Lessons from Lorelai & Rory

Once we got Netflix this  fall, a friend immediately suggested I should watch a show called Gilmore Girls.  I hadn't heard of this show before.  It began on TV in about 2000 and ran for 7 seasons.  It is a story of Lorelai, an independent, single mother and her brilliant, Ivy League-determined daughter, Rory, as they navigate the social world of their small town, the mine-field laden extended family, romantic relationships and the world in general as they both grew up.  From my friend's description I figured I would likely enjoy it.

Likely is hardly the right word.  With Netlix, there are no commercials, so the hour long show on TV is whittled down to about 40 minutes.  This shortened length makes it easier to "binge watch" several episodes in a sitting.  Consequently I devoured this little critically acclaimed show that I had never head of before. 

I finished the final episode last night.  My dear friend who suggested it didn't take into account the fact that I just sent my only daughter off into the world.  The finally episode was essentially a send of for Rory as she graduated from Yale and headed into the "real" world.  Heart breaking for this mom.  It certainly made my heart ache for my own girl.  And yet, for all of the twists and turns Rory and her mom, Lorelai, face as she nears that precipice of adulthood I was overwhelmed with the peace that came from knowing MY daughter had the gospel of Jesus Christ to guide her in her decisions, she has the Holy Ghost to guide her, and she had a desire to do what God wants her to do.  Her life will never be as uncertain as Rory's...and her choices will be significantly more moral than most of Rory's or Lorelai's.

Still, entertainment isn't always a morality tale.  But we can learn from fictitious story lines.  We can extrapolate actual truths from the virtual choices facing the characters. And we can see consequences of choices made in a back believe situation that might give example without having to make the same choices ourselves.

I crammed 7 seasons of this show into about 3 months of TV watching, without having to watch network or cable  or satellite TV.  While I enjoyed the characters I was introduced to in this show, I am grateful I have a better actual set of co-stars and secondary characters in my life.  My choices may not make much of a screen play, but I recognize the joy I find from doing what is right.  I have seen struggles offer many lessons and the outcome of strength and peace that comes from bearing the struggles.

But that doesn't keep me from thinking I live in a western Stars Hollow at some times too. 

A New Favorite Thing

I don't watch much TV anymore, unless it is PBS--but even then is kind of "catch as catch can".  We have no satellite or cable and no DVR.  The Girl did leave her Netflix account logged in on the XBox here but I can't figure out how to use those stupid controllers.  It's like having a "mom-lock" built in.

But last night Genius Golfer shared a show that he likes and somehow records on his computer through the Xbox--again with the mom-lock.  Why have we never watched this before?

Yes, there is some yelling, and some name calling at times--but it is milder than the high school. And because it is set int he 80s, there are all sorts of pop culture droppings to make me giggle.

Last night we watch The Goldbergs.  A Cosby show of sort for the Jewish community?  No not really, but a family sit-com nonetheless.  I don't know what made me laugh so hard last night--beside the fact that the dad on the show enjoys the fact that he has no friends--as does Genius Golfer.  The mom is a little too involved in their kids' lives--sort of like here.  And the kids are great, just like here.  Except for Barry.  We don't have a Barry. And that is probably a good thing.

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

Last night the kids and I watched this week's episode of Glee.  Up to now we have been faithful watchers of this usually clever, musical show where the "outcast" kids gather into the show choir family and find acceptance.

I believe the three of us have come to the conclusion, it is not the show for us anymore.

This week the questionable stuff that has been building gradually finally reached a tipping point for me.  We enjoy the music a lot--in fact, The Girl seems to prefer the soundtrack numbers to regular radio, which might actually be a good thing--have you listened to regular radio lately?  But the discussion and wishful activities of the otherwise sweet, gay character Kurt were up front and personal again.  Two cheer leading skankalicious Glee club girls were shown in an active make out scene on a bed.  One of the same skankalicious girls slept with the wheelchair boy who was trying to forget his other crush.  And the current "It Couple" sang a duet with seriously creepy sexual overtones. And this all followed last week's episode where the It Boy, Finn, discovered Jesus' face on his grilled cheese sandwich and believed it was the source of prayer and power for him; and, Kurt flatly refuted the idea that there is a God and angrily tossed out his friends' spiritual efforts on behalf of his sick dad.

I have had enough.

Early in the show, I used the gay-themed story line to talk to my kids about understanding differences in the society they live.  Then, I used the teen-pregnancy story line to talk about the choice and consequences of living a moral, sexually-pure life.  We talked about the Glee Diva Girl who discovered her birth mom, and discussed how families don't always look like ours and the importance of honesty in our relationships.  We used the teacher, his crazy-not-quite-ex-wife and the school counselor love triangle to talk about the contrasting healthy, honest, cooperative partnerships preferable in marriage.

