I Love Gilmore Girls

Gilmore Girls is my favorite television show. While I made a whole list of favorites earlier on, notice that Gilmore Girls was right at the top. As I've mentioned previously, it's the only show I've watched in its entirety multiple times through. There's just so much to love about it... I'm not even sure where to begin. It makes me happy and never fails to keep me engaged with its perfect combination of sarcasm, pop culture references, and drama. But what really made Gilmore Girls special, above all, was the characters. None of them were dull and they all talked a lot. Their relationships were interesting to watch, whether they concerned romance, friendship, or mother-daughter bonds.

 

But the mother-daughter relationship aspect is what really drives the show. Single mother Lorelai Gilmore (played by Lauren Graham) and her daughter Rory (played by Alexis Bledel), have such an ideal relationship. They're best friends. They have obvious mother-daughter similarities (which includes but is not limited to the same great sense of sarcastic humor, awe-striking eating habits, and an addiction to coffee) but are quite unique from another as well. While Lorelai is a bit more daring, Rory is a nice girl with no ambition to rebel against her best friend/mom. This heavily contrasts with Lorelai's relationship with her own mother, Emily. They argue throughout most of the show; their personalities couldn't possibly be any more different. Lorelai is a free bird, but Emily is kind of the cliché rich lady with her fancy parties and a need for perfection, classiness, and order. Since Lorelai gave birth to Rory as a teenager, one can only imagine how that affected Emily and their relationship.

These primary characters alone are incredibly vivid, but as I said, this goes for all the rest of the characters as well. Rory's best friend Lane and her mother, Mrs. Kim, also add to the mother-daughter aspect, but in a much more whimsical way. Mrs. Kim is extremely conservative, but Lane just wants to play drums and have a band. Her love for music and desire to rebel against her mother's restrictions is the basis for their relationship, and despite sneaking around trying to hide things her mother doesn't approve of (such as her CD collection under the floorboards), Lane does seem to respect her mother. It was so exciting to see Lane join a band and get a cool husband, and eventually, children. Everything really worked out perfectly for her.

Stars Hollow (the town Lorelai and Rory live in) is just packed with interesting specimens. The most prominent Stars Hollow citizen, however, is Luke. Luke owns a diner and supplies Lorelai and Rory with yummy food and lots of coffee. He always has a baseball cap on backwards and may seem a little rough around the edges, but the guy definitely has a heart. He really cares about Rory and Lorelai, and let's face it, who wasn't rooting for him to end up with Lorelai in the end? He's such a good guy. I didn't like any of Lorelai's boyfriends, even though Rory's dad was a nice guy, but I always liked Luke. I was so happy that they ended up together; they just make my heart flutter a little.
 

Seasons two and three are my favorites, and a lot of that has to do with the troubled character Jess, played by Milo Ventimiglia, who people tend to really love or really hate. Personally, I loved this character. Sure, he had some issues, but I always wanted Rory to end up with him. (Not just because he's attractive, either.) He ended up being pretty normal anyway; he even wrote a book! Her first boyfriend Dean was nice, but almost too nice (not to mention super jealous and kind of dull), Logan irked me, but I really liked Jess. He read all the time and listened to cool music. Dude even knew Bjork - Bjork, people! And he really cared about Rory. I always felt bad that he wasn't given a proper chance. The whole town judged him. I just think things would've been different if Rory wasn't always hearing criticism of him and if Rory hadn't just broken up with Dean.

Regardless, a lot of my favorite Gilmore Girls quotes come from seasons two and three; they're all so funny, from Jess' "Excuse me, I've seen you eat" to Rory telling that Shane chick that watching ice melt probably fascinates her. There are just too many good ones to name. Plus, Rory and Paris started being friends - who would've thought that would happen after they hated each other so much in season one? And the Bjork snowwoman! Priceless! These two seasons just bring me so much nostalgia, back when I first discovered the show with a friend. We'd watch reruns on AbcFamily. We'd discuss Rory's boyfriends, and I'd be the odd-one out on Team Jess. I remember seasons six and seven; I'd watch and anticipate those new episodes. I recorded the very last one, and I remember being sad that it was over, after all those seasons. Rory and Lorelai deal with a lot of drama, even fighting to the point that the closest mother-daughter duo in the world weren't talking to each other at some point, but they always found a way back to their best friend. They always found a way to consolidate.

While Rory didn't get married in the end, that series finale was worth it for me because she finally got her dream job after all that hard work at school, but mostly because it ended with a promise of Luke and Lorelai being together. Rory may have been able to move on from Dean, Jess, and I'm assuming Logan as well, but imagining Lorelai without Luke would be too weird for me to handle. They went so well together, and Luke was a great father figure for Rory. The series ending with the three of them like that was perfect.

I really miss this show. I'm wondering what happened with all of them, if Luke and Lorelai ended up getting married, if Rory ever ran into Jess again, if she was sad without Logan, how often Rory sees Lane after getting her new job, her new friends in the workforce. The end of Gilmore Girls is like the end of Jane Eyre - it isn't that the endings aren't satisfying, it's that the stories were so good that you don't want them to end.

