dialogue for me.

The acting is top-notch.  Particularly, the grandparents, the mother, and the cook do an extraordinary job.  They use every aspect of their face to express emotion and add to the scene.  As of season 1 of the series, the daughter is more or less just delivering lines and doesn't really change tone or timber regardless of situation, but the actress is young and it will be interesting to see not just how the producers develop the story, but also how Ms. Bledel develops her craft over the course of the show.

Lets see how I'm doing: we are now almost to the end of this post and our dear readers are probably somewhat confused about my feelings toward the show.  That's probably because I'm decently confused myself.  The stories take on a perspective foreign to what I'm used to thinking in; the conflicts are almost entirely interpersonal drama, to the extent of absurdity.  Ten episodes back they were talking about opening an inn; the subject hasn't been broached since because of all the relational stuff I guess the writers would rather write about.  I suppose it is interesting to see what I would tend to call a female perspective on the world being played out (two men and two women are credited as writers for the series, maybe I'm just that not relational). 

I do feel like the writers just don't know how to write for men.  If the Stepford wives are supposed to be a caricature of how men want women to behave, Gilmore Girls serves a really good counter role, albeit subtler since that isn't what the writers were intending to do. 

Altogether, Gilmore Girls is