The Good: Great stories, Wonderful character development, Good acting
The Bad: Could always use more DVD bonus features.
The Basics: A perfect season of Gilmore Girls translates to a wonderful DVD boxed set that is a must for anyone who loves dramedies about families and relationships!
I've become a big fan of Gilmore Girls and truth be told, I miss watching new episodes with my mother. It's been years since we did that and since I bought the DVDs, she went through them all long before I could. What astonishes me now about watching the series on DVD is first, how much I missed in the initial run, and second how truly amazing the series actually is. With the fifth season of Gilmore Girls, the show hits its stride and becomes something truly impressive in the realm of family dramas.
In fact, the only good reason I can come up with to not add this DVD set to one's library is if one is getting the Gilmore Girls - The Complete Series boxed set, reviewed here! That is a great deal and it is likely that after watching the fifth season, most people will want to get the whole series!
In its fifth season, Gilmore Girls becomes both a greater celebration of love and a more complicated exploration of how relationships actually work. As a result, there is a greater sense of conflict - which is always good for character development - and the forging of some new, stronger relationships among some of the principle characters. The thing is, Gilmore Girls - The Complete Fifth Season begins - without any recap - immediately where the fourth season left off. As a result, it is nearly impossible to discuss the series without alluding to events that were in the fourth season finale. That, too, is a truly wonderful boxed set, so there's no good reason not to pick it up (reviewed here!). But even for those who do not catch the final episode of Season Four, Season Five opens and it more or less explains itself (save one or two jokes involving Kirk running naked through town).
In the fifth season of Gilmore Girls, Rory awakens after making love with Dean, who is still married to Lindsay, to Lorelai, who is furious with her. Rory and Emily - who is estranged from Richard - flee to Europe to escape their troubles. While Lorelai begins to forge a romantic relationship with Luke, Rory tries to figure out what to do with Dean. When Rory and Emily return to the U.S., Dean finds himself mostly alone, though soon he and Rory are dating once again.
Conflict ensues when Richard and Emily divide time with Rory up, with Richard living in the pool house on the estate and getting the women for drinks, while Emily gets dinner with Rory and Lorelai. Even after Rory and Lorelai make up and Rory returns to Yale, Lorelai has conflicts with her parents - who deem Luke beneath her - and with Luke - who believes Dean is not good enough for Rory. This is moot soon enough, as Rory's position at the Yale Daily News puts her in the company of Logan Huntzberger, a wealthy peer of hers at Yale.
Logan soon challenges Rory's suburban existence and at the worst possible moment, Emily pushes Rory's father Christopher to make his move on Lorelai.
You know, writing a simple plot summary of Gilmore Girls - The Complete Fifth Season makes the show sound an awful lot like a bad soap opera. The truth is, though, the series never feels that way when watching it. The main reason for this is that the dialogue remains crisp, fast and funny throughout and the characters are so very vibrant.
Unlike the prior seasons of Gilmore Girls where Rory's best friend is her mother, Lorelai, in the fifth season, their relationship is plagued by conflict and turmoil. Lorelai has serious issues about Rory having sex with Dean, because he is married and their estrangement fuels great conflicts. Moreover, the Richard and Emily estrangement works to compliment the issues between Rory and Lorelai. And as Lorelai finally gets her act together, it is Rory whose friendship with Logan destabilized her further.
As well, the fifth season has strong issues dealing with class. Emily has always favored Christopher as a man in Lorelai's life and when Lorelai starts dating Luke, Emily feels compelled to intervene. Luke, being middle class, is astounded when he meets Emily and Richard and later Logan. As Luke and Lorelai struggle to form a romantic relationship, Richard and Emily infuse tension based on class. Rory struggles with her identity as she is exposed to the extreme wealth represented by Logan and his Life and Death Brigade.