The creator of Gilmore Girls made a relatively new series called Bunheads, and while many say that Gilmore Girls fans will love it, I just can't deal with it. The main character is just too similar to Lorelai, and surely to God there is only one Lorelai Gilmore in this world. So, I'm sticking with my Gilmore Girls seasons on DVD. I don't have many yet since the show is still on AbcFamily regularly, but I'm definitely making season three a priority for me to buy. I haven't seen those episodes in forever.

So, in a nutshell, I love this show. Always have, always will.

2014 Fills Me with Excitement

Whenever a new year rings in, there's always a list of releases or events set to happen within the new year for me to get excited about... This year, however, is a bit drastic. Honestly, there's so much stuff I'm looking forward to, I'm afraid I'm going to make this post and manage to forget something. ALL the things are going to happen in 2014... Okay, maybe not all of them, but a great deal of what I care about.

 

First things first: Part two of Teen Wolf's third season premiers January 6 on MTV. Considering how much I've loved this show, especially the first part of season three, my expectations are set relatively high. Hopefully I'll discover some new music from the show as well, like I often do... But either way, I know I'll have some new music by the end of the month, for Within Temptation will release their new album, Hydra, on January 31 - and let me tell  you, I'm SO pumped for this album. Within Temptation has been one of my favorite bands for about six years now, and Hydra's first single, "Paradise (What About Us?)" (a duet with Tarja Turunen, by the way) sounds amazing. I think I'm really going to love the direction of this album. From what this trailer tells me, it'll be very mystic and fantastical; reminiscent of both Within Temptation's newer and older material.

 

But even more of the epic forces of symphonic metal are going to take precedence this year! According to a news post on their official site, Epica will release their new album in the spring. Plus, Tuomas Holopainen (Nightwish's keyboardist and the mastermind behind the majority of the band's music) is going to release a classically-oriented solo album entitled The Life and Times of Scrooge. Nightwish's mesh of classical and metal has had so many beautiful and bombastic moments, and I think it'll be really cool to hear Holopainen's music just from the classical perspective. We got to hear hints of that magic when Imaginaerum was arranged for a score.

But there are also a few movies I'm interested in seeing this year. In May, the film Maleficent is set to be released to theatres. Maleficent was quite a scary character in the Sleeping Beauty animation, and bringing her to a live action setting looks incredibly frightening and cinematic. Darren Aronofsky directed Noah, a film about the well-known Biblical tale set for a 2014 release. While some have expressed concern that Aronofsky, the man who directed Requiem for a Dream (the most disturbing movie in the world) and Black Swan (the second-most disturbing movie in the world) has attempted to work with a Biblical movie, it's important to remember that Requiem for a Dream was based on a novel and Aronofky didn't write the screenplay for Black Swan. Pay attention to the way these films were made, how they were executed so effectively, so perfectly and and not to mention differently for their individual storylines... That's what I love about Aronofsky. He's a genius. (Heh, that just turned into an Aronofsky-appreciation explosion.)

 

And of course, some book-to-film adaptations will come out this year. John Green's The Fault in Our Stars will make its way into theatres... Which I'm less excited about because I'm just going to sit there and cry buckets the whole time. In November we'll all get to go see Mockingjay, Part 1 in theatres. YAY!

 

I don't have too many books on my 2014 list because majority of the series I'm reading right now already have all the books out, with the exception of the House of Night series by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast. The twelfth and final novel, Redeemed, will be released. I'm still hoping for that Sailor Moon art book... Whenever... if it ever happens. I'm so impatient!

But, on a completely different subject: I'm so ready for the Winter Olympics in Sochi. It may seem to some that I'm not a sports person, primarily because I don't care much about football, basketball, or soccer, but I love winter sports. All of them - except curling. I've been counting down until we've come to another Winter Games year since the last one in Vancouver. Sure, the Summer Games are great too, but winter sports are definitely my favorite.

Well, I think that pretty much sums it up. Hopefully I didn't forget anything! So far, 2014 sounds like a great year for music and movies; I must say, I really cannot wait to hear the new symphonic metal material. I imagine there will be a lot of fangirling to come from me this year. (Then again, when isn't there?)

What are you looking forward to in 2014?

My Favorite Television Shows

Recently, I came to the realization that I rarely ever talk about TV shows on this blog. I must admit, I don't watch that much television, but it's impossible not to watch any shows at all. Sometimes, one can find a really good show and become hooked 'till the end. The main problem I end up having is the inability to stay committed and keep up with each and every episode; I rarely ever succeed. Still, I've discovered some seriously amazing shows over the years, and it's time I share them.

Gilmore Girls

Out of all the shows I've ever watched in my whole life, Gilmore Girls is the only series I've watched several times through in its entirety. I love this show. Everything about it makes it stand out, from the wonderfully-crafted characters, to the comedy they bring, to the plot (which is always bound to have some drama). It was, and still is, so different than anything else on TV. It was kind of... perfect. There will never be another Gilmore Girls.

