Volume 17: June 9, 2023
Scroll on for some of our signature pop culture-related snark as well as what we're reading, watching, and listening to at the moment.
Gilmore Girls Corner
Which season is the best season to watch Gilmore Girls? We know what you’re thinking. Fall, of course. The series literally screams autumn.
Well, not for everyone. With summer upon us, I decided to go digging for some summer-related Gilmore trivia. According to an article that Nicole Pomarico wrote for Bustle in 2015, she says the best season to watch Gilmore Girls is the summer.
“I’ll admit that something about Gilmore Girls does make it more of a fall/winter show (maybe Lorelai's affinity for snow?) but watching it in the summer is good, too — as long as you know which episodes to marathon first,” she says. “Although a lot of the show is focused on Rory and school, whether it's Chilton or Yale, there are a certain few that are super focused on what Stars Hollow is like in the summer.”
Behold an excerpt of her picks for the best summer-themed Gilmore Girls episodes.
In case you're looking for something to do when you're trying to beat the heat, don't worry. Spending the day inside with Lorelai and Rory is totally acceptable, and these summer-themed Gilmore Girls episodes will prove it.
Don't get me wrong: Summer is my favorite season, and we should all definitely take advantage of it. I love sunshine, swimsuits, and days at the pool. But, the best thing about summer is longer days for which to spend my time on the couch, watching Netflix. In case that applies to you too, these episodes of Gilmore Girls ought to give you the summer experience without ever having to leave the AC again. The dream!
“Sadie, Sadie” (Season 2, Episode 1)
In the Season 2 premiere, summer's just beginning and Lorelai's engaged to Max. Poor Lane is being shipped off to Korea for who knows how long. Lorelai handing out her thousand yellow daisies to everyone in town just screams summer sunshine, and even though their marriage never actually came to be, their engagement party was actually adorable. Have I mentioned I want to live in Stars Hollow in the summer?
“Hammers & Veils” (Season 2, Episode 2)
Season 2 was awesome for summer episodes. Since the season started off in the summer instead of at the beginning of the school year like it normally does, Gilmore Girls gave us a ton of this stuff, and "Hammers & Veils" is one of my favorites. Remember having the total freakout that you're not doing enough to get into the college of your dreams? That's exactly what happens to Rory, so she ends up building houses with Paris at the GG version of Habitat for Humanity. Bless Lorelai and the sparkly hammer she sends with Rory as she hops off to the job site.
“Those Lazy Hazy Crazy Days” (Season 3, Episode 1)
Warning: The song mentioned in the episode title will get in your head when you watch this, but it's totally worth it. This episode is the Season 3 premiere, and Rory is in DC with Paris for a summer program for student government and in limbo about her feelings for Jess. When she gets home, she chooses Dean... but not for long. #TeamJess
“Last Week Fights, This Week Tights” (Season 4, Episode 21)
Is there anything that feels more summery than TJ and Liz's Renaissance-themed wedding? I don't think so. Also amazing: Rory packing to move home from Yale for the summer while also drinking a nondescript alcoholic beverage. We've all been there.
“Raincoats & Recipes” (Season 4, Episode 22)
Not only is the Season 4 finale an awesome summer episode, but it's probably my favorite Gilmore Girls episode of all time. Rory's home for the summer — aka doing laundry and making mac and cheese in the middle of the night because she's still on her finals cramming schedule, something anyone who's ever gone to college totally understands — while Lorelai's prepping the Dragonfly Inn for a test run. And, if you're as obsessed as I am with this show, you already know that Luke and Lorelai kiss for the first time at the end, and you probably freak out every time.
What We’re Reading
Eleni: This Bird Has Flown by Susanna Hoffs
I started reading this book on May 9th. It has been a month and I still have not finished - I have a little under 40 pages left but I’m dragging my feet. Why? WHY!? It has never, ever taken me this long to finish a book.
