The Gilmore Girls and Other TV Alternatives

[dreiser]

sometimes working in retail can be a good thing. almost always it isn't but today was an exception as my store got in a copy of the first noir dvd, shades of darkness, missing a street date which means it's very much up for sale now. its official release is the 18th. although i've seen the entire series, i bought the dvd out of sheer love for this series and curiousity to see how good a job adv did with the release. simply put, it was spectacular.



i highly recommend this series to anyone who is a fan of crime or mystery dramas and for those who love chow yun fat movies for the gun fights alone. noir is an anime focused on two female assassins who reluctantly form a partnership in order to unravel the secrets their lives are based on and to find out who and what they really are.



so if you're not opposed to japanese animation, you love a good mystery, grin at the idea of lesbian assassins, one of which is french, then this is the series for you. the reason i'm delurking to post about noir is just because i've had at least ten people who claim to hate anime but after they watch one episode of noir they're addicted. it's really just that good. anyway, if you want info on the series visit their official website ala adv films at...



www.whatisnoir.com/



i doubt anyone here who invests their money into purchasing this series will regret it. most likely it will just introduce them into the horrible addiction that is anime.



nic

[Dave V]

dreiser, I took a look at the trailer, and Noir looks really interesting. I liked shows like Nikita and Cowboy Bebop, so I'll give this a try.



RE: Alias

I had been worried that the writers of Alias had painted themselves into a corner, what with the destruction of SD6 and the Alliance. However, the series seems to have reinvented itself, with Sloane having engineered the whole thing and Sydney and her former partner being forced to make choices with really devastating consequences.

[BBOvenGuy]

Tonight's Gilmore Girls got off to a slow start, but once it got going it was a lot of fun.



The funniest bit for me had to be Emily's behavior during the aborted dinner with Jess. The things she said about truck drivers reminded me of some things my mother has told me. And I absolutely loved the way she was a saint to Rory but unloaded the minute she got on the phone with Lorelai.



The big theme of the day was - "it." Rory thinking about - "it." Lorelai coming to grips with Rory thinking about - "it." Well done, and with an unresolved resolution, or a resolved lack of resolution, at the end.



And of course it's not just about the fact that Rory's thinking about "it" with Jess. I loved the bit where Luke explained his system for checking on Rory and Jess every ten minutes when they're up in the apartment above the diner, and I loved Lorelai's reaction - "Ten minutes, eh? That's how long it took to create Rory."



But best of all - it was 45 minutes before I remembered that I was missing Buffy.

"If you are going to give a new message to the world, you will do so without being conscious of it yourself. If you set out to do it consciously, you will fail because you will be trying to pose; and the man who poses is insincere." - Charles V. Stanford

Edited by: BBOvenGuy  at: 2/11/03 9:23:02 pm

[roamin]

I disagree on the "slow start" I loved how Emily maneuvered Rory into agreeing to bring Jess to dinner. I love Emily, she and Lorelai are more alike than either cares to admit.



The last scene between Rory and Lorelai where they are sitting on the couch eating and each thinking to themselves how things are changing was wonderful.



You know - I'm barely even able to remember that Buffy is on anymore.........

[Wiccagrrl313]

Yet another enjoyable GG's ep. Liked the ending, not a good sign that Jess lied to Rory. The Lorelei/Rory discussion at the end was well handled. And Emily handled herself very well I thought. Oh, and the band coming to tell Dave that it was cool with them if he was Christian- loved it.



I didn't miss Buffy at all last night. I was torn between three different shows I wanted to watch- none of them were Buffy.

Edited by: Warduke at: 2/12/03 9:29:22 am

[seurat]

I'll just do a delayed echo on what all of you said about this one, but add that I also really liked the swan attack and Luke's reaction to the story, and the subsequent boat trip was really funny. Too bad Jess and Rory didn't break up, but hey, soon come.I also wanted to mention the New York theatre trip- was the reference to a show they hated (billed as Levitttown on the marguee I think) a putdown of the show Urinetown? Seemed so to me, but maybe I'm jumping to conclusions.

"What are we going to do tomorrow night, Brain?

The same thing we do every night Pinky, try to take over the world!"

[TyRex316]

Totally agree with nic about Noir. I paid about 80 bucks for the original 4 dvd set(the one with only english subtitles) and absolutely blown away by it. Great animation and storyline. Been waiting to see if they were going to make and English version of this series and glad to know that they have. Thanks,nic

[BBOvenGuy]

How much did I love tonight's Gilmore Girls episode? So much that I couldn't wait until tomorrow to post about it, but instead turned my computer back on at this late hour to be here.



It was freakin' hilarious! Lane and her fake boyfriend, both with jealous real significant others. Emily catching Gran with her man friend and then blabbing it in the middle of all of Gran's friends. Rory and Lane trying to deal with the fact that Dean has a new girlfriend. Kirk trying to do play-by-play at the hockey game. It was all wonderful.



