Stumbled onto the Crimes of Rowling

MAJOR SPOILER WARNING. Spoiler-free review: Forecast is not good.

If it is not already obvious, I am a huge Harry Potter fan, however, I was never a big fan of the movies. Then Fantastic Beasts came along, where Rowling wrote the screenplay and we met up with new lead characters, new settings and little ties to the Harry Potter franchise other than Grindelwald and Scamander, two names mentioned in passing. I was revived! It was beautiful; Rowling’s sensitive, humorous writing shined through and the plot was simple, shifting the focus on these very, very likeable characters. At the very last frame, though, we get our first unnecessary twist, the already bad guy was the worse guy in disguise played by the even worse Johnny Depp. That was a bit alarming, but I had no reason to suspect Crimes of Grindelwald would be the mess it was.

I am always one for saying good things first, not because I want to positively prime the reader but to get it over with and to move on to the fun stuff. The CGI was amazing, the beasts were adorable and I am sure they will sell well as merchandise (see how my bitter tone lurks between the words). The direction was by David Yates who directed many of the Harry Potter films and it was as you may remember from these aforementioned films, adequate. ‘T was ok. We are not getting another Alfonso Cuaron, David Yates will do. The acting was obviously good, I mean the lead actor has an Oscar. I have a personal thing; I don’t like Johnny Depp in most current movies, so I was against his casting prior to the wife-beating accusations. Dialogues were not cheesy, apart from that Bogart turning into a desk to signify Newt’s adventurous personality. And again, that warmth that always features in Rowling’s writing was there… at times. The best thing for me were some of the characters; she obviously likes Newt, Jacob and Dumbledore and they are then wonderfully written. And that is how you can tell she likes them. Because everyone else either gets no character development (Tina), gets a stupid character development (Quin) or vaguely gets a character (Credence). I will however say a big thank you to whoever cast Jude Law. Just, thank you. And thank you to the costume designer for putting him in a three piece suit. Just, thank you.

So that is a number of good points and it might be starting to feel like I was too negative for no apparent reason. But when the direction is merely a vehicle for the plot to show, if that plot is dumb then the movie is dumb. And the movie was dumb.

I will briefly mention the thing that has enraged the internet; McGonagall was not born in the year of the movie, ESPECIALLY not during the flashback. Her cameo was a disgrace. Moving on. Nicholas Flamel had little to no purpose in this film other than us going ‘Oh, from the Philosopher, oh, there it is! Oh, stone you do not know what’s coming for you in 70 years time’. Nagini had no purpose in this film and, frankly, I think she was doing okay as a snake. Let’s consider the plot and please keep in mind that this is the ACTUAL PLOT of this NON-FAN FICTION, NON-SOAP OPERA film. The movie begins with Newt banned from travel, which is completely irrelevant as he does travel and the illegal aspect of it plays absolutely no role to the plot. The movie then continues with everyone chasing after Credence, aka Dr. Drake Ramoray, looking for his mum who dropped him at a hostile orphanage, but instead finds his nanny who is immediately murdered, meets a potential sister and a potential murderous half-brother, gets recruited by the villain but ends up being his arch nemesis’s younger brother (or half-brother). Then we meet a childhood friend who has a crush on Newt but is marrying his brother, but then she sort of murdered a baby all those years ago but then she pointlessly sacrifices herself. Then we meet Tina, who Newt likes, but she doesn’t like Newt because typos. And during this whole ordeal we are dealing with bleached Johnny Depp who has a wonky, evil eye, just in case it is not ABSOLUTELY clear he is the villain. In their defence, Depp has not been good in a movie in a while, so they couldn’t risk making it subtle.

And finally, the two things that bothered me the most and I would really like to know if others felt the same way. First, it is an inevitable issue that Grindelwald appears a much bigger threat than Voldemort, which from what I understand should not be the case. Grindelwald, again as I understand it, was the worst thing to have happened until Voldemort and they could say his name just fine, so he must have been at least a little bit better. As these movies are created after the Harry Potter franchise, I get it, they need to up their game in order to entertain viewers, but for me it is off putting at every turn. Secondly and most importantly, these movies have opened up the magic world to include other countries, another continent; shouldn’t they include different characters? Is it not a bit too much of ‘Days of our lives’ that Grindelwald is chasing Credence who might be Leda Lestrange’s long lost brother, but really is the long-lost brother of Dumbledore, who is Grindelwald’s adolescent flame? For the life of me, I do not understand how the wizarding world got opened up and we are still dealing with the same wizarding families that feature in an England based book series. Why did we need a Lestrange in this movie?