If the author’s name sounds familiar to you, that’s because Susannah Hoffs is widely known as the lead singer and guitarist of The Bangles. Yes, those Bangles. Normally, when a celebrity writes a novel, I cringe. It’s not fair that they get to publish their garbage while some great works of fiction never get the recognition they deserve. And listen, I’ve read some great novels by celebrities in my day - Lauren Graham’s Someday, Someday, Maybe and David Duchovny’s Bucky F*cking Dent come to mind. But there are also some real monstrosities out there, celebrity novels that didn’t deserve to have all that ink and paper wasted on them (nobody needed your drivel, Tyra Banks).
This book falls somewhere in the middle. The premise was strong, but the execution was lacking. You can always tell when someone is not a fiction writer. Protagonist Jane Start had a big hit 10 years ago but has been scraping by ever since. When her manager flies her to London to get her bearings and maybe start writing again, she meets a cute Oxford professor and starts a whirlwind romance. But not everything is as it seems. And frankly, I don’t care.
Sorry, Susannah! Love your music, though!
Jeffrey: Never Silent: ACT UP and My Life in Activism by Peter Staley
Over on my website, I’m doing a series called Pride Month Reads in which each Friday in June I highlight a queer book I’ve read recently (in the the last year). It prompted me to finally pick this book off my TBR pile since buying it almost a year ago. I’d been aware of ACT UP and their activism during the worst of the AIDS crisis, how they’d fought and advocated for governments to give a damn that entire populations of people were dying from a disease with no cure or effective treatment. But until I read Never Silent, I wasn’t aware that Peter Staley was the instigator behind many of the AIDS protests I’ve read about in my pursuit of queer history in years past.
I can’t recommend Never Silent enough to anyone wanting to learn more not only about the AIDS crisis, but a firsthand account of what it was like on the frontlines of the battle for justice. I found it fascinating to read Staley’s coming-of-age story as a gay man and queer person, in a decade when a vastly misunderstood disease was starting to wipe out an entire generation of gay men. I might be aging myself when I say this, but Staley is only two months older than my own father. I’ve always known AIDS wiped out a whole generation of queer men, but imagining it from the perspective of men my father’s age, men I grew up around, being wiped out by a virus that the government did nothing to stop, was quite profound.
What We’re Watching
Eleni: Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story
Listen, we watch Bridgerton for the plot. And by plot, I mean the sex scenes. And the hot men. And the Victorian declarations of love. This latest installment tells the story of young Princess Charlotte of Prussia and how she came to be the Queen Charlotte of England. Yes, this season also features some hella romantic moments (I’m sure you’ve seen the edits and reels on Instagram by now), but the focus this season is really on the women - their struggles, determination, and endurance. Watching Charlotte go from a meek young girl who doesn’t know her place, to a reigning queen who doesn’t take anyone’s shit, was a marvel.
One of the best parts of watching Bridgerton is picking a favorite classical version of a well-known, modern pop song. In season one, it was “Wildest Dreams” by Taylor Swift, in season two it was “Wrecking Ball” by Miley Cyrus and in this latest season, I can’t decide between “Nobody Gets Me” by SZA or “If I Ain’t Got You” by Alicia Keys (although I’m leaning towards SZA because I’ve been trying to learn this exact same song on the piano for ages). Bridgerton’s music department never lets me down, and the music always fits the mood and makes the scenes ten times better.
I want to give a special shout-out to the casting directors of this television show, Cole Edwards and Kelly Valentine Hendry. They did such an incredible job and we should let them cast everything from now until the world burns.
Eleni: Miss Congeniality
Netflix Canada just added both Miss Congeniality movies and when I tell you I was seated and ready to go… This movie came out in 2000, and like every piece of media that came out at the turn of the century, it has some problematic moments - like not allowing a woman to eat anything but a celery stick for two days while you trash her appearance, poking fun at and enabling eating disorders, and having a male FBI agent slap his colleague’s ass at work. But overall, I think this is a truly kick-ass feminist movie with a great message about never underestimating women and all they can accomplish. Also, I love the chaos of the crowning scene. Watch below:
Side note: I had a huge crush on Ms. Texas when I was young and hated that Gracie had to punch her in the nose. It was for your own good though, Mary-Jo!
Jeffrey: Superstore
![Superstore is radically honest about what it's like to be working class in American. Superstore is radically honest about what it's like to be working class in American.](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa970c7d9-7c61-4870-a68d-55b005b28e4a_780x520.jpeg)
This is my third time watching Superstore and I laugh just as hard as the first time. It’s such a good comfort-food show, especially if you’ve ever worked in retail. People call this show underrated a lot, and it’s worthy of the label. I still kick myself because, back when Superstore premiered in November 2015, another comedy about a telenovela actress starring Eva Longoria premiered on the same night. My dumb gay ass decided to only record Telenovela, which was cancelled after 11 episodes, and not Superstore. I only really got into it during the pandemic when it was added to Netflix Canada, e.g. I was the worst type of viewer, only getting into an already underrated show once it appeared on Netflix. Nevertheless, it’s worth the watch if you’re a fan of sitcoms like New Girl, The Office, or Modern Family. Also, the more I watch Superstore, the more I’m in awe of how well they both addressed and portrayed such key sociopolitical issues of the late 2010s through the lens of an intensely capitalistic American big box store. Truly genius television.
Jeffrey: Bridge to Terabithia
I don’t know exactly why, but this movie had been on my mind a lot over the last few months. I love being outside of the house and seeing or hearing something that reminds me of a song or a movie, and then coming home and watching that movie because I haven’t seen it in a while. I guess I’m officially old, because watching Bridge to Terabithia last night made me SO nostalgic. I saw this in the theatre when I was in elementary school and my mom was bawling. I read the book soon thereafter. And last night I was crying big baby tears, over a movie. Maybe it’s because my history of childhood grief and trauma has been on my mind a bit more lately, but I can say it’s nice to reach an age where you can watch a movie intended for a younger audience and think to yourself, “Wow, this is getting so many things right.” Also, elementary-school Jeffrey had such a crush on Josh Hutcherson. He didn’t know how to articulate it then, he just called him his favorite actor and pasted a picture of him on his school schedule in his sixth-grade locker. Totally a common thing for boys to do at that age.
What We’re Listening To
Eleni: Pride Party
Hi, Gay! It’s June, people. So that means we’re waving our rainbow flags, shaking our asses to some sick beats and celebrating the queers! No matter which music streaming service you subscribe to, you’re sure to find some truly exceptional pride playlists featuring the old and the new, from queer artists and allies alike. This pride month, remember to live your lives loud and proud. Fuck the haters!
Jeffrey: The Complete Grey’s Anatomy Soundtrack
How do I know I’m a depressed ass bitch? 6+ months after watching 18 seasons of Grey’s Anatomy in less than a year, I thought, “Hey, let’s track down every song that’s ever been on the show and compile it into one giant Spotify playlist.” It’s nowhere near done, but join me, why don’t you?
Hot Topics
We’ve decided to retire the “Twitter Highlights” section because Elon Musk is an unseasoned chicken breast who won’t let us embed tweets in Substack anymore, and it’s very annoying pasting screenshots. So, we’re repurposing it into Hot Topics, in which Eleni and I take turns debriefing a hot topic in the news or pop culture as of late. Also known as something we like to spend the first few minutes of our podcast episodes discussing, even if they have nothing to do with Gilmore Girls. Sometimes a girl has to get things off her chest, OK?
As such, on this week’s episode of the podcast, we briefly discuss my thoughts on the live-action adaptation of The Little Mermaid. I didn’t like it, and you can read more of what I thought here. But we touched on the issues of racism surrounding the casting of a Black actress to play mermaids. “Mermaids aren’t supposed to be Black!” Mermaids aren’t supposed to exist, Melissa. It’s an annoying conversation that’s been going on since Halle Bailey was cast in the role of Ariel in 2019.
But I brought it up because I wanted to get Eleni’s take on the phenomenon of the politicization of this kind of representation in which the art takes a backseat to the act of casting a Black actress as a Disney princess, who are very mostly white. We both agree that it’s phenomenal that young Black girls will get to see themselves represented in a Disney movie, something legions of girls from previous generations didn’t have. But there’s still something to be said for the ways in which the live-action adaptation so deeply missed the mark. Read my review and let us know what you think!