"Gilmore Girls": What a Difference a Week Makes

We were thisclose to recapturing the wit, energy, and spark of Gilmore Girls with the last few episodes, penned by the ever-wonderful show's creator, Amy Sherman Palladino. The first half of the season--which saw a lack of any episodes written by Amy or her writer-producer husband Daniel Palladino--devolved into a soppy mess wherein Rory and Lorelai went their separate ways after a fanastic and brilliant season finale. While the concept behind the jaw-dropping split made sense (with Rory dropping out of Yale, moving out of Lorelai's house, and moving in with grandparents-from-hell Richard and Emily), the execution was extremely flawed to say the least... especially without Amy and Daniel at the helm.

So imagine my excitement when we had two back-to-back brand new episodes written by Amy herself! We got back the Gilmore Girls of yesteryear--snappy repartee, the best ever Friday night dinner with Emily and Richard, the Gilmore girls reuniting, Rory moving in with Paris and returning to Yale, true and real emotional connections between my beloved characters. Even the ridiculous plotline with Luke discovering he had a twelve-year-old daughter suddenly made sense and took on new dimensions and depth. I was in heaven, envisioning a brilliant second half of a lackluster season...

And then I watched last night's episode. And was sucked back to earth.

It wasn't...bad. It just wasn't very good, especially coming off Amy's two episodes. The scenes seemed awkward, the dialogue stilted and overwritten, the Michel plotline mind-bogglingly dull and out-of-place (I'm sure Yanic has a certain number of episodes committment and this was counting towards that after not being seen for a while). Plus, Rory had helmet head. Not a good look for the girl. Especially, when she's been looking so gorgeous of late.

The lesson: an Amy-and-Daniel-free Gilmore Girls is not a Good Thing. With the show a near lock to return next season on the new CW network, I can only hope that they renew their executive producer deals and bring them on board for next season (and any subsequent ones). I'm sad for the loss of the new show they'd been working on (reportedly a Philadelphia Story-esque romantic dramedy), but hope this means that they can stay on Gilmore Girls at least for a little while longer.

Fortunately, I checked my TiVo as soon as the episode ended to see who had written next week's episode... and was relieved to see it was written by Daniel. I breathe a sigh of relief. While we never know what life may bring us next, at least I know I'm in store for a top-notch episode of Gilmore Girls next week.

What a difference a week makes.

Gilmore Girls airs Tuesday evenings at 8 pm on the WB (for now, anyway).