But best of all - at least to this long-time choirboy - was Dave and his friends trying to pass themselves off as a Christian trio. The scene where they're modernizing "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" - a hymn originally written in the 16th century by no less than Martin Luther, by the way - was hysterical.



And then there's Rory and Jess. We've all been saying it wouldn't last. Jess is trying in his Jess-like fashion, but the handwriting on the wall should be pretty visible for everyone by this point. The good thing is that even though we know where the journey's going to end, it's still going to be an interesting ride getting there. And I still think it's a pretty safe bet that no one will die or turn evil.



One thing about the previews for next week - what we saw is not what we saw. The WB is playing games with the promo material, as networks seem fond of doing. I read some spoilers elsewhere that told me what's really going on.

"If you are going to give a new message to the world, you will do so without being conscious of it yourself. If you set out to do it consciously, you will fail because you will be trying to pose; and the man who poses is insincere." - Charles V. Stanford

[gspiggott]

I loved it too. GG's seems to be gaining in confidence as that other Tues show loses theirs. I loved Kirk's play by play at the hockey game, and the band stuff is a riot.The scenes where Lorelai gave advice to Emily were well done but the bit where Richard giggled about it was priceless.

[seurat]

Yep, that was one of the funnier ep's, I would also single out Taylor's brother and Michel's run in with the WWII vet. I really thought that Jess and Rory were going to implode right away for a moment there, but I guess we'll have to wait for May to see that. Too bad they didn't show them at the Distillers show, that would have been a fun musical guest. And I didn't even miss Paris and my girls, Madeline/Louise this week, altho I'm glad to see they're supposed to be on next week, let's hope the pointless feud ends tout suite.

Meanwhile, let me remind everyone that the last BOP ep's are on tonight, and urge you all to watch for a variety of good reasons, not the least of which is that it was a fun show that deserves to go out with a decent rating.

"What are we going to do tomorrow night, Brain?

The same thing we do every night Pinky, try to take over the world!"

[BBOvenGuy]

Quote:

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Too bad they didn't show them at the Distillers show, that would have been a fun musical guest.

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The entire ending was the one curious part of the show for me. Rory was very quiet and withdrawn. She didn't tell Lorelai that Jess finally showed up. She didn't tell Lorelai about the Distillers show. And she didn't look very happy, even when she was by herself in her room. Makes you wonder what went on, doesn't it?



Perhaps it was a setup for the big fake-out promo for next week. (No, as far as I know Rory and Jess do not have sex, although another couple does...) Or perhaps we're just supposed to wonder what's going on until we find out later. We'll see.

"If you are going to give a new message to the world, you will do so without being conscious of it yourself. If you set out to do it consciously, you will fail because you will be trying to pose; and the man who poses is insincere." - Charles V. Stanford

[willowntaraslovechild]

I have watched this show since its begining just a few months ago, and I am really sorry to see it go. Sure it started out a little rusty like a lot of upstarting shows, but I think with its final two hours it got much much better. The subtext was out in full force for that second hour. Harley and Huntress had more chemistry then Huntress/Reese and Barbra/Wade. Also Harley was reminding me of one of my all time favorite villians, Callisto, which is always a plus. And I know Im going to hell for this, but I cheered when she killed Wade. I just couldn't stand the forced relationship between him and Barbra. It was bad enough when the writers were forcing it but then to have Alfred also force it was just too much for me. I also blame Alfred for Wade's death. If he never would have told Wade about Barbra's secret then he never would have been hanging around the clock tower. WB is crazy to let this show go and keep that other show I wont mention.

[Puff]

I enjoyed the last 2 BOP as well, I don't think they tied up Dinah's character very well though. Loads of subtext between Helena and Harley and the last fight was pretty cool.



I will be sad to see the series finish, it was never promoted enough, had a terrible lead in with Dawson's Creek and was on at the wrong time.



Oh did anyone else see Faith appears in 2 weeks! WB are promoting it already.

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Grapes. Because who can get a melon in their mouth?

[seurat]

I'm afraid I disagree with the Harley/Huntress subtext issue, simply because when it's that obvious it qualifies as , you know, plain old text. And then they played TATU for the climactic scene, All The Things She Said. Can't wait to see what the slash/fic writers come up with now.



It's true they left Dinah's issues unresolved, nothing more about Black Canary, which is disappointing. But considering they got cancelled after only 13 ep's, they did all right IMHO and I'll certainly remember it for a long time. Let's hope they all get lots of interesting work in the future, and who knows, they left things open so that a tv movie or something isn't out of the question.

"What are we going to do tomorrow night, Brain?

