01/04/05

01/04/05—Gilmore Girls, WB
High School Reunion III, WB
Cribs, MTV

Gilmore Girls

Oh that Lorelai Gilmore! She’s a perky one. So smart, and with neuroses to challenge Woody Allen and references to challenge Dennis Miller. And looks. And such a good parent so young. Why she could pass for 20! She’s the fun one.

And her daughter Rory. Perky, smart, quick-witted, but with a reserve her mom doesn’t possess. She’s the serious one.The two of them must dominate every one they interact.

And they do. Which might be the problem with the show.

It’s a buddy show, but like all dramas, it needs to be focused on the home, even though Rory has sort of, kind of moved out, you know. She’s got that college thing going on, but her grand dad can visit for lunch, and Rory can always hang out with her mom. Wouldn’t want her straying too far. It is a homey show, as most shows are.

I should like the show. Women leading. Smart women leading. Fast-talking smart women. Fast-talking smart women not afraid of being smart. Machine gun dialogue. Speedy references. And kind of hot in a wholesome, girl-next-door kind of way. Lots of natural fibers, with outfits that exclaim style(!), but without being too girly or ostentatious. So many easy chances to make some good screwball humor. And the sidekicks generally keep up with them, though just barely.

Keeping up is an issue. The pacing and style of dialogue whenever Lorelai or Rory are on camera is always the same. Everyone talks like them in their presence. Whether it’s Luke or Lane or the grandparents. Maybe it’s an alpha-female thing. Most of the characters are smarter and wittier in their presence and then slow down to their own pace and style in scenes without the leading ladies.

Another thing that’s a bother is how stagey it gets. With some of the rapid-fire dialogue, you feel as if you’ve come across a set piece. You want to say, ‘such acting! what chops!’ but they happen over and over and over again.

In this episode, Rory is calm, Lorelai is amped, Luke is trying to make sense of it all, and the grandparents are all batty and from another era. In a tiny subplot, Lane is trying to figure out the romance thing, but it’s closer to a homework assignment than anything else. Just like all episodes.

And the dramas they have never seem to have high stakes. Nothing will shake this world. Everything is ok to begin with and the obstacles presented aren’t really challenges, just furniture to move around. Maybe it’s that the music doesn’t do it for me, or the close-ups, but there’s steady pacing pretty much going nowhere and the plot doesn’t really build as the episode moves on. Will Grandma get stuck in her panic room? Would Jodie Foster? Should anyone care?


High School Reunion III

I’m surprised this “reality” concept hasn’t been played out already. Take a bunch of people at least a decade out of high school, let them live in an exotic locale and laze about and reminisce.

Good times they ain’t. I thought everyone hated high school and yet they find people to populate the show and then watch it. My interest in this reality was played out before I left high school.

Who would go on such a show? I wonder if the obvious types are the only who express interest or the producers only express interest in the obvious types. But the show would be lost if people transcended their stereotypes. The Meathead. The Jock. The Head Cheerleader. The Loud Mouth. The Nerds. The Fat Girl. Maybe the producers are hoping that one of them will transcend, that one is no longer an ugly duckling, but a swan.

Not going to happen here. This episode focused largely on the sudden appearance two outsiders from the Cardinal Gibbons High cliques. Merely the mention of their names elicited howls from the people at the house. It’s as if the participants had never read Lord of the Flies. The abusive tune disappeared when the geek, nerd, loser outsiders pull up in a convertible corvette.

People were impressed. They don’t know that the outsiders are really struggling in life; one is unemployed, the other lives with his mother. But the outsiders are given cash to create the facade of being internet millionaires. They outsiders say they’re doing it as payback, and their marks gobble down the bait. People are immediately all over them, particularly the women, because they perceive the wealth.

I don’t know who has it worse, the guys who go on national tv pretending to be millionaires, or the people who like them because they’re millionaires. You get the sense that the characters on the show will blame and mercilessly attack the outsiders if the ruse is found out. And probably much of the audience would, too.

One of the more pathetic things about the show is how ugly the people are. We expect reality tv characters to have a deep well of ugly running at or just below the surface of their personality. The one mitigating factor for most shows is that the “reality” puts the people in totally unreal and ridiculous situations for what seems to be a huge payoff.

The people on HSR3 are ugly and mean just because they’re stuck with people from their own high school. There’s no payoff mentioned. Maybe they get a “hall pass” to get out of the house. Maybe they score with an old flame. But that’s it. And just for the sake of being in a pretty place with people they have a history with, there is all manner of fights started, backs stabbed, and pettiness on display.


Cribs

MTV promises an inside look at the bling lifestyles of their kind of celebrities. It’s just like a celebrity you don’t really care about taking you around his estate.

I was lucky enough to see the estate of Russell and Kimora Lee Simmons and the bachelor pad of Marcellus Wiley.

Russell and Kimora’s house is vast. Indoor pool. Movie theatre, dressing rooms larger than apartments. She was proud of having bought Gianni Versace’s stuff at his estate’s auction. Russell was dry, and Reverend Run was popping up everywhere.

I don’t know what to make of comments about how certainly lux amenities are the key to a successful marriage. Kimora said that separate wings in a bathroom were one such key. Last I checked most people don’t have this feature in their homes. How is this essential again? More likely, it reinforces the separation wealthy people feel from their family.

I did like how Kimora had a fancy giraffe tchotchke because she was called a “Chinky giraffe” as a kid. I liked some of Russell’s dry observations. Kimora said she didn’t let men into her dressing room. Russell noted, “unless they’re gay.” And we find a guy hanging out in her dressing room, a guy who helps pick out her outfits.

Marcelllus at least had some fun at his place. he was happy to point out the fake plants, because he’s a bachelor and travels so much. He also had his office designed like a college dorm room. He even pointed to the books on the bookshelf and said he had only read three of htem, “but knew all the titles.” Reading was for when he retired, which for an NFL star, could be any time.