(Warning: there is gratuitous overusage of the word "cheesy" ahead.)
It's pretty cheesy when a TV show tries to shoehorn in special guest stars, because they are usually Big Name Actors and have a presence that seems a little too large for the shows in question. It's usually far cheesier when a TV show manages to land an actual real honest-to-goodness band for an episode, because, really, how many TV shows have an excuse to show a band doing anything? So in the past week two great bands have done this feat, and one example came off surprisingly well while the other came off as just a cheesy stunt.
First, Gilmore Girls I figured out a way to fit the Shins into a show about a tiny eastern town that the Shins would never play by sending youngest Gilmore Rory to Florida for an out of character spring break getaway. "Gilmore Girls Gone Wild." Seriously - that was the title of the show. I'll give the writers credit for at least trying to maintain a bit of Rory's actual character by having her and Paris attempt to watch Joseph Campbell's "Power of Myth" series in a hotel room while others around them partied. Of course, they had to have the girls give in to temptation, and soon enough the two find themselves in a small club where - you guessed it - the Shins are playing. However cool the Shins may be, this was a lame episode, bolstered only a tiny bit by the fact that the Shins were actually playing live, or were lip-syncing to a live tape of themselves instead of the really cheesy routine of using the original album track. Yeah, even the controversial kiss between Rory and Paris was lame. A sad, possibly "jump the shark" moment for a show I really enjoy.
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