On Wed, 12 Dec 2007 04:17:39 GMT, "Sandy McDermin" <mcdermin@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wrote:
>
>"Sharpe Fan" <sharpeseagle2003NOSPAM@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
>news:M9J7j.244600$kj1.29582@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>
>> "Sandy McDermin" <mcdermin@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
>> news:RJI7j.24060$0O1.19045@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>>
>>> "Rob Jensen" <ShutUpRob@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
>>> news:jnbul3hpqbn9vo3dtq7o4hundtcvqmbsdt@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>>> On Wed, 12 Dec 2007 00:30:38 GMT, "Sandy McDermin" <mcdermin@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>>>> wrote:
>> [snipped]
>>
>>>>
>>>> Indecisive actress, indecisive actress, indecisive actress and, oh
>>>> yeah, indecisive actress.
>>>>
>>>> It really is as simple as that.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Yes, ... global warming? I hear that's Alexis Bledel's fault too.
>>>
>>> Everything is Bledel's fault and not that of *anyone* else involved
with
>>> this show? You give her far, far too much credit.
>>>
>>> Sandy
>>
>> Maybe Lorelai was wrong about Jess controlling the weather and writing
the
>> screenplay for Glitter. It was really Alexis who did those things.
>>
>> Sharpe Fan
>
>What I'm saying is ... there was no guarantee of an 8th season, so why
not
>be as "cute" about Rory and Logan's ending as they were with Lorelai and
>Luke? Why lower the boom on one -- with no wiggle room in case things
didn't
>go their way renewa1-wise -- if their intention, all along, was to bring
>Logan back to "right" the situation?
1) For the simple reason that Amy Sherman-Palladino stated in no
uncertain terms a couple of years before she left the show that while
she had only mapped the show out through Rory's graduation from Yale,
she neverthless thought that the show should go on for howeverlong it
can and should go on without Amy herself. IE: Just because Amy saw
only the stories leading up to Rory's graduation, she was explicitly
stating that graduation was never supposed to be the endpoint of the
show. THEREFORE (and this is the point): Rory's graduation shouldn't
have been seen as leaving no wiggle room for the continuation of her
story with Logan anymore than Rory graduating from high school at the
end of season 3 was the end of Rory's relation****p with Dean even
though they'd broken up (for ther first time) by then.
Or even shorter -- just because Rory turned down Logan's marriage
proposal does not mean that they ever intended for the Rory-Logan
storyline to be over. This particular arc within their own larger
story, yes, but their overall storyline, obviously, hell no.
2) I maintain that there are *huge* incongruitiesi in the way that
Rory was suddenly picking up all of her cl*****, as if the ***boat
Incident hadn't really put her a semester and a half behind schedule
and as if she hadn't failed at least one final right after her arrest
and one final just before graduation. I suspect that this was not an
oversight (as Gilmore Money and The Lorelai Paradox regarding food
happen to be) but an actual plot point.
3) Likewise, Rory being the YDN Editor-In-Chief and then only being
able to get a job following the Obama campaign for an internet
start-up is a huge step down in credibility. Let's see -- she follows
up the mistake of putting all her eggs in one basket (ie: the Reston
Fellow****p) by . . . putting all her eggs into one basked (the
internet magazine). Mmm-yeah. Way to go. Not.
3a) OTOH, being on the road with an internets startup does provide a
lot of op****tunity for Rory to go back and forth between Stars Hollow
and the campaign trail. Let's put it this way: Rory could do a
re****t on any stump speech just by watching any live satellite feed
from, say, the Gilmore Mansion. This is especially true given that
she's low person on the totem pole at an interweb startup magazine
that because it's an interweb startup is itself likewise low man on
the totem pole in comparison to other newsgathering organizations.
Rory would probably rarely, if *ever* get any personal face-time with
Obama -- and, moreover, her quest to get such face time would likely
have been an ongoing story thread for the season. Believe it or not,
following candidates on the campaign trail is fairly boring due to
that lack of face time, the fact that the candidates are simply
reciting the same stump speech a zillion times, with only a gradual
tweak and polish and with little actual time with the candidate or the
candidate's personel.
In other words, IMO you've made the fallacious assumption of assuming
that Rory graduating was the end of Rory's story (ie: leaving no
"wiggle room.") Moreover, in the cases of season finales where one
storyline appears to be over but the other one clearly isn't (Lor and
Luke, in this case), then the highest likelihood exists that the story
that *appears* to be over *isn't* actually over, it's just a pivot
point, a site for a reversal of fortune that will be rectified no
later in time at the next pivot point in the story in the next season.
Just because it's a graduation doesn't mean that it's the end of a
series any more than characters boinking means that a series has
ended. Otherwise, the show would have ended with Written In the
Stars, almost three years previous to the show's indefinite hiatus.
Such milestones are only markers on the long and winding road, they
aren't the end of the journey.
IMO, it's necessary to point this out because the writers, via
Czuchry's testimony, were clearly following that exact line of
reasoning. "Okay, it's graduation. Time to move onto the next phase
of Rory's story." In that respect, the place that Rory's story left
off at the end of s7 was no different than where it left off at the
end of s4 from the perspective of whether or not the storyline was
complete. Yes, that arc was complete, but it lead directly into the
next story by deliberate construction. It's not the writers' fault
that Bledel led the show on by letting negotiations drag on. Moreover,
as was stated outright in Ausiello's column at midseason, David
Rosenthal had, in fact, planned out a more definitive ending for the
end of s7 (Big Wedding, etc.) but was directly overruled by both
Lauren and the network in order to 1) keep the fate of the show open
and 2) less im****tanly, to address Lauren's qualms about the cheese
factor inherent in a Big Wedding storyline.
