Search - Gilmore Girls - The Complete First Three Seasons on DVD

Think 1940s screwball comedy mixed with a planned community

ninjasuperstar | Iowa | 03/04/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The quick, witty dialogue of Gilmore Girls is an homage to screwball comedy films like His Girl Friday and Bringing Up Baby. It works surprising well, largely because there are different levels of speed talking: Some characters can keep up, others get lost, and some try on certain days and prefer to be normal people on other days. References and allusions abound as well. Some of the cultural references are highly obscure - that is, even with your ability to pause and rewind the world of Gilmore Girls, there are times when even the viewer can't keep up. This is all part of the fun of a dialogue-driven comedy that serves its main characters far too much coffee and a hilarious amount of food.

When the plot turns serious and the dialogue slows down, the sparkling planned community shimmers away as the stuff of real life creates drama. I appreciate that the writers understand the need to feel drama slowly. You can't banter through it, because only happy people relish in clever games.

It's hard to explain how a show about mostly white, middle class people living in a crime-free fantasy has become so popular, especially on the WB, which has been one of the few channels to embrace all of America's cultures, races, classes, and so on. I think the answer is that the relationship between a single mother and her daughter and an absentee father is highly translatable to many Americans. There are many conversations detailing Lorelai's struggles to provide for her daughter. Viewers also empathize with the weird and uncomfortable encounters with rich, elitist people, namely, Lorelai's parents.

The DVDs are somewhat lacking in extras - a making-of video and some extended or extra scenes are all you get. I think fans of the show would enjoy a dialogue dictionary of all of the references the characters make, a list of the books Rory and Jess are always reading, a map of Stars Hollow, a coffee cup, and Sookie's recipes."

Just loved it

javiera ribalta | chile | 05/31/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"gilmore girls, is the kind of show, you cry with, laugh with and believe me, once you see it you will love it.
the cool thing about this serie, is that is a good drama, with very realistic characters, that you can relate to, but it also has a great touch of humor. the dialogs are amazing! it's very fun to see how the writters, include pop culture into the story.
the characters are so sweet, even the bad guys can be loved, because a good thing in this show is that none of the characters is perfect, so we can se the good side and the bad side of the story
I reccomened 100% to buy this set of dvd, you will never regret it. gilmore girls rock!"

"Gilmore Girls": The Chilton Years (Seasons 1-3)

Lawrance M. Bernabo | The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota | 12/27/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Set in the storybook Connecticut town of Stars Hollow, the "Gilmore girls" are 32-year-old Lorelai (Lauren Graham) and 16-year-old Rory (Alexis Bledel). When Lorelai was Rory's age she became an unwed mother, to the bitter disappointment of her parents (Kelly Bishop and Edward Herrmann). But Lorelai has carved out her own life, managing an inn, and having a relationship with her daughter which is more like best friends than mother and daughter. The only problem is that Rory has her heart set on going to Harvard and being able to attend Chilton, a private school in Hartford, would be a big help. That means Lorelai has to ask her parents for financial help and the price is steep: every Friday Lorelai and Rory have to go to dinner at the Gilmore mansion.

The first season of the show is essentially about the ironic contrast between the relationship Lorelai has as the daughter of her mother and as the mother of her own daughter. On top of that Rory has to make her way at Chilton, where she has to contend with the formidable Paris Gellar and gets to deal with the throes of first love with Dean Forester. Meanwhile, Lorelai is making a connection with one of Rory's teachers, Max Medina. Yes, Lorelai and Luke (Scott Patterson) are the last too people in town to know they are meant for each other, but they will have to catch on eventually. "Love, Daisies and Troubadours" is still my favorite all-time episode because of Rory's speech, her calling Dean an idiot, and the 1000 yellow daises.

The second season of "Gilmore Girls" is when a lot of things did not happen to Lorelai Gilmore. It started with Lorelai not marrying Max and ended with her not marrying Christopher, but Sookie got married so at least there was some progress in that area, although the duo's plan to open an inn together hits a major roadblock. As for Rory, her junior year at Chilton has its ups and downs. and not just because of Paris. The ups would be the road trip to Harvard and making her society debut, while the downside would be the rift between her and her grandfather because of Dean and the problems with Dean because of Jess. The common denominator is to make sure that none of the Gilmore women are happy, which means Rory is mad at Lorelai for blaming Jess for the accident, Lorelai is mad at Emily for arranging their going to a spa together, and Emily is mad at Richard for quitting his job without consulting here.

For me some of the most memorable moments from season two are when Emily orders Richard to make up with Rory because if their granddaughter ever gets married she to know about it and the look on the faces of her parents with Lorelai gets her business school diploma. But then a good rule of thumb is anytime we see a chink in Emily's armor it is a moment that will be hard to forget. The two emotional highpoints of the second season are in "Teach Me Tonight" when a totally distraught Lorelai goes after Luke because of the car accident where Rory gets hurt, and in "Lorelai's Graduation Day," when Rory misses the big event and offers the most high speed combined heartfelt apology and verbal self-flagellation in television history.

The third season of "Gilmore Girls" offers a lot of ups and down for Lorelai and Rory. I though Rory's choice to ditch Dean for Jess was the lost of the innocence that made the character so endearing in the first place, but if Rory could dump Dean I knew Jess could never go the distance and I could take heart in that fact. Ultimately, what defines this third season for Lorelai and Rory are not the men (or boys) in their lives but rather the realization of their dreams. For Lorelai this means opening up her own inn with Sookie, which gets put on the front burner when a fire damages the Independence Inn and when buying the Dragonfly Inn proves to be a problem. When Lorelai insists on spending the money she got from her father on her daughter's education at Yale it is Rory who has to cut her own deal with Richard and Emily so that her mother can get her dream too.

Rory getting into the college of her dreams is the real defining element of the season, which starts to turn into a nightmare when Rory's application for Harvard has to be put together. Two of Rory's best moments in this season are when she tells Richard he did the right thing the wrong way when he got her an interview to Yale and when she apologizes to Dean. The best part of Rory and Jess was Lorelai giving Luke lessons on what it means to be a parent of a teenager in love. Other big moments are the dance marathon, the poignant flashback's to the pregnant young Lorelai, and Emily standing up to Trix. For me the funniest moment of the entire season is in "I Solemnly Swear" when Emily reads the transcript of Lorelai's deposition. Yes, I cried when Rory talked about her mom in her graduation speech, but the sweetest moment of the season was when they came up with the great payoff for the running gag about the t-shirts Kirk was selling at the end of "A Tale of Poes and Fire."

Now we can send Rory off to college in Season 4 so that Luke and Lorelai can finally get on the same page and kiss already. These DVDs offer up extra scenes, which is certainly ample justification for fans of the show to check it out in this format, to go along with interviews and other featurettes. However, the "Guides to Gilmore-isms" in each will probably be the favorites for fans of the shows. Besides, I am preaching to the choir here, right?"

Great Writing

Fancy Pants | Burbank, California USA | 09/26/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Recovering from spinal surgery, with nothing to do but watch TV, I ordered the first 3 seasons of a show I'd seen once...Now I'm a Gilmore Girls fan. The writing in that show is nothing short of brilliant. The actors are fun and the stories, though at times ridiculous, are amusing and endearing. It sure made recovery go more quickly."