I have finally caught up with Season 6 of "Gilmore girls" (thank you, bittorrent), and if I could ask Amy Sheridan-Palladino one question, it would be: What the fuck is wrong with you?

A theme of the show from the beginning, the predominant theme after the mother-daughter relationship, is that Lorelai must suffer. On the one hand, she has her daughter, her friends, her home, the inn; but the relationship she has looked for since leaving Christopher to raise Rory on her own — that is forever denied her. She meets Max, almost falls in love, doesn't. She meets pretty Alex, but that's never going to happen. Christopher finally becomes enough of a grown-up to marry, but he's taken away from her. And then finally, the love of her life — Luke — declares himself and they become the couple everyone around them knew they would always be.

Only they aren't. Luke finds reasons to avoid a final commitment; his love for Lorelai is not enough to overcome his fear, or his selfishness, or his stupidity, or whatever it is that makes him invent reasons to keep her away. And Lorelai can never find the right words at the right time; someone else always has that last work. She's forever crushed into some corner, unable to escape until just a bit too late. Finally, as Season 6, she makes what may be a fatal mistake, and we're supposed to believe that Amy cares about Lorelai?

I've thought for a long time, since I started watching via Blockbuster Online earlier this year (yea, I'm a bit behind the cool tv show curve) that Lorelai is the kind of person Amy Sheridan-Palladino hates. Maybe it's the beauty, or the quick wit, or the ability to survive despite an incredible array of challenges. Yes, every challenge is on that Ms S-P and her writer-producer husband, Daniel, invent; yes, Lorelai herself is but their invention. That's the point: They created a wonderful character, one of the best to ever appear on tv — and that due to Lauren Graham's amazing, consistent, wonderous performance — but the things the subject this character to are heart-breaking.

I don't see that Amy and Dan want Lorelai to be happy. At some point I would think they would give an inch, but it's relentless. At the end of Season 5, instead of Rory and Lorelai finding a solution to Rory's problems, they are separated for months. This is not only way out of character, it's cruel. Again, I know, only characters they invented, but these characters have been given life by the imaginations and feelings of the show's fans. They love Lorelai and long for her to be happy; to see her not merely thwarted by brutalized is almost too much.

The dilemma, in tv terms, is that happiness tends to ruin shows. "Northern Exposure" was brilliant, but lost its energy when Joel and Maggie became a couple. "Mad About You," the best comedy ever, went flat when Paul and Jamie resolved their fears and mistrust; the best of the remaining episodes were when problems arose between them. Nothing ruins a great show like the main characters getting along. If Luke and Lorelai did marry, does the show suddenly have no power? Isn't it Lorelai's on-going struggles to attain what seems forever beyond her reach that gives the show its life?

I'm hoping the new producers and writers have more faith in the characters than that. Lorelai and Luke should marry; it's what they want, and it's what comes next in their relationship. Is that the end of the show? Why should it be? They get married, and suddenly nothing ever happens? Except there is still Rory, there's still Richard and Emily, and Alice, and the Huntzbergers, and Paris, and Christopher, and probably a baby. There's a world of life to face up to, and only bad writers could fail to find ways to keep the show alive and real and wonderful. Of course, most tv writers are precisely that bad. I'm hoping the people who get possession of this lovely show are among the rare ones. I hope the frustrating and cruel treatment of Lorelai ends and she can get on with her life.

And I hope Amy Sheridan-Palladino gets some help with her anger issues. There's something badly unresolved in her life, and I'm glad she doesn't have Lorelai Gilmore to take it out on anymore.