Wednesday, June 21, 2006
The small-town myth
So I've been getting into Gilmore Girls lately, despite some very vocal objections I have made in the past in regard to Alexis Bledel and her general acting ability. (Although watching Season 1 has led me to believe that Alexis has in fact gotten worse as an actress as the show has progressed, and that the show itself may be to blame for this. But I'm sure we'll get into that theory another time.)
Watching shows set in small towns is always a little uncomfortable for me, either because the small-town atmosphere is portrayed either completely unrealistically or a little too realistically for my taste. Most of the time, it's the former. With Gilmore Girls, it's a little of both.
I think the show does an excellent job of demonstrating how everyone in a small town is constantly up in each other's business, and how annoying/frustrating that can be, especially when you're a teenager. Where it breaks down, though, is where most small towns on TV do: They overload on the quaintness.
If television is to be believed, all small towns are tightly knit, loving communities just brimming with cool, hip things to do. Why, just the number of restaurants in Stars Hollow alone, to say nothing of their apparent quality, is astounding to me. Following Rory and Lorelai through one of their strolls about town reveals that they've also plenty of cute, quirky stores--that funky bookstore where they're always showing old movies, for instance. They only seem to have the one supermarket, which is accurate, but not so accurate is the fact that the supermarket appears to carry everything they need.
Now for the reality: When I was growing up, there were three restaurants in town, only one of which was marginally worth eating at. Sure, as the town grew, new restaurants came in, but the quality never seemed to increase. (Example: There's now one downtown called "The House of Jerky." Actually, I'm not sure if that's a restaurant so much as it is a store, but still, you can bet your ass you'd never find a place called "The House of Jerky" in Stars Hollow.) And the hip bookstore/movie theater combo? As if. What passed for entertainment among my peers during my high school years was a combination of cruising up and down Main Street, having unprotected sex (there being nowhere to buy condoms, and getting them for free at the Health Department being out of the question because the nurses knew your parents), then getting pregnant at 16. After I left, someone tried to open a dance club downtown, but they were pretty much laughed out of town, and I suspect it's not just because they spelled "club" with a "k."
Now, I'm sure that somewhere, outside the realm of TV-land, there is a perfectly quaint, hip small town just like Stars Hollow. If you find it, could you let me know? Because I'm betting most of the small towns out there bear a closer resemblance to the one I grew up in. House of Jerky and all.
So I've been getting into Gilmore Girls lately, despite some very vocal objections I have made in the past in regard to Alexis Bledel and her general acting ability. (Although watching Season 1 has led me to believe that Alexis has in fact gotten worse as an actress as the show has progressed, and that the show itself may be to blame for this. But I'm sure we'll get into that theory another time.)
Watching shows set in small towns is always a little uncomfortable for me, either because the small-town atmosphere is portrayed either completely unrealistically or a little too realistically for my taste. Most of the time, it's the former. With Gilmore Girls, it's a little of both.
I think the show does an excellent job of demonstrating how everyone in a small town is constantly up in each other's business, and how annoying/frustrating that can be, especially when you're a teenager. Where it breaks down, though, is where most small towns on TV do: They overload on the quaintness.
If television is to be believed, all small towns are tightly knit, loving communities just brimming with cool, hip things to do. Why, just the number of restaurants in Stars Hollow alone, to say nothing of their apparent quality, is astounding to me. Following Rory and Lorelai through one of their strolls about town reveals that they've also plenty of cute, quirky stores--that funky bookstore where they're always showing old movies, for instance. They only seem to have the one supermarket, which is accurate, but not so accurate is the fact that the supermarket appears to carry everything they need.
Now for the reality: When I was growing up, there were three restaurants in town, only one of which was marginally worth eating at. Sure, as the town grew, new restaurants came in, but the quality never seemed to increase. (Example: There's now one downtown called "The House of Jerky." Actually, I'm not sure if that's a restaurant so much as it is a store, but still, you can bet your ass you'd never find a place called "The House of Jerky" in Stars Hollow.) And the hip bookstore/movie theater combo? As if. What passed for entertainment among my peers during my high school years was a combination of cruising up and down Main Street, having unprotected sex (there being nowhere to buy condoms, and getting them for free at the Health Department being out of the question because the nurses knew your parents), then getting pregnant at 16. After I left, someone tried to open a dance club downtown, but they were pretty much laughed out of town, and I suspect it's not just because they spelled "club" with a "k."
Now, I'm sure that somewhere, outside the realm of TV-land, there is a perfectly quaint, hip small town just like Stars Hollow. If you find it, could you let me know? Because I'm betting most of the small towns out there bear a closer resemblance to the one I grew up in. House of Jerky and all.
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