Clearly, Rosenthal wouldn't have been directed to make that sort of
change so soon in the season had one or the other between Graham or
Bledel decided for sure by that time that she didn't want to do the
show anymore.
Moreover, Bledel and Graham had every op****tunity to say they didn't
want to continue with the show before the script for the season finale
was finished filming. You're throwing the cast and crew's fates up in
the air -- 200 jobs, tens of millions of dollars, etc. -- if you
haven't made your decision and signed the papers in time for shooting
of that final episode. Ausiello strongly indicated that Graham had
been leaning toward staying since mid-March or so, with 3 or so more
episodes to film. Based on the timeline for when Ausiello started
referring to Graham obliquely, without stating her identity outright,
as the "More Amenable One" (to coming back), Graham made her decision
to stay with the show at the last possible moment where the cast and
crew could find other jobs immediately. Bledel took another month,
thus screwing most of the cast and crew out of pilot season. Melissa
McCarthy was already going to leave the show for Samantha Who anyway
and Patterson's contract for s8 was converted into his committment to
Aliens in America. Moreover, Patterson actually turned down two
pilots (one of them Babylon Fields) to *stay* with Gg for s8.
And you can't blame The CW for not simply throwing up their hands
months before as even *without* the benefit of hindsight, The CW was
already in trouble, with the collapse of Veronica Mars, the final
cancellation of 7th Heaven, the hair-thread renewal of One Tree Hill
and the ongoing black hole of 9pm on Sundays attest. The CW's
collapse in the ratings overall this season on confirms what was
already obvious at the time: the network needed (and still needs)
Gilmore Girls, as reluctant as they are to admit it now due to the
simple fact that they feel totally burned by Bledel.
Also, I think it's quite interesting in and of itself that Czuchry
offered the information as by implication, it puts Bledel into an even
worse light, at least for Rory-Logan '****ppers (and I will admit that
I'm not one of them). Those younger viewers are smart even though
they aren't total TV junkies like we are. They hate how Rory and
Logan's storyline worked out, but hey, Lauren already said that she
regrets how the show went on indefinite hiatus and Czuchry has stated
that he was signed for s8 and would have been appearing in several
episodes. They can do the math just on the basis of Graham and
Czuchry's own statements.
And again, I'm just looking at it how IMO a Rory-Logan fan would look
at it given the re****ts that *have* come out from TV Guide, E!,
GoldDerby and other first-hand, on-the-record interviews with various
people involved in the show.
Then add to these statements such corroborating evidence as Rosenthal
wanting to continue with the show -- I've even seen posted to one
message a short note that one Gg fan was sent from Rosenthal's office
(ie: from his assistant) in early May. Without blaming anyone for the
show going into indefinite hiatus, the note was terse, bitter and
reflected that Rosenthal was not leaving the show willingly -- and
virtually no one involved in the show directly talking about Alexis
(much less about Alexis's part in the show ending) since the various
exit interviews. Graham noting to GoldDerby chatters that she's
closest to Kelly Bishop among the cast is a notable, telling snub
since they had maintained the image that Lauren and Alexis were almost
sister-like close offscreen throughout most of the run of the series.
And reliable re****ts have noted that The CW certainly didn't want the
show to go, given how long they drew out the negotiations before
gtersely putting the show on indefinite hiatus.
There's only one explanation left regarding why Rory and Logan's
storyline is *also* left hanging with regards to how the writers were
clearly not writing any sort of closure to Rory and Logan's storyline:
the writers DIDN'T, as you assert, "lower the boom" on Rory and
Logan's storyline. Czuchry flatly contradicted your assertion even
before you made it. They didn't lower the boom, Rory's storyline was
just as unfinished as Lorelai's storyline.
And that's due to *one* person failing to make the decision about
whether or not she wanted to come back to the show until long after it
would be reasonable to expect the writers to steer the storylines in a
totally different, more definitive direction.
One more thing: Rosenthal has even admitted in an interview (I forget
where -- TV Guide, I think) that he wouldn't have spent so much time
on the Lor-Chris storyline had he known for sure that this would be.
And, I mean, what else can you expect a writer to do when he'd
*already* been overruled at midseason about actually capping off the
show at the end of that season?
It's hard to blame the writers for how the show went on its indefinite
hiatus when the writers actually tried to do the things you criticize
them for not doing and they were overruled by the network anyway. And
even *then,* Rosenthal and Graham *still* tried to steer the season
finale toward some kind of closure that both still IMO regard as a
noble failure. But hey, a last minute rewrite on one episode
shouldn't be expected to bear the weight of seven years on its
shoulders (which is what Lauren said in her GoldDerby chat on why that
season finale did not work.
IOW, lay off the writers. It's not their fault.
-- Rob
--
LORELAI: I am so done with plans. I am never, ever making one again.
It never works. I spend the day obsessing over why it didn't work
and what I could've done differently. I'm analyzing all my shortcomings
when all I really need to be doing is vowing to never, ever make a plan
ever again, which I'm doing now, having once again been the innocent
victim of my own stupid plans. God, I need some coffee.
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