This post contains spoilers for Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life.
I had never watched Gilmore Girls until this year where