Hello! Welcome to Return to Stars Hollow - a spoiler-free, retrospective podcast about Gilmore Girls! This is the podcast for Season 3, Episode 4 - One's Got Class and the Other One Dyes.
You can direct download the episode here: S3E4 - One's Got Class and the Other One Dyes
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The next podcast will post on Tuesday, September 15, 2015 for S3E5 - Eight O'Clock at the Oasis
Eight O' Clock at the Oasis is my least favorite episode of Gilmore Girls so far. The scene with the new neighbor is unbearable and his wife on the answering machine is possibly the worst 10 seconds of TV I've ever seen. The only redeeming part of the annoying neighbor was the Jess scene at the end, but even that couldn't save the episode.
ReplyDeleteThe breast feeding scene at the beginning has not aged well at all. That would never have been on TV today as it is pretty commonplace to see public nursing. Mommybloggers everywhere would have had a field day with that scene.
It's depressing that Jon Hamm played a character with no personality, but it was nice to see his handsome face.
I know you don't take too much stock into writers/directors of each episode, but I don't think it's a coincidence that the pair that wrote and directed this episode never did a second one.
I will never watch this episode again and there is only one other episode that I remember being worse than this one. I'll be interested to see if that holds true.
I love Luke in this opening, ranting about the parents and kids. I like Luke saying "People are eating here!" and Rory saying with a smile "They sure are." I just thought that was funny. And Jess running back up stairs.
ReplyDeleteI feel like Emily and Lorelai have come a long way. When Lorelai answers the phone with the line "major disappointment", I felt like the old Emily would have scold her, but now shes just going along with it. I thought it was nice and subtle way to show how their relationship has grown. Michel was great, begging to go to the auction and agreeing to Lorelais terms.
I liked Richard complaining about the food at dinner. I liked that he stood up for Emily and the first cup of tea thing. But I agree with Lorelai, the date with Peyton was none of their business. Also I think she's exaggerating how bad the date was. It couldn't be worse than the Rune date.
I like Jess going to help Rory even if she didn't ask. and of course, wet Jess! It was nice that he turned the water back on for Rory so Dean could come over and help too. Cause I'm sure Dean wouldn't have been happy to know that Jess helped her.
Overall I didn't really care for this episode. The new neighbor thing I felt was unnecessary and didn't go anywhere. Just felt like filler stuff in between the date plot. And that wasn't even that great. A couple of scenes with a young Jon Hamm wasn't really worth it. And also we never got back to the Luke stuff from the beginning.
The breast feeding scene is kinda worth it for Luke's reasoning that Lorelai should go talk to them because she has the same parts and therefore shouldn't be scared of it. And for Jess' reaction which is hilarious. But would Luke really watch them for over six months without saying anything if he's so annoyed by them?
ReplyDeleteDwight is just really annoying and not in a fun way. It's really irritating that we spend so much time on him and his story, especially because he's not even a Gilmore First, to put it that way.
A young Jon Hamm! He seems perfectly fine and charming at the auction and I don't think that's just his face. And he has to be because otherwise Lorelai wouldn't want to go out with him. But it's still weird that he suddenly becomes boring and pretentious and it doesn't help that that happens completely offscreen. But then, of course nobody wants to watch a boring date. And maybe there is no way Jon Hamm could have convincingly played the guy Lorelai is describing.
Is the part where Lorelai leaves the house and returns in the next scene supposed to illustrate how short the date was or what? That always strikes me as a little off.
I love Richard on the phone with Lorelai. He doesn't understand Emily's world and thinks it's insane, but it's her world and it's what she wants, so he's going to fight for it anyway.
We talked(/swooned) before about how good Jess and Rory are at looking at each other. And this here is my absolute favourite of their looking at each other -moments. Just, the best. And the only justification for Dwight's existence.
I didn't really care very much for the neighbour storyline, and it reminded me a little of the Stars Hollow moms from last week. We've never seen these characters before and so we don't have any real connection to them, and we don't have any investment in their story. I understand Lorelai wants to be nice and neighbourly, but the audience doesn't really care if Dwight's lawn doesn't get watered. It might have worked better if the story had been reworked to focus on someone we already know; I could so see Kirk living in that crazy house filled with board games. As for the voicemail from his wife, that was too over the top for me and an instance of Stars Hollow kookiness gone too far. A definite perk of that storyline, however, was the lovely interaction between Jess and Rory all wet and gazing lovingly into each other's eyes. I really expected them to kiss then. I enjoyed their interaction and I like that they're at least friendly again. It's nice that he asks about Harvard, as well as turning on the water again so Dean can come help. I can't help but feel sorry for that book in Jess' back pocket; that's another one ruined by water (after Luke pushed him off the bridge way back when)
ReplyDeleteI loved the return of Emily 'The Cobra' Gilmore, and I loved her banter with Lorelai over the phone, and Emily looked fabulous in her gardening clothes. I did think she went too far with the whole Peyton thing, but even still, I enjoyed Richard standing up for her, even though he admitted that it was insane and he didn't understand it. He just didn't want to see his wife upset, which is sweet.
Maybe it's just me, but I didn't really buy the interaction between Lorelai and Peyton and I felt like she was exaggerating how much of a connection they had at the auction. He didn't seem all that witty to me, like Lorelai said, but I did enjoy her phone conversation about her old buddy 'Shamu.'
I thought it was interesting that Rory came to meet Peyton at the door. In the past, there was always a big deal made about how Lorelai kept that side of her life private from Rory so she didn't get attached, but now she seems ok with it. Maybe it's just because Rory is getting older now, and she did seem to look very grown up in this episode, especially wearing the black Friday night dinner dress and her shorter school skirt.
What struck me about this episode is that it’s mostly conversation, and while that’s something the show does quite well most days, here it was all a lot of information dumped on the audience about the action offscreen. I would have liked more insight into Peyton’s reaction to the date, and his own understanding of the etiquette. Did he really suffer as much as Lorelai did, like she wanted Emily to believe?
ReplyDeleteThe fade to black in between Lorelai leaving and coming back from her date made it apparent that we didn’t have a B plot happening simultaneously with Luke, or Lane, or Sookie; we just had the inanimate sprinkler. The lawn care plot fell flat for me, and though the Rory and Jess moment we got was golden, it was such a long slog to get there. Lorelai’s scenes with Dwight mirrored the ones she had with Debbie last week: sure, Dwight is weird, but he’s generous to let Lorelai use his house, and she just makes fun of him for it. The voicemail from Dwight’s wife also felt too brash for the show’s typical sense of humor and I didn’t see the point of it.
I thought it was noteworthy that Jess asked Rory about her Harvard plans. It shows he’s grasping at straws for something to talk about, or maybe he feels like he doesn’t know her anymore and has to reorient himself in case she’s changed her mind about something so central to who he knew her to be.