Through a Glass, Darkly

(This is a somewhat condensed version of a discussion I had last night about GG.)

When I go to places that serve fancy coffee beverages, my drink of choice is usually cafe au lait. You can imagine how I feel now that I know that Christopher likes it. Who wants to help me find a new favorite coffee beverage?

I liked this week a little better, but it still felt off. This New York Times article (worth the registration, and . . . why don’t you have a registration to the NY Times anyway? It’s free!) kind of sums up what I’ve been starting to think about the show. Something really is off. It’s not just me. So . . . that’s good, I guess. It’s helpful to realize I just have to approach the show differently. It’s a softer sort of show, one that teaches the main characters lessons through its secondary characters. One that passes the joke up for a sweeter line. Sometimes I wished that Lorelai could be softer, more genuine, just for a second, but . . . not like this. That’s not to say I hated it, because I didn’t. I really did like this episode better than the last one.

The good stuff: Luke’s scenes with April, Luke having a storyline, April’s scenes with Lane. I’m still so conflicted about April. I want to hate her, and yet . . . she is so cute. And Luke is so cute with her. I can’t hate her. (I still hate Anna, though, never fear. And how long is April staying with Luke, anyway? This is so weird.)

The bad stuff was pretty much any scene with Christopher. I mean . . . it doesn’t make sense! Who is this woman who is dating Christopher? Even last year, when Lorelai was not acting like herself, I could see why she was not acting like herself. She wanted to do whatever she had to do to keep the man she loved. But this? Why is she acting like this? I feel like, whenever she’s around Christopher, she acts in this way that she thinks is cute. Cutesy. It’s very much reverting to being a teenager. And I don’t find it cute at all.

Part of the problem is that Lorelai makes weird remarks like telling Christopher it’s no big deal that he wasn’t there for . . . most of Rory’s life. It’s good that he feels remorse. It’s good that he wants to make it up to Rory. It’s not so good that he expresses that to Rory by . . . spending money and trying to buy his way into her affections. It’s not good that he doesn’t talk to Rory about it. And it’s out of character for Lorelai to brush it under the rug and then sweetly say that they can parent together now. Where’s sharp, sassy Lorelai who would have said, “Yeah, it sucked that you weren’t there!” Isn’t that exactly the kind of inappropriate place that Lorelai would have made a joke? That’s the “softening” the NY Times article is talking about, and I am pretty sure I don’t like it.

Additionally, the other big thing that bugged me was that Christopher and Lorelai were joking at the end about him being able to be around when Rory went crazy for her quarter-life crisis. Didn’t we already have Rory going crazy? Wasn’t there, like, half a season devoted to it? Where Christopher wasn’t even around? And Lorelai was completely devastated? So how is that funny?

So, here’s the thing. I didn’t watch the preview this week, but I did see the cover of TV Guide. So I know what’s happening (SOMEONE SHOULD SPEAK TO TV GUIDE ABOUT PUTTING SPOILERS ON THEIR COVER. I WAS SIMPLY WALKING THROUGH THE MAGAZINE SECTION AT WORK AND I WAS ACCOSTED BY SPOILERS. Sorry, just had to get that out of my system). I . . . am not sure what to think, and I don’t want to spoil anyone myself. Regardless of that, Mike and I were talking tonight, and he reminded me that the show wouldn’t be focusing so much on Luke, giving him storylines, making him appealing . . . if it wasn’t going to go somewhere. What we got this week was A Tale of Two Dads: Luke, who goes about quietly being a good dad to April (like he did for Rory as she was growing up) and Christopher, who doesn’t know the first thing about actually being a good dad, who (as Susan pointed out in the discussion) only knows how to appear to be a good dad by throwing around money on expensive dinners and trying to impress people.

I still think that, no matter what happens, Chris isn’t the long-term option. I don’t think the show really wants us to think he is. I’m not even sure that Lorelai thinks he is. I don’t think she’s really thinking about anything at all.