The Twilight Zone
When I say that I love The Twilight Zone, I mean the original black-and-white classic with Rod Serling, not that awful remake of the show that made me want to vomit. This oldie has a lot of elements that I think are missing in today's thrillers, which aim to entertain by making audience jump in their seats. The original Twilight Zone was so subtle on the scare-scale in that sense, but it could be horrifying nonetheless. More than anything, though, it never fails to make me think. It explored so much more than science fiction; it explored real-world philosophy concerning subjects such as what beauty and difference really are.

Teen Wolf
*You can read my appreciation post here.
Oh, Teen Wolf. People don't always understand my continual fangirling over it, but how can I not love it? It's so fun!  The characters are so well-developed, and its been so cool to watch them grow over the past few years as the plot becomes crazier and more dramatic. It's so addictive! And the commercials for this season have been so tormenting, asking viewers "who will die?" or telling us "more will die" and "an alpha will die"; whoever they hired to market this did a little too well. Those commercials make me crazier than I already am with the plot's growing complexity.

The X Files
I'll admit, I haven't watched this show nearly as much as I always want to, but I've seen enough to call it one of my favorites. (Plus, it has the best theme song ever. FYI.) It's so creepy, full of mystery and intensity. And there's something quite meaningful about how it's all presented, particularly with how Mulder is presented. His personal backstory makes this science-fiction show into something more meaningful as he investigates odd cases that often involve extraterrestrials ... "I want to believe" is such a powerful phrase.

Kyle XY
When it first began, I was sort of opposed to Kyle XY; I thought it looked a little stupid. I don't remember exactly when I became so fascinated with it, it just sort of happened at some point. It was an intriguing series filled with mystery and drama, making it relatively easy to get addicted to. However, I must complain... The series finale was not even a series finale. It was hardly a season finale! It was so abrupt, right in the middle of a scene. Even now, I wonder if the writers were initially planning on having another season and were faced with the show's cancellation at the last minute.

The Middle
The Middle is such a cute family sitcom; it always makes me laugh. I love how quirky and weird the characters are. In fact, I don't think there's a single one I don't like. But seriously, what's not to love? Brick's a bookworm that whispers to himself, Sue is a very colorful and loud peppy teenager that is somehow invisible to everyone at school; Axl is a lazy, moody teenage boy that is somehow invisible to no one at school despite his laziness; and their parents, Mike and Frankie, are a happily-married couple that deal with an assortment of their own issues, from weird neighbors, to financial hiccups, to miscommunication hiccups, and everything in between. It all contributes to a life of real-world adventure.

 

Suburgatory
Sure, sometimes this show can probably be a little far out, but in some ways, it's incredibly realistic in the most hilarious way possible. Anyone who has lived in real-life suburbia will likely understand the humor of Tessa's neighborhood, and I imagine that there are a lot of teenage girls that can relate to Tessa's general personality, trapped in a 'suburban purgatory' of preppy Dalias.

Modern Family
I don't think I know a single person who dislikes this show; it's so hilarious! It paints such a comical picture of the reality of families today with Phil and Claire and their three children (the more stereotypical family), Jay and his much younger wife and their children, and Mitch and Cameron (a homosexual couple with a very outspoken adopted daughter).

Mob Wives
I don't usually watch reality television, but when I do, I watch Mob Wives. This show is pretty intense. When people think of the mob, they don't always think of the women that have to watch their men go in and out of prison and wait with one another. They don't think of people like Drita, whose husband had to do his time while she raised two children, and how emotionally draining and conflicting it can be. They also probably don't think of all the drama that goes on with these women. These aren't your typical cat fights, because these women are tough.

Heroes (the first season)
I kind of forgot about this series until compiling this list. I was unable to keep up with it after the second season, which I thoroughly enjoyed, but the first season seemed to really stick with me. It was so epic! The first season's finale blew me away! Hiro, Peter, and Isaac were my favorite characters.

Sailor Moon
*You can read my appreciation post here.
Granted, I still haven't seen all two hundred episodes, and I mostly watched this as I was growing up, but I still have a place in my heart for Sailor Moon. I always will. Ever since the manga has been reissued, I've been purchasing the books and watching the anime again, regenerating my inner fangirl. As a little kid, I was too young to understand all that it enforced, but now I realize how empowering this series is, how it is the perfect series for girls. Anyone could watch this anime (or read the manga) and pick out characters that they can relate to. Making connections with characters is great with any story, but this one is particularly special because it makes us feel like we can overcome anything, that the Sailor Scouts really aren't that different from us after all.

Another show I liked for a while was Wildfire, which was on ABC Family for a while. The first season really held my attention, but after some time, the love triangle became so crazy that I couldn't take anybody seriously. But while I'm at it... What happened to Happy Town!? Seriously? ABC pulled it off the air two episodes away from the season finale! I get it, not that many people watched it, but I highly doubt it would've been that strenuous to keep it going for two more episodes.

But anyway, these are my definitive favorite TV shows. The supernatural, the hilarious, even the dramalicious have ignited so much hype in me. I hope your favorite shows have done the same.