At first I tried to use the thematic elements to talk with my own kids about what I believe and what our values are as a family.  I am not so naive as to think that they will never experience things that are portrayed on the show.  If anything, I am cynical enough to think they certainly will, and yet still hopeful they will have the foundations of faith and strength of character to behave in accordance to what I have taught them and what they have found to be true for themselves.

But the past few episodes make that ideal feel unattainable.  I feel like I am pushing my family's morality, like a boulder, up a hill on a gravely path.  It is getting to be a slippery slope, and the emotional well-being of my kids (and my own too, for that matter) are on the line.  It is too serious not to take a stand--at least at our house. 

I had them shut off the TV after the episode finished and told them, I think we need to seriously think about the way this show made them feel while they watched it.  Would they still watch it if Jesus sat in the recliner next to them?  I asked them to think about it overnight and we'd talk about what we should do this morning.

This morning they chose to shut it off.

After their decisions, I told them now that as we are deciding NOT to watch the show anymore, the next few episodes will most likely be completely cute, and clean, and honorable.  That is just how things seem to go sometimes.  But contrary to the popular idea at the moment, we are saying good bye to fictional McKinley High School Glee Club and will discover something else that will lift and inspire and encourage the values we have as a family.  They agreed, with smiles on their faces.

Shaun the Sheep is still another favorite. Maybe we could go back to that.

Critic's Corner

I have made a couple of recent forays into the entertainment world that I would like to share.

Movie Review
We rented "Julie & Julia" at the magic RedBox. Amy Adams and Meryl Streep star as, respectively, Julie Powell--a woman who cooks her way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking and then wrote about her experience in her blog--and Julia Child who wrote the cookbook Julie follows.

I loved this movie. These two women lived vastly different lives, yet both were affected by food and the enjoyment they found in cooking. I enjoyed watching Julie fritter around trying to find something to fill the personal void she felt from a job where she found no joy. She struggled, like we all sometimes do, with the relationship she has with her husband and finding a balance between her home life, her work life, and her friend's lives.

Julia was fascinating. I learned things about her I never knew. In fact, there were few things I knew of her personal life beyond the PBS cooking show and the parodies of that show on Saturday Night Live while I was growing up. She is a interesting lady who led an interesting life.

Watching this made me curious about the cookbook Julia wrote. Though not enough to purchase one, and certainly not enough to cook like that cookbook would require, but it was a little spark of curiosity.

One caveat: There was one F-bomb that was totally out of place and really, rather shocking, but otherwise the language was not offensive.

TV Review
The first episode of Return to Cranford aired on Masterpiece Classic on Sunday night. I watched it Monday as I folded laundry. Before we reached the halfway point of this first episode, I was loving it. I thoroughly enjoyed the original Cranford miniseries aired last year on Masterpiece. And this was a lovely reminder of that. The stellar British cast is just tremendous to watch. The story unfolds at a rural, 19th century pace. The interaction between neighbors and friends is the focus of this story. The women of this village are charming and overall they make me wish I could live there--at least, for a little while. Seeing this kind of entertainment makes me hopeful that there is still a place for quality programming on TV, even if it is only found on public television.

I can't wait to see the next two episodes, and have already put this DVD set on my wish list.

The Switch is ON?

Remember all the hoopla just after Christmas when every time you turned on the TV or listened to the radio there were terrible warnings of the February deadline that analog signal for television would become digital?

Remember when that date came and the FCC or whomever is in charge of this silly thing said "Oops, our bad! Too many of you are not using your $40 government coupon to purchase a converter box, so we are going to postpone the switch."

Well, my friends, today is the deadline, again. Last night of the local news there was another story about the "day the TVs of America went dead". Poppycock, I say.

Did they ever think that people were hoping for the switch so they couldn't get TV signals anymore? There is really nothing good on TV these days--mostly trash, violence, salacious voyeurism, and infomercials. Who needs that?

Anything that IS good--say, like the Jane Austen or Charles Dickens classics made for PBS or by the BBC, will be available for sale on DVD in a few week anyways. (And if you didn't get to watch TV anymore, you wouldn't have to wait until the PBS pledge drive.)

I would bet no one thought of this option. But it is an option I would prefer, if Genius Golfer wasn't a bit of a Gadget Guy and already upgraded our family TVs a few years ago.

So, if your set goes dead today, and that bothers you, come on over. We will still be watching trash here. Dang it.