I'm glad we can count on AV Club to misunderstand literally everything.

I don't think there are any we're honestly supposed to like. I feel a lot more sympathy for Shane than I'm probably meant to (she holds down a job! she hides in closets! she almost has a personality, I swear!) and I actually really pity Sherry in S3 as well as Lindsay in S4, but I just never had the feeling like the…

Lorelai's attachment to Dean as Rory's boyfriend always weirds me out. First she was running interference in A-Tisket A-Tasket, now she is swearing up and down that Rory would never take her bracelet off (because it would hurt Dean) and also helping Dean put Rory up on an insane pedestal. She wouldn't lie? Really?…

There's a deleted scene from There's the Rub that shows Paris and Rory's slumber party. IIRC, Paris not only refers to Jess and Dean fighting over Rory, but mentions Jess being "super cute" which Rory smiles at. So, even though they cut it, I don't think they were writing Rory with the intention of her being genuinely…

I love that scene.

Exec 2 makes all the correct decisions.

I think she subconsciously does distrust him for those reasons and I definitely think the show made a real effort to parallel them, but I wish it had been dealt with in a more straight forward and explicit manner. Like I said, I just don't think this episode gets past the simple parallels with Lorelai and Rory.…

Arguably the Kirk-Jackson scene shouldn't count since the rules of the original Bechdel test require that the scene not be about a romantic interest. Kirk and Jackson only interact at all because Jackson wants to get the basket back for Sookie. Of course, the conversation digresses a lot from that, so maybe I'm…

Dean's reaction is what makes him the worst. As in, specifically, yelling at Rory and trying to emotionally blackmail her

I have really no patience for the Christopher-Sherry-Lorelai drama. It contains in it all of my problems with how the show handles obstacle love interests — particularly of the female variety — and absolutely no fun or joy or even character growth. At least Rory snapping at Shane about "girls like you" gives Rory an…

If you look for continuity in GG, you will get burned. I remember an episode where Rory and Lorelai come into the diner, complain about how there are no tables, sit down at an uncleared table, banter, and then drink from the uncleared coffee cups. Summarizes their problems with continuity in under three minutes.

I definitely think Lorelai and Jess would have a lot in common post-series. They both had to run away and figure out everything for themselves to truly be happy and, with more maturity and distance, they could easily get along. Plus, Lorelai seems to look back on her own fraught teenage years with more fondness that…

I think Scrubs was actually more instrumental there, since JD did actually do a whole ticking clock countdown thing about being put in Eliot's friendzone, but yeah. Funny shows, horrible take aways for pop culture.

I'm absolutely convinced they wrote this episode to try to give people like you and me aneurysms. I can't rationalize it any other way.

Bracebridge is one of those great and terrible episodes. Excellent characterization and showcase of how the quirkiness of Stars Hollow can generate genuine fun and heartfelt moments. On the other hand, a display of unearned intellectual smugness so grating I nearly always want to throw something at my TV. 19th…

That is a gross mischaracterization of Dean. He'll bore you to tears, yell at you in public, threaten your new boyfriend, and plot to ~win you back~ in such a way that your eventual adultery with him comes off like a truly bizarre form of long-term revenge on his part.

I will, unfortunately, probably be one of those people mounting a defense of Jess, but I largely agree. My main defense, however, is that the drum beat of "Jess is a bad boyfriend/Jess is irresponsible" is largely told rather than shown and his actions rarely match up with it. He's a bad fit for Rory at age 17 because…

Well, if it's S6 Jess then he's a better M option than Logan for sure.

I have always taken that as an indication of just how frequently abused Chiana has been and how she rationalizes it. It's her coping mechanism. I'm far more okay with that side of her characterization that the constant stream of insults directed toward her based on her sexuality.

I think that would work, especially if it turned out that Lorelai had built up this relationship out of her own needs and wishful thinking and that Mia, while fond of her, never considered Lorelai to be her daughter. I'm thinking of something similar to Wonderfalls and Jaye's attempt to pretend her nanny was her…