I do not know why this happened. Rowling is a freaking billionaire so part of me refuses to acknowledge that this is probably just a cheap play for cash because, as I said, she is a freaking billionaire! But this was just a soap opera with some cute Nifflers running around and aimless shots of nostalgia fired at all of us who loved the well thought out Harry Potter details. Things were so thought out in the Harry Potter seven-book series that at some point, when Harry is presumed dead, he is delivered back by Hagrid, just as he was as a child when he escaped death and was delivered to his aunt and uncle. And that was such a tiny detail holding such weight and emotionality. And in this storyline we got McGonagall shown as a Hogwarts teacher years before she would be born. There is a feeling that Rowling is trying to appeal to the fans with all these Easter Eggs referring to the well-loved franchise but I think most of us feel cheated and as if we are watching fan fiction barely better that that featured in ‘Harry Potter: Origin of the Heir’ (check it out with alcohol).

There are so many more issues which you can find online. I personally found Screen Rant’s ‘Crimes of Grindelwald Pitch Meeting’ as the best and funniest video and some of my points are so much better shown there, I do not risk plagiarism. What I think happened, is Rowling got herself a good old case of GerogeLucas-itis (trademark) and the prequels we all begged her for on Twitter might suffer the same fate as Anakin Skywalker; no leg to stand on (I tried not to type it, I swear. But I did laugh a little bit when I thought of it).

Stumbled onto Venom

                                                       

Venom had been an emotional roller coaster for me prior to its release. I was initially excited because Tom Hardy, I was then skeptical as it would be separate from the Spiderverse (not sure if I am using the term correctly), then disappointed at the trailer which looked generic and boring for 2018 superhero standards and ultimately disinterested as bad reviews came roaming in. However, there was a free Venom ticket with my name on it so I did go see it and I am glad I did.

I would like to make one thing clear; the critics were right. I am aware of this new trend to discredit critics because they are overly critical (?), they don’t reflect the audience views and have it out for mainstream movies. But their work is to assess a movie compared to its peers, in this case the MCU and DCEU, and put all this movie-watching experience they have to some use. Of course people would go see Venom; it starred Tom Hardy, it is a popular character, there was plenty of pop culture controversy and Eminem did a Jimmy Kimmel segment in the Empire State building for the soundtrack. That does not mean it is a good movie. The visuals were unacceptable for 2018, the dialogues were so cheesy it made the visuals look good and the plot was poor too. And, unpopular opinion, Eminem’s song was also unacceptable, cheesy and poor.

So, the critics were right. But the audience was right too. Because I had fun. It was not a good movie but it had tons of potential. The moments between Venom and Eddie Brock were so fucking enjoyable, I didn’t care about any of it. They were hilarious, they made sense, they were well acted out by Hardy and did I mention they were hilarious? I walked out of that movie thinking the critics were objectively right, but I can’t wait for the next one! I read the term ‘buddy comedy’ somewhere and I think that is appropriate. Also, while I know many didn’t think much of Riz Ahmed’s limited performance but personally I think kudos are in order for Ahmed, who had the coldest, most villainous, detached reactions in this movie, I very much enjoyed him as the Elon Musk-esque bad guy.

So yeah, it was a messy, messy movie and perhaps it was enjoyable for all the wrong reasons; many claim that the funny moments were unintentional considering how unintelligent the rest of the plot was. But I am a bit more optimistic, I think it is a work in the making and that the next one will be as fun but better and the one after that will be even more fun and even better. And there is something about not having your typical, fine-tuned superhero movie that appealed to my nerdy side; of course it is silly and stupid and badly made but you love it like the nerd you are. Plus, Tom Hardy. I’ve watched him drive for one and a half hours and it was fantastic.

Stumbled onto tasty, tasty bacon (Vegan week OVER)

I have to admit that I get vegans. I think they are in the right and everyone who is trying to counterweight their arguments while living and feasting in a western culture is wrong. Having said that, I could never be one because I am a selfish person who likes cheese-based food too much and bacon-based food enough to refuse to give it up. This, I guess, makes me the worst kind of carnivore; the one that would ethically agree with vegans but then ignore the ‘murdering-animals-for-bacon’ bit because it’s tasty. You can see a pattern forming here, a bacon pattern. Having said that, I do actively try to lessen my meat consumption and for about a week per year, this week, I try to eliminate my animal product consumption. Including cheese. And bacon.

