Cordia's Review of S1E13 - Concert Interruptus

Concert Interruptus

Season 1, Episode 13

Original airing: February 15, 2001

My Rating: 62

The Good:

Of course, we all know how wonderful and supportive Lorelai is as a mom, but it’s really cool to see her actually being an awesome mom in this episode. She gives up dream seats for her favorite band so Rory has a chance to win over her classmates and she goes momma bear to protect the same girls when they blow off Rory! Go, Lorelai! I wanted to stand up and cheer when she shot down the pointy haired guy.

Overall, I enjoyed this episode. I wasn’t sure how the show was going to handle Madeline, Louise, Paris and Rory all together for an extended number of scenes, but it goes well. Madeline and Louise really are just out to have fun in life. They don’t have a vendetta against Rory as Paris seems to; they just make the best of any situation. So their go-with-the-flow attitude works really well during the study session.

I’m becoming more and more impressed with Liza Weil’s portrayal of Paris. She does a great job of keeping her icy and harsh, and yet having an incredibly vulnerability to her character. I constantly want to bundle her in blankets and protect her from the world and big bad jerks like Tristan. It’s not a reaction I expect to have for an antagonist of the main character of the show. But it works really well. And it makes her small moments of happiness very potent. Her confession to Rory that she enjoyed the concert (and the aftermath) was handled perfectly.

The Meh:

I’m a bit fuzzy on the Rachel storyline. Not long ago Lorelai mentioned to her mother that she’d been living in Stars Hollow most of Rory’s life. So how did Luke have a serious, almost marriage, relationship six years ago and Lorelai missed it? It’s confusing when a show tries to fudge its own timeline in this way. They tried to address it, but it was pretty poorly done and I found it really distracting. I also think Lorelai can’t possibly be so dense that she thinks she’s fooling anyone about her attraction to look. Good for Sookie calling her on her BS!

The Bad:

This episode either worked really well or just fell kind of flat, but nothing was particularly bad.

Favorite Moment:

I really like seeing Lorelai in full Protective Mom Mode at the party. She hunts those kids down with a vengeance and pulls no punches to expressive her displeasure at Madeline and Louise’s idiocy. I also loved her calling the pointy haired guy “Skippy.” That was incredibly amusing.

The Bottom Line:

I was impressed with how this episode furthered the Rory/Paris dynamic. The Rachel storyline set up felt heavy handed and comparatively awful. Luckily, it was the sub-plot and I got to focus on the good stuff.