#fallshows

Hi! My name is Emilie and I'm a grade twelve student whose favourite past-time is to binge-watch and analyze tv shows. I really enjoy the aspect of exploring different topics and themes through the multitude of film genres as well as the entertainment it provides. Although I’ve watched several shows, there are only a select few that I believe have impacted my life or that I still find myself interested in. One of them is none other than the iconic dramedy Gilmore Girls. This early 2000s show starring Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel has become a fall classic over the years as it symbolizes the changes in weather. The series is set in Stars Hollow, Connecticut and its townspeople are constantly gearing up for a festival of some kind, most of them taking place during the colder seasons. The fashion, music and scenery present in Gilmore Girls are often associated with the coziness of fall and winter and I personally think it’s the  best time to rewatch it. This blog will be all about reviewing and analyzing my top ten favourite episodes and will  include many spoilers. Therefore, if any of you readers have yet to watch the show, I strongly suggest you do so before reading in order to fully comprehend what I’ll be discussing. The first episode that I’ll be reviewing is entitled “Kiss and Tell” and is the seventh episode of the first season (s1 ep7)!! 

In this episode, the townspeople of Stars Hollow are decorating for thanksgiving and Luke, the owner of the town’s diner, refuses to put up any decorations despite the town selectman's efforts. Taylor Doose is a stickler for the rules and traditions of the town and argues with anyone who goes against them. He is by far one of the most obnoxious characters in the show as he is always holding meetings over ridiculous issues and scolding those who don’t meet the town-spirit standards. After school, Rory, the main character, goes to Doose’s Market to see the boy she has a crush on. Dean, the grocery store worker, kisses her for the first time while getting her a drink and she is so taken aback that all she can say is “thank you”. Rory runs out of the store without paying for her things and goes straight to her best friend’s house, Layne. She tells her all about the kiss and Layne’s very religious mother overhears the entire conversation. Later, when Rory’s mother Lorelai goes to Kim’s Antiques (Layne’s mother’s business), she finds out about this big milestone in her daughter’s life and feels upset that Rory didn’t tell her right away. Rory, on the other hand, is having a great time gossiping about it with Layne while they’re dressed up as pilgrims for the Cornucopia Can Drive. Lorelai and Luke go to Doose’s Market to see Dean and Lorelai tells him she wished her daughter felt comfortable enough to talk about her love life with her. When Rory comes back home, Lorelai immediately asks about the kiss and they argue over the way she heard about it. The two go to Doose’s once again to grab some snacks for a movie night and while Rory goes to the video store, Lorelai invites him to come over. Rory gets mad at her mother for embarrassing her by accidentally planning their first date for them. She starts freaking out about watching a movie with Dean, stressing about the way she looks and the way she’ll act around him. Although she is quite nervous, the movie night goes well and Dean kisses Rory again at the end of the night. Lorelai gives him a lecture about how loved Rory is by everyone in Stars Hollow and that he shouldn’t dare hurt her. The episode ends with Lorelai and Rory gossiping like she did with Layne about how perfect Rory’s first kiss was.

This episode is one of my favourites because of how nostalgic it is and how it showcases the close mother-daughter relationship Rory and Lorelai have at the beginning of the show. For context, Lorelai fell pregnant with her daughter when she was only sixteen and since her birth, they've had more of a best friend dynamic than anything. However, Rory gets scared when she has her first kiss and is unsure of how her mother will react considering what happened to Lorelai and her mother when she had a baby. I thought this episode perfectly displayed how hard it can be to parent your child the relationship doesn't often involve strict boundaries or rules. Lorelai felt betrayed that she hadn't been the first one to hear about Rory's first kiss although I think it was completely normal for her to keep it to herself. Being a teenage girl comes with a multitude of expectations and Rory was simply processing a major event in her life.