Day 1:    Day one is exciting because you get to buy stuff. Shopping at the supermarket counts as shopping. The plan is to make a large pot of butternut squash soup to eat for about three-four days because eating vegan from outside is expensive and I need to keep the rest of my day’s pace quick so I don’t get distracted by the fact that I can’t eat all of the things I love. Good soup though.

Day 2:    Soup is also good when cold! Doesn’t keep you not hungry for long though… This is why you snack! Snacks don’t keep you not hungry for long though… This is why you nap! Add an Avocado and hummus sandwich to the mix and all is good. And then have your housemate eat the same thing plus halloumi cheese just to rub it in your face. The bastard.

Day 3:    Good day! Falafel box! If you’re not eating cheese and you are not eating eegs and you’re not eating chocolate (side note: dark chocolate is what I imagine biting into your toe tastes like), you can at least eat fried stuff! I think this could potentially work.

Day 4:    Back to soup. And cucumber sticks with hummus. Day four was long and painful. I stole my housemate’s leftover pasta which was plain, but may have had butter. I will believe it did not and that butter-less pasta tastes amazing! No, this does not count as a failure.

Day 5:    Have you ever wondered what pasta Napolitan tastes like without cheese? Me neither. Not worth it.

Day 6:    Okay, vegans have won this battle. Vegan pancakes are actually very tasty! And as long as maple syrup is made from trees, this is something I can get behind! Note to self: should check if the rest of that soup is still edible.

Day 7:    It’s fine! I mean it is the same soup for the fourth day in the same week so I hate it by now, but no micro-organisms have colonised my soup. Also, olive paste is vegan so that was a nice addition to my day. But the best addition to my day? Tomorrow I am eating a juicy, bacon burger with Parmesan fries and milk chocolate. The milk chocolate will be eaten separately.

Honestly, it was fine. I did sniff my housemate’s chocolate bar a couple of times, but who hasn’t? Maybe I left the room when he made a cheese toastie but like, once. Admittedly, all of the food was tasty, a lot of it was filling (the falafel box was the champion, I even had to split in two meals) and I got to experiment with something other than pasta carbonara recipes. I am still convinced that cheese is essential to my survival and I am aware that this is a minor achievement (it was only seven days) but bear in mind that I really love cheese. People bring me cheese as a gift. I am not exaggerating. It happens a lot! From different people! Anyways, i learnt of new meals I can incorporate into my diet, it was a fun challenge and for me the reward was bacon. Oh, the irony.

Stumbled onto James Gunn’s firing

Things were going all too well in the superhero-verse leading to multiple posts about things that bother me in everyday life rather than good old superficial interests. But then Disney decided to go and stir it up a bit by firing the man that shaped the MCU’s cheery, fun and popular style. Good job Disney! Next step is hiring Zack Snyder so we can see how many shades of grey can fit in a single frame.

You may have noticed that none of the above address the reason he was fired or are legitimate counter-arguments to why his was fired. What if he beat up a cameraman? What if he groped Zoe Saldana? What if he is just using these movies for money laundering? The last one could still be true... Anyway, James Gunn was fired because ten years ago he posted some shocking tweets. Let me repeat that. He was fired in 2018, for tweeting some shocking tweets around 2008 with comedic intension. Let me give you some examples;

 ‘The best thing about being raped is when you’re done being raped and it’s like, “whew this feels great, not being raped!’ and

‘ RT @peteralton I like it when little boys touch me on my silly place. Shhh!’.

Regarding the second one, it is a fake retweet from someone else, ‘framing’ them for paedophilia. I will be honest, some of them were a bit hard to read, partly because of the shock factor, mostly because of the unfunny factor. But how can we distinguish the fact that they were written out for comedic purposes rather than actual paedophilic tendencies? Simple! Those were publicly available for ten years and no one is investigating or even suspecting James Gunn of being a paedophile. That means that regardless of how these were portrayed by the questionable, conservative news sites, somehow, our brains do not flounder with feelings of caution. No one fired Gunn because they suspect him of behaving in this disgusting manner; there is no lawsuit, there are no #MeToo accusations. Is Disney serious? Have they not heard of Frankie Boyle? Jokes are limitless; these were just not funny but I never heard anything about Jimmy Fallon being fired for not being funny. Although I would love to.