The same thing we do every night Pinky, try to take over the world!"

[BBOvenGuy]

I'm sorry to say that the BoP finale didn't impress me. It was all right, but you could tell that they were throwing in everything but the kitchen sink because they knew it was the last episode.



The other thing that really bothered me - there they were, with Harlie gaining the power to take over people's minds. I was sitting there thinking sarcastically - "Gee, it's too bad there isn't a kick-butt telepath around who could break the hypnosis." I don't think they really knew what to do with Dinah's telepathic powers, so they just kind of dropped them halfway through the season, and that was a shame.



Ah well. It was still a good attempt to make a good show. If they'd had more time, they probably could have worked out their troubles and improved. Unlike another SF/F show that got cancelled after half a season, too.

"If you are going to give a new message to the world, you will do so without being conscious of it yourself. If you set out to do it consciously, you will fail because you will be trying to pose; and the man who poses is insincere." - Charles V. Stanford

[Puff]

Last night Boston Public managed to redeem itself from last week's episode. A Gay/Straight alliance started at the school due to a homophobic attack on a student and some very interesting points were brought up. I am hoping that it carries through to the next episode as well.

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Grapes. Because who can get a melon in their mouth?

[BBOvenGuy]

Well, it's nice to know that there's at least one Gellar still being given material good enough to entertain people on a Tuesday night.



Yes, I know that Paris Gellar is fictional and Sarah Michelle Gellar is real, but tonight Paris still won the matchup. I'm so glad the Rory/Paris feud is over. I loved the way they had moved on from that, and to go back to it grated on me. I guess it took something like Paris having sex to shock things back into place.



The highlight of the evening, though, was Paris's total meltdown in the middle of the Chilton bicentennial speech - which of course was made even better with Rory trying to keep things under some semblance of control. With Rory going off to college next year there are going to be some major cast changes - Jess is being spun off into his own series, and Jared Padalecki (Dean) has just signed on to a new version of MacGyver. I can't help wondering how much more of Lane we'll be seeing, and I think it's a safe bet that all the minor Chilton characters will be gone. But I hope they find a way to keep Paris. Since she didn't get in to Harvard, maybe she can go to Yale with Rory. We can only hope.



Meanwhile, Max is back in town, Kirk is delivering the mail and Sookie is pregnant. And was anyone else amused by the fact that the WB spent all week promoting this show as the very special "Rory and Jess had sex" episode, and not only did it turn out that Rory and Jess didn't have sex, but Jess didn't even make an appearance?

"If you are going to give a new message to the world, you will do so without being conscious of it yourself. If you set out to do it consciously, you will fail because you will be trying to pose; and the man who poses is insincere." - Charles V. Stanford

Edited by: BBOvenGuy  at: 2/25/03 11:49:05 pm

[BytrSuite]

I really enjoyed this ep of GG. I love most of the episodes that feature a good amount of Paris. Liza Weil is a wonderful actor.



Paris really cracked me up with that "Into the Woods" stuff. And her walking into the school; you could see instantly that something was wrong. It irritates me that Paris is always getting the crap end of the stick but then Liza plays it so damn good and I have to appreciate that.



They didn't let her go to Harvard they damn well better have her going wherever Rory goes.



And why is Max back? Bleh.



Smallville was eh, but at least they didn't kill any lesbians this week. And they played the Superman music; that will always get me.

________
"Oh, good, my dog found the chainsaw."

[gspiggott]

I love Paris in the springtime or anytime ,Liza Weil is a wonderful actress. Lorelai's,"I'm taking you shopping " ,to Rory when she overheard that Rory is still a virgin was a riot. Along with Kirk going postal and Paris' non speech. This show does so many things well. Amy Palladino and JW both wrote for Roseanne. I wonder if they know each other.

[seurat]

I'm afraid you're probably right about the Chilton gang, Bob, and I'll really miss the hilarious Madeline/Louise tandem, but I'll wager that Paris at least will be around for quite a while yet.

I did have some minor quibbles about this ep, but overall it was extremely good. When you're even admiring the work of the extras in something like the kitchen scene with Sookie and Lorelai, as I did, then you know you're watching an exceptional show.



Btw, I made the mistake of reading some spoilers for the show. You'd think I'd of learned my lesson about that. Yikes, but at least nothing ahead as bad as what that other Tuesday show did to us. And no doubt they'll pull it off, it's amazing what good writers can do.

"What are we going to do tomorrow night, Brain?

The same thing we do every night Pinky, try to take over the world!"

Edited by: seurat at: 2/26/03 1:31:34 pm

[roamin]

favorite GG line of the night was Lorelai's whispered shout shout of "I got the good kid"



As a parent that really hit home and made me laugh.

[Willster]

I totally agree wth you roamin, she looked so proud of her daughter.

