Links to come later.
"... and I think Gilmore Girls was a brilliant show."
I beg to differ about "Gilmore Girls": For all of the substance it purports to show, the show lacks much of it anyway because of its superficiality and unrealistically fast pace — Too much information. The series is essentially about people who are hearing one another, but not really listening.
In a similar fashion, other 'next-door-girl' youth-targeted television is just as well ungrokkable:
"7th Heaven" (the worst), "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", "Xena", "Felicity", "The O.C." and much more of that.
All of these paint a variation of "A Catcher in the Rye" in a female soup.
Maybe it's just a matter of taste — or that I am a 27-year-old guy of the Cold-Y Generation and that I don't watch, nor pay attention to this kind of blather anymore. Hence I tend to prefer 'guy' shows over 'girl' shows.
Despite that, qualities that I've enjoyed in some of the recent 'woman stuff' film and television are context, narrative, thoughtfulness and emotion.
For example, "The Golden Girls", "Valley of the Dolls", "Sex and the City" and "Desperate Housewives" pretty much sum up the fun parts. Whilst two of those do share similarities with "Gilmore Girls" for being relatively fast-paced, they still harbor the aforementioned qualities.
"Saved by the Bell", "Beverly Hills, 90210" and "Melrose Place" (and all the preceding soaps and telenovelas) were important novelties in the Post-Soviet era in Estonia — My three sisters and I watched that stuff with abandon (Once the novelty fell off, I quickly opted for Trek :). Maybe then it didn't matter whether the series centered around boys or girls, these shows were simply cool to watch when we were kids.
Just that I am past all of that and there is very little in me that relates to much anything in "Gilmore Girls".
Some of the 'next-door-neighbour' and similar shows featuring women and female youth that had their moments (in order of importance):
"Malcolm in the Middle", "That '70s Show", "Scrubs", "Dawson's Creek", "Smallville", "One Tree Hill".
Youth-oriented TV shows that I enjoy (or really enjoyed at the time of watching):
"Heartbreak High" (AU), "Daria", "Family Guy", "Kyle XY" (notice how the first and last letter are K and Y :) and "Roswell".
Chick flicks, like "Moulin Rouge!", "Down With Love", "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", "Bend It Like Beckham", "Kill Bill" Volumes 1 & 2, "Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion" also keep the standard high up.