But what about Roseanne Barr? She was fired from her show after some offensive tweets she made. Why are we fighting back for liberal James when we were behind the decision for this Trump supporter to be fired? Let me just paste the tweet here:

‘@MARS0411 @385parkplace and @SGTreport Muslim brotherhood and planet of the apes had a baby=vj’

VJ refers to former Obama advisor, Valerie Jarrett. She was fired from her show after this tweet and people are now drawing a parallel between these two situations. Let me explain why these two are oblique rather than parallel. While one could argue that Roseanne is a comedienne and therefore her intention could have also been comedic, this is a racist tweet by a racist person. If Kevin Spacey posted a tweet about lying on top of a fourteen year-old while he was unconscious, that would justifiably make guts turn. Moreover, Roseanne Barr attacked an individual with this racist comment, while Peter Alton (second tweet) has worked with James Gunn and was pseudo-attacked, again, for comedic purposes. How do we know he did not mind? IT HAS BEEN 10 FUCKING YEARS; if he minded he would have seen the tweet and replied, complained, trashed Gunn’s car. This is an assumption, but I think Alton minded Gunn’s tweet less than Jarrett minded Roseanne’s. Lastly, and this is my second weakest argument, Gunn’s tweets were 10 years ago, when we were not aware creeps freely wandered around Hollywood, whereas we are now perfectly aware that the US is currently suffering from a right-wing, racist, extremist outburst. In other words, I do not think Disney worried that Gunn was giving paedophiles ground; I cannot say the same for ABC.

Do you want to hear my weakest argument? I think James Gunn is a decent human being that has created something wonderful and I believe he would again; underlining the decent human being part. When serious, he is speaking out for things completely opposite to his poor, but still comedic-intended statements and if we judge him for his years working for the company that fired him, he has displayed nothing but appropriateness. So he is well fitted for this zero-tolerance era, he wasn’t then, but it also wasn’t that sort of era. It is like people complaining that Friends was homophobic because Chandler judged his father for being trans, in the year 2000.

Lastly, I realise that there is a distinction between offensive jokes and work-appropriate ones, and once you decide to make these public you are up for related ramifications; someone could be fired from a corporate position from ever being associated with such statements regardless of their comedic intent. But this is a writer. This is a comedic writer (let’s be honest, the Guardians of the Galaxy instalments have been more comedy than action). Do the same rules apply? Because I then want E. L. James banned from bookshops for sexually inappropriate commentary. I am actually ok with that.

Stumbled onto a friendly London Bus driver

Again, with the non-pop culture related posts! When is this going to stop! I’ll be back on DC’s case soon enough, but for the time being they seem to be quiet and contemplating their idiotic choices, so we are letting them do that and see if they can make a Deadpool out of a Green Lantern. Very unfortunate that the bad movie in this analogy is DC and the good one is Marvel, I promise it was not intentional. Well, not completely intentional. I didn’t wake up thinking up a connection between DC and Marvel in the form of Ryan Reynolds. You know what? I will switch sides! “I’ll be back on DC’s case… idiotic choices… and see if they can make a Bruce Wayne out of a Matt Murdock”.

So this is going to be another post about nothing to do with superheroes, wizards, TV series or anything remotely of interest to me. It is going to be about transportation. Public transportation. British public transportation. Let me start by saying that I came back from Nepal, where any form of transport is a risk for your well-being. I think the whole ‘you are more likely to die in a car crash than a plane’ would be very different if Nepal was excluded from this statistical analysis. Seriously, the only adhered law in Kathmandu is that if a cow decides to sleep in the middle of the road, cars have to quietly make a detour, which I think should be a law everywhere. So upon my return to civilised driving, I believed that nothing could ever again bother me on the road. But I had, of course, forgotten about the London Bus drivers. They clearly feed on our misfortune; I know everyone has at least one story of the bus door shutting in their panting, sweaty faces and the bus driver menacingly smiling and waving goodbye. Those are the moments they live for, I am sure of it. In their defence, if I was a bus driver I would probably do that at least once a week.  Or at least once for any passenger who could not spare a semi second to smile back. A wild GUILT has appeared while writing this post.

