Home Featured TV Shows All TV Shows Movie Reviews Book Reviews Articles Frequently Asked Questions About Us

This Week: Gilmore Girls Meets Lois & Clark

What are you watching this week?

I'm catching up with Ghosts (UK) after zipping through Ghosts (US). My daughter and I have been debating which is better. I've been thinking that they're different enough that maybe it's not an issue, and I'd particularly like to thank the producers for not giving the characters the same names. While Pat and Pete are very alike – a peacemaker in a scout uniform and an arrow through his neck – and Fanny and Hetty are somewhat similar as repressed older women of an earlier age, the rest of the ghosts are distinctive. At some point, I realized that I liked the US ghosts a bit more. Especially Flower and Trevor. Feel free to disagree!

Mikey Heinrich: I really need to add Ghosts to my 'shows to get around to watching' list. I'm currently working my way through American Horror Story, which I've enjoyed, but is a lot of icky to put in your brain at one time. I keep having to pause and watch The Crown as a palate cleanser.

The thing that's really fascinating me about AHS right now is that I looked up rankings of the seasons from worst to best out of curiousity and every single list I found was 100% different. No consensus at all, beyond the fact that most lists seemed to feel fondness toward the first season just for being the first season. Other than that, a season that's #1 on one list will be at the very bottom of the next one you look at, sometimes both lists citing the exact same reasons for placing it there. It's fascinating. I can't think of any other show with this little consensus.

Oh, I keep meaning to mention, I finally finished Dark and was very happy to find that the finale was every bit as good as everybody says it is.

Victoria Grossack: Well, for Thanksgiving we went to visit our son and daughter-in-law who are parents our younger grandkids, so there wasn't much screen time. However, I did watch Cars 1 with my 3-year-old grandson and I watched Encanto with my 5-year-old granddaughter. I also played a lot of hide-and-seek and all the adults were roped into musical chairs.

On the flight I caught the first episode of Star Trek: Picard, but I think the experience would be greatly improved by not watching it when I am tired and jet-lagged and with better sound and a much larger screen. I am watching the fifth season of The Crown in order to review it and I am watching Manifest again, but in French, because I always need to improve my French.

Adam D. Jones: I've stumbled onto something big.

As our readers are surely aware, I just started Gilmore Girls. Even though I've long avoided it, something about it really tapped my curiosity recently. But, as our readers also know (because they surely hang on my every word), I just finished re-watching Lois & Clark, the cheesiest TV show in history. (I still love it. Sue me. After a crummy day, a wholesome superhero is fun.)

Anyway, hold on to your butts, because I've made a discovery that will shake both shows to the core: they were filmed in the same place!

My wife started laughing when she recognized the gazebo where Lord Nor from Krypton stood to announce he was enslaving the people of Smallville.

"We demand Sookie's pies!"

Because it's obviously the Stars Hollow town square sometime the fall, but before Lorelai could decorate for the upcoming festival:


It's already hard to take these villains seriously, but my wife had to laugh whenever they would strut confidently out of Luke's diner and complain about Kryptonite, or strike an evil pose as they emerged from Stars Hollow High.

"Miss Gilmore, I'm afraid I have to give you an incomplete..."

It really changes your perspective, turning Lois & Clark into a dystopian, alternate reality where Stars Hollow is the epicenter of a grim narrative exposing the dark side of small town life.

"The HOA has found you guilty of blowing up your giant Santa before Thanksgiving."

I'll keep you updated on this important discovery.

Samantha M. Quinn: Mind blown, Adam. Gilmore Girls is in the Lois & Clark universe!

I just finished up House of the Dragon, Rings of Power and Interview with the Vampire and I have to say I was impressed with all three (Interview was definitely my favorite of the three). I've been working my way slowly through Warrior Nun. I am liking the season, especially the stuff between Ava and Beatrice, but it has a lot of the same flaws as the first season. AHS is one of those shows I tried and gave up two episodes into season one, just completely turned me off for some reason. I know it is different each season, but it just might not be for me. I've been doing a Buffy re-watch with a friend who has never seen it, and we just made it up to "Surprise"/"Innocence." It is kind of remarkable how much the show changes from that point on, and I'm really looking forward to sharing the end of season two with him.

Wait... did they establish in "Crisis" that Lois & Clark exists in the Arrowverse?!?

Adam D. Jones: In an alternate universe, I think they did. As well as the 90s Flash show.

Mikey Heinrich: I'm pretty sure that Lois & Clark were glossed over and not included in "Crisis on Infinite Earths." I don't have any insider info on why, but I strongly suspect it's largely down to everything Dean Cain has said and done for the last fifteen years. Just a guess.

Lamounier: As a former occasional watcher of both Lois & Clark and Gilmore Girls, I loved this discovery.

I'm all about fantasy these days. I finally finished Avatar: The Last Airbender. I'm a slow watcher, it's true, but I watch. In this case, I took my time through season three because I simply didn't want it to end. Overall, such a quality and consistent show. I already miss the characters dearly and look forward to the live action series.

