4 Ways 'Gilmore Girls' Turned Paris Geller into a Caricature
Paris was always intense, but the show turned that intensity into a cartoonish trait in the Yale seasons.
I’m not sure if Paris Geller and I would be friends in real life (she’d probably hate me), but in the world of Gilmore Girls she was my favorite character. Yes, I admit that she has flaws. She was kind of a bully to Rory when they first met at Chilton. She always knew how to hurt people and seemingly took a lot of pleasure in doing it. And she had a lot of trust issues, even with people she considered “friends,” but that’s because she’d been hurt and disappointed by most people in her life.
Paris is one of those characters whose flaws are more endearing than off-putting, especially when she and Rory were rivals/friends at Chilton. And her flaws were always in contradiction with each other. She’s intense, but also lovably insecure. She can be mean, but she’s hilarious whenever she is. At Chilton, she was just over-the-top enough.
But like a lot of shows with supporting characters who become fan favorites, Gilmore Girls creators didn’t know what to do with Paris once she got to Yale. I still love Paris in those seasons, but the intensity I loved in her at Chilton (I, too, have been called intense more than once in my life) verges on cartoonish when she’s at Yale. It’s like how Eric Matthews on Boy Meets World went from suave to silly (and became a bit of an idiot) in the show’s later seasons, and I missed high-school Eric.
I’m sure there are plenty of P.G. fans who will disagree with me, hailing what I’m calling an exaggeration of Paris’s traits as a consistent evolution in her character. And, again, I’m not saying that the show ruined Paris (though she definitely deserved better). But she did seem to become a caricature of herself as the show’s creators tried to make her more than a side character.
Here are 4 ways Gilmore Girls turned Paris Geller into a caricature.
1. Life coaching and crafts
How I hated this plot line for Paris! Terrance, her life coach, was helping her become a more chill person and encouraged her to request to dorm with Rory because their story wasn’t finished yet. Plus…the craft corner. I just don’t see Paris ever considering this to be a productive use of her time.
2. The Asher Fleming affair
Putting the fact that Paris cheated on her boyfriend Jamie with her much older professor aside, what bugs me about this storyline is that Paris is someone who would obviously see through the fact that Asher Fleming definitely had affairs with other young female students. But I guess love is blind…
After Asher dies, Paris kind of becomes the cringe and over-the-top character that Rory always sees her as, and I hate that.
3. Dating Doyle
I don’t hate Doyle McMaster, the former Yale Daily News editor,but he’s pretty ridiculous. And being with him led to these ridiculous moments:
4. The Yale Daily News dictator
Paris has always been a perfectionist and driven people hard, like when she was editor of The Franklin at Chilton. But it never led her to build a bunker and hide herself from the rest of the newspaper staff or, worse, leave a project unfinished. An issue of the Yale Daily News almost didn’t go out because Paris decided to rewrite everyone’s articles,but that just sounds so un-Paris.
What are your thoughts on Paris’s character evolution after Chilton?
Agree with 1 and 2 but think 3-4 were actually in keeping with the character. I think of Paris’ Yale years as a missed opportunity - they could/should have leaned into her dramatic aspects rather than playing for cheap laughs (the moment she announces she lost her virginity but isn’t going to Harvard shows how the two could be combined with great effect)