Perhaps the reason the series does not seem like much of a soap opera - despite the plot synopsis - is that the characters are so vibrant. Gilmore Girls is a family dramedy that uses witty, fast dialogue to establish some of the most realistic and wonderful characters to appear on DVD. In the fifth season, the primary characters include:
Lorelai - Despite meddling influences from her mother and being estranged from Rory, she has one of the best years of her life as she and Luke fall in love. The Dragonfly Inn begins to take off and despite her instant dislike of Logan and what he stands for, when Rory and Lorelai reconcile their differences, their bond grows. Her relationship with Luke faces a bit of a strain when a company approaches Lorelai about buying the Inn,
Rory - After fleeing to Europe for the summer to get her head straight, she returns to the United States to try to figure out her sophomore year, her relationship with Dean and also negotiate her friendships with Lane and Paris. With Logan, she begins to take more risks and as a result soon finds herself going in a very different direction. As the season peaks, she finds herself working for Logan's father, Mitchum, a newspaper manager,
Luke - He goes "all in" on his relationship with Lorelai, which leads him to awkward times spent with Richard and Emily, and a disastrous encounter that causes him to question everything. He reveals to Lorelai his father's boat, puts up with his sister and T.J., and he works on acquiring his perfect house for him and Lorelai. Also, he fills in at the Dragonfly when Sookie needs time off,
Sookie - Has a crazy arc when her husband decides to run against Taylor for the Town Selectman position and she becomes the First Lady of Stars Hollow. Soon, though, their lives are complicated by declining lunchtime traffic and her pregnancy,
Lane - Living with two of her three bandmates, Lane begins to fall in love with Zach, much to his chagrin. She works for Luke at the diner and is astonishingly good at the job. Soon, though, her passion for her music takes over and Lane realizes how ingrained her mother's values are in her,
Richard - Distracted by work, Lorelai's father finds himself living in the pool house an ever more estranged from his wife. When she starts dating, though, he realizes how much he misses her and works to make amends,
Emily - Fed up with Richard and splitting the Friday night dinner events with him, she discovers she has little purpose or ambitions outside being Richard's wife and the mistress of the house. She tries dating, saves a dog and meddles quite constantly in Luke and Lorelai's relationship,
Paris - Her professor beau dead (over summer break in Cambridge), she returns as a de facto widow (she wasn't actually married, but . . .) and works with Rory at the Yale Daily News. Initially antagonistic with Doyle, the editor of the paper, she soon finds herself opening up to him,
Kirk - Surprises Luke by bidding on the same house as Luke and in addition to his many, many jobs, he continues to date Lulu. It becomes apparent that in addition to being one of the strangest denizens of Stars Hollow, he is also one of the wealthiest,
(recurring, first part of the season) Dean - Back together with Rory, he travels from Stars Hollow to Yale regularly, though he is working multiple jobs to make ends meet. He and Luke clash, even after Rory leaves him again,
(recurring) Logan Huntzberger - The ultra-rich son of the super-rich newspaper magnate Mitchum Huntzberger, he has a cavalier attitude, no plans and an excessive appreciation of alcohol and danger. One of the members of the secret society the Life and Death Brigade, he soon finds himself attracted to Rory and willing to try something he has never done before: he commits to her,
and Michel - He wins a motor home on The Price Is Right but otherwise just shows up to be annoying.
The fifth season it an acting tour de force with some of the less-featured performers stepping up to make their characters more noticeable and human. Sadly, Liza Weil is often neglected as Paris, but Kelly Bishop and Edward Hermann have roles that befit them, including incredible dance scenes in the 100th episode. Actually, Hermann is given one of the best chances to grow his character as he infuses a sense of vitality into Richard that has not been present before.
And, of course, the title stars, Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel give truly wonderful performances. Graham has the opportunity to play Lorelai as deeply hurt over several episodes and she does it without any sense of melodrama, perfectly infusing a deep sadness and love into her character that had not been present before that. Similarly, Bledel has the chance to infuse a wild side into Rory and she makes it believable. It is Bledel's performance - especially in the final episodes of the season - that sell the drastic changes in the character that Rory exhibits.
But the real star of Gilmore Girls - The Complete Fifth Season is Scott Patterson. In the last episodes of the fourth season, Patterson was given the chance to take Luke in a much more sensitive direction. In this boxed set, Patterson emerges with the ability to believably infuse Luke with confidence and unabashed affection. Playing that is a challenge, especially after years of portraying Luke as taciturn and curmudgeony. He makes the transition appear effortless to the extent that those who watch the set will never actually find themselves thinking that Luke's actions are inorganic, even though reason says many of his actions are. Patterson's performance, the moments he stands up straighter and smiles more often, sells this boxed set.
This set is a bit light on bonus features, with a lone commentary track on an episode that explores the budding Rory and Logan relationship but is otherwise hard to care about. There are two different featurettes on the 100th episode and then a clipshow featurette which does not provide anything new or stimulating for fans.
There might not be a better way to get into Gilmore Girls than this boxed set.
Few shows actually get a fifth season, for reviews of other fifth seasons, please check out:
Weeds - Season 5
Six Feet Under - Season 5
Frasier - Season 5
10/10
For other television episode or season reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!
© 2011, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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