With ATLA over, I jumped straight into The Legend of Korra. I find myself split between wishing Korra was more similar to ATLA and appreciating that the writers decided to tell a very distinct story. I have fallen in love with Korra, Tenzin and Naga, but the other characters are yet to conquer my heart. Amon is quite impressive as a villain so far.

I watched the first season of Fate: The Winx Saga, a Harry Potter-like story set in a school for fairies. I loved the world building and some of the stories were very promising. The writers wasted too much time creating sexual tension between the teenage characters, though, when they had better character arcs they should have focused on. In any case, I like the main group of girls and some of the underlying themes are interesting, which make season two a go.

Josie Kafka: I'm so far behind on television watching that it's embarrassing. I'm also not quite in the mood to dig into a show, although I do hope to catch up on The Peripheral soon so I can write a season review. ("Soon" might mean "by the end of this calendar year.")


But, over the Thanksgiving holiday, I did re-discover a new book series. Back in 2006 or so, Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Shadow of the Wind went viral in my friend group. It's about a young boy who becomes fixated on the mysterious author of a barely-known book that he found in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books during the Franco years in Spain. It's set in Barcelona, and will make you fall in love with that city.

Back then, I loved the book so much that I couldn't stand the thought of waiting for the second book in the series (The Angel's Game) to come out in English translation. So I bought the Spanish version and sat down with my dictionary to see how much Spanish I remembered from college. Two hours and 30 pages later, I gave up. (I could understand it, but doing so was so much work that reading stopped being fun.) And then I just...forgot.

Until now! The series is completely translated, so I re-read the first book, then read the second book for the first time. Then the third book. And now I'm on the fourth, final book, and that's all I want to do with my time. If you like books, melodrama, mystery, possibly-supernatural-but-maybe-not stuff, Spain, Barcelona, wacky architecture, true love, humor, pathos, and just a dash of politics, then this series is for you.

Hey, did you all know Sarah Michelle Gellar has a new TV show coming out? She plays the Giles character, apparently.

Adam D. Jones: Update: I just watched the first two episodes of Willow and loved it. Be ye warned, it's a bit more for kids and family than we serious grownups. But it's fun and has magic and monsters, so I'm having a ball. It's the sort of show that has lots of fun references to the old movie without being completely dependent on them. And Warwick Davis is, as far as I'm concerned, ten feet tall and bulletproof.

Shari: Wow, I made it just under the wire. 1. Having Gilmore Girls in the Arrowverse even tangentially puts a big ole' grin on my face. 2. I've had Zafon's The Shadow of the Wind on my digital bookshelf for years but I finally read it this summer. I loved it and I plan to read his others as soon as I can get my hands on them.

Thanks to a lot of real world drama I've spent most of this week watching comfort viewing. I discovered All Rise on HBO Max and have binged a season and a half so far. I know. I know it's another courtroom drama, but this one has West Wing vibes. It may not be quite as well written but it is well acted. And for the superhero fans out there, it stars Simone Missick, Wilson Bethel, and Jessica Camacho of Luke Cage/Defenders, Daredevil and The Flash respectively. Besides given everything that's been going on lately, it's been nice to watch a show where justice wins out at the end of the day.

As for books, I just finished reading Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. It's a beautifully written story that follows four generations of a Korean family as they try to make a life in Japan. I just finished listening to Bloodmarked which is the second book in the Legendborn series. I loved the first one a wee bit more than this one, but that might just be my post-book depression from knowing I have at least a year to go before the final book of the trilogy is available.

Billie Doux: So, Andor. The first episode didn't grab me so I didn't watch the second, but I'm hearing that it got really good. Did anyone watch it all? What did you think?

Mark Greig: Billie, I watched the whole series and loved it, happy to call it my favourite show of 2022. The first two episodes are the weakest, but once you get past them you are rewarded with some of the absolute best Star Wars stories.

Billie Doux: Thanks, Mark. That definitely moves Andor up on my list.

So what are you all watching this week?

7 comments:

  1. I'll never look at Gilmore Girls the same way again.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I’m with Mark. I really enjoyed Andor.

    Sooze

    ReplyDelete
  3. Shari -- I've been looking for something to watch and you had me at West Wing vibes. I am really liking All Rise -- but it is weird to see Wade Kinsella in LA and not Bluebell. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I had to look that one up, Chris. Hart of Dixie is one of the few CW shows I never watched. I knew him from Daredevil. So, for me it was weird seeing him so well adjusted. LOL

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LOL, Shari. Hart of Dixie was a guilty pleasure of mine from the first episode to the last. And, if we are being scrupulously honest, I still go back to it with alarming frequency when I need something that I know will make me smile and feel the good feels.

      Delete
  5. On Mark's recommendation, I gave Andor another try and just finished the third episode. It was excellent and totally pulled me in.

    ReplyDelete
  6. My feeling about AHS is every season starts out well, but generally bellyflops during the last few episodes. They can't seem to stick the landing. It's also (as you say) an unrelievedly unpleasant show.

    ReplyDelete

We love comments! We moderate because of spam and trolls, but don't let that stop you! It’s never too late to comment on an old show, but please don’t spoil future episodes for newbies.