My recent experience involved one of those drivers, but a morally indecisive one; for the sake of the narrative, let’s call him Chidi. So Chidi stopped at my bus stop where I and another lady in front of me wished to get on the bus. It must have been Chidi’s first day on the job and they must have left out the ‘more than one people may get on the bus at each stop’ lesson. Granted the lady in front of me was tall, let’s call her Tahani, and I am very short, so maybe Chidi simply did not see me, but Tahani barely made it inside which makes me think maybe another bus howled and ours was rushing to its aid, or however buses work. As you do in these cases, I kindly knocked on the door, suggesting that we put all this behind us and I get on the bus and get home to all that pop-culture I am leaving out of this post. Chidi was not happy! He frowned, he huffed, he almost banged his hand on the wheel, but ultimately decided to let me in. And then it happened. The indecisiveness. From what I gather, midway my entering the bus, Chidi decided he didn’t want me there! Chidi sped off before all of me was inside the bus premises and I had to practise my long-forgotten, basic ballet skills. And then the driving began. I felt so much sympathy for everyone in the set of ‘Speed’. I know this is the go-to movie for anyone describing an insane bus driver, but there is a reason for it! There is a limited amount of action movies starring buses. I would look around and I could see the shared fear, the certainty of death before us! And just like any good psychological thriller, Chidi, the villain in this case, was softly but very distinctly humming a melody which to me sounded like ‘Requiem for a Dream’. I might be making that last bit up. I don’t know what he was humming. But I feel it could have been ‘Requiem for a Dream’.

Nonetheless, I am alive and well and very much able to celebrate Jake Gyllenhal being discussed as the next Spiderman villain (which means they might keep Battfleck for a while longer). I am, therefore, going to end this post on a positive note; I have not yet died on a London bus and intend to make more meaningful posts in the future.

Stumbled on to… the flu

So of course, this is not the end of the world and in fairness I have only been sick for two days; I really should not be this frustrated. But I want to give the common cold the attention it deserves. For too long people have been dealing with real health problems and ignored the anguish of having the opportunity to watch Conan O’Brien videos for a whole day but instead getting a headache half across the first clip. It is not fair. So I thought I could come up with some ground rules, some terms of agreement with simple viruses, such as the flu. Now if the rest of the viruses would like to follow, they are more than welcome.

Quantifiable symptoms

I hate getting a fever as much as the next person, but it is a necessary evil; if I am sick and do not have a fever, I will neither be excused nor cared for. Take my current state as an example, my flesh hurts, I have a headache from the simple act of typing this, but I just Skyped my mother and apparently I am fine and lazy. Which, you know, is generally true, but still! I demand that when I feel like crap I have a temperature of 37^oC minimum so I can at least get some sympathy from all those non-believers. Fever gets much attention; you have medicine for fever, measuring instruments, one Black Keys song, I could go on. People trust fever, therefore I trust fever and accept to endure it as a means to an end; the end being lying in bed all day.

Retaining of appetite

I try to diet every day of my life with little to no success and, surprise, the only time I do not have an appetite is when I need food in order to get drugged up. Also, when one is sick, one stays in the house all day doing nothing, which is the best time for one to eat food, just to relieve some of one’s boredom! Yet one does not want to! This is so counter-productive. And then when I will be healthy again (by now I have a fever, so I can formally complain) and need to get things done and I know I will get distracted by creamy mushroom daydreams. And cheese. And milk chocolate digestives. I think my appetite might be back.

Alignment with a new TV series

I assume these are starting to sound ridiculous, but again, I am discussing the more trivial sickness of the spectrum, so my demands are corresponding.  Problem is I got sick just as I finished up Luther. I was so obsessed with Luther, I did some rearranging of my sleeping, work and socialising patterns and got through the whole series in seven days. I got sick on the seventh day, with one episode left. Such a waste of an opportunity. Had I known, I would have just started Luther one week later. I have been late to this police-drama party for eight years, I could stand another seven days! And now I have been sick for one Luther-less day and I cannot think of what else to watch because Idris Elba has only appeared in so many TV series and I have seen them all! And the decision-making process of starting a new series makes me shiver. Or it might be my fever going up, cannot be sure. I haven’t worked out the details of how this would work, but the virus should only present itself if confident that passive entertainment in the form of television is available.