I had fun watching that episode, and as usual Paris is so funny, I'm sure she'll come back next season.. at least I hope. Is there any rumor about that?

[justastraightdog]

While I'm developing a serious Gilmore Girls addiction, I visited the IMDb and found the following user comment. Thought I share. Why? Well, read.



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natan62

Silver Spring, MD



Date: 26 February 2003

Summary: Modern-day Jane Austen



"Gilmore Girls" is probably the best show of its kind on TV today. If Jane Austen were alive today, she'd be writing this show. It's a great show, first and foremost, because it treats the viewer as an intelligent person and requires one to pay attention. The rewards for doing so are the dozens of subtle jokes and pop references contained in the torrents of conversation that issue from the characters' mouths - ("Gilmore Girls" must have the highest words-spoken-per-minute ratio in the history of TV.)



The writing and acting are both superb. The familiar setting of the small, quirky town allows for the use of many inventive plot devices, like 24-hour dance marathons, picnic basket bachelorette auctions, and vagrants who apply to become the "official town troubadour." You can even throw in a smart-mouthed kid from New York to see how he fares (maybe a tribute to "Northern Exposure"???) The progression of the story is well thought-out and well paced.



Each actor really gets a chance to inhabit his or her role because each character, even the most peripheral, is defined by a very distinct personality and not just an occupation (e.g. hotel desk clerk.) Thus we vividly remember sweet and shallow Shelly, mean Mrs. Kim, and shy guy Brad from Chilton even though they don't appear very often. The principal actors are tremendous, especially Lauren Graham, Alexis Bledel, Liza Weil and Scott Patterson. Ever notice the way Luke will sort of tense up/puff up his chest whenever he walks up to Lorelai's table? That's good acting.



On top of all this there are three characteristics of "Gilmore Girls" that make it an exceptional show instead of just high quality. In the first place, it has good drama without being either melodramatic or manipulative. Think about the way the writers handled the Jess vs. Dean issue, and compare that to "Friends" where we have Is-Rachel-Pregnant-Or-Not one episode, Is-Ross-The-Father-Or-Not the next, Did-Joey-Propose-Or-Not the next ad infinitum. On "Gilmore Girls" the drama unfolds not according to plot formulas but the interactions of the characters.



Secondly, the show is female-centered without being self-consciously so or politically charged. The main characters are female human beings, not symbols. To whatever extent they are feminist or empowered, the show presents them as such without commenting on it, and that is refreshing.



Finally, "Gilmore Girls" takes a unique, thoughtful, and complicated view of the relationship between the generations. It's billed as a mother-daughter show but is actually a grandmother-mother-daughter show. On most TV shows, the roles of Grandma and Mom are restricted or stereotyped, but here we have three women of a line, Emily, Lorelai, and Rory, who are made of the same material but have led VERY different lives and are trying to get along and be a family. Occasionally one woman will step outside her role and be a Mom or Kid to one of the others. And this is also refreshing to see on TV.



If you enjoy quality entertainment regardless of genre, "Gilmore Girls" is for you. Enjoy it while it lasts.



[Emphasis mine]

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Well, at least it lasts for another season.



Btw: GG isn't aired in Germany and on the P2P network I use (eDonkey), it takes forever and a day to download episodes (especially older ones). Any kind Kitten with a helpful suggestion? TIA.

_______________________________
Though here at journey's end I lie in darkness buried deep, beyond all towers strong and high, beyond all mountains steep,
above all shadows rides the Sun and Stars for ever dwell: I will not say the Day is done, nor bid the Stars farewell.

[Kendahl897]

Oh, I think the Gilmore Girls will be around for awhile..In fact, despite the fact that it already has good ratings, I wouldn't be surprised to see those ratings increase even more next year....

[BBOvenGuy]

Tonight's the premiere of the WB's new series Black Sash, which has taken the time slot where Angel started the season. Did anybody catch it? Here on the west coast, it won't be on for another couple of hours yet.

"The first task of anyone, lest you get canceled, is to entertain people, because they ain't there for message." - Dick Wolf

[seurat]

I'm afraid that I only saw bits and pieces of it last night Bob. It seemed fairly mediocre to me though. Pretty good Charmed last night however. When is GG coming back? It feels like it's been in repeats forever.

"And each time I feel like this inside, there's one thing I wanna know:

What's so funny about peace, love and understanding? -Elvis Costello

[BBOvenGuy]

Quote:

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When is GG coming back? It feels like it's been in repeats forever.

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According to GilmoreGirls.org, new episodes return April 15. And there's some interesting stuff on the way. Apparently, about half of Episode 21 is a pseudo-pilot for the Jess spinoff.

"The first task of anyone, lest you get canceled, is to entertain people, because they ain't there for message." - Dick Wolf