And last but not least, something needs to be done about that blocked nose/sore throat situation

I would like to end this post by asking the flu to pick one or the other because the combination leads to a never-ending cycle, which frankly is pissing me off! It all starts with a blocked nose; the one that gives you that attractive, husky voice, which goes to complete waste considering you are surrounded by used up tissues. You proceed to sleep, but of course the blocked nose dictates sleeping with your mouth open, exposing your sore throat to further sore-ness. The worse your throat is the worse your nose gets and of course sleeping, which is the only thing you can do when sick, gets interrupted by either inability to inhale or coughing. It is a vicious cycle that keeps the symptoms going forever. So my counter-offer is choose one, nose or throat, go to town with it and maybe we will consider willingly nursing you for a while longer without complaints.

Why this pop culture-deficient post, you ask? Well, I am bored, I do not have a TV series to watch and cannot eat crappy food. Perhaps inspiration will return once this cold wears off. Until then, have this beautiful mucus infused picture to keep you company.

Stumbled on to something Marvelous (finally)

I am so happy to write about something I loved rather than a stupid comic book adaptation franchise who continues to make one stupid decision after the other and is still going forward with replacing one of unexpectedly good casting decisions, even though my blog specifically told them not to. And they always find a way to sneak into my new entries in the form of unnecessarily long sentences. I will stop now. And begin this topic. No more DC dissing.

I will begin with a huge thank you to Amy Sherman-Palladino, for never letting me down. I have been a Gilmore Girls fan since forever and when I heard a new Sherman-Palladino series was happening I could not help but be thrilled. And then I found out it was an Amazon production, which meant good budget and some of those swear words you always felt Lorelei would use but somehow didn’t. And I was right! Beautiful characters, beautiful setting and most importantly, those Amy Sherman-Palladino dialogues. I could listen to her witty, never-ending sentences for hours and I wouldn’t even care what the topic was. Honestly, between Midge (the marvelous Mrs. Maisel) talking about brisket and a doctor talking about my urgent blood test results, I would take the brisket.

And what an empowering series for women! I know feminism is finally a thing in Hollywood, but I just think this is how it should be done. New characters, with original storylines, drawing influences from female comediennes who were renegades amongst a male-dominated profession. Yes, I think it should be that specific. Re-boots are okay and so is giving Kristen Wiig diarrhoea while in a puffy dress, but this is just so much better. The main character is a beautiful, feminine woman who is also smart, strong-minded, competent, funny and pissed off. This is the empowering bit. But there is another bit there; the realistic bit about why gender inequality sucked and sucks. She is also a wife that had to down-play her wit to protect her husband’s ego. She is also insecure about her looks, even though she is gorgeous, because a woman with personality does not measure up to a thin and proportionate woman. Okay, it is set in 1958, but is this not some of the oppression that lingers on? And isn’t it beautiful to show that behind a seemingly mainstream, pretty, pleasant woman there is brains and madness? I think it is.

So Lorelei 2.0 is a great character and Rachel Brosnahan, who portrays her, is a good lead. It is not just her though; just like Gilmore Girls, all the surrounding characters are an absolute joy. This is perhaps the least realistic depiction of society, the one in Amy Sherman-Palladino’s world. Everyone is funny, everyone is smart and everyone is enjoyable. I am fine with watching a spin-off series with Drina Romanoff, the fortune teller, THAT is how good all the supporting characters are. And you have got to love Tony Shalhoub, any scene he is in is the best and I am now obviously watching all of ‘Monk’ just to get more of him.

I started the previous paragraph with a subtle hint of judgement, the Lorelei 2.0 comment. It is true, the characters, the relationships, the pace, the dialogues are all very similar to Gilmore Girls, but is there anyone who minds? Lorelei (now Midge) was a terrific character, Richard and Emily Gilmore (now the Weissmans) were lovable in all their oppressive parenting glory, Sookie (now Imogene) was a loyal friend and Chris (now Joel) was a jerk but no one really hated him, did they? So yeah, it is all very familiar, I mean Alex Borstein is in both, but it is just that good. And the story line is just that good.  It doesn’t matter that it is familiar, it is familiar for all the right reasons.

And I just want to say this. I know a lot of men have missed out on Gilmore Girls because at a first glance it looks like a family drama aimed towards girls. I know some guys possibly felt ashamed to engage in the mother-daughter drama. Well, if you need an excuse to watch this one, so you do not miss out on another Sherman-Palladino series, Rachel Brosnahan flashes a comedy club. Feel free to say you watch it for the nudity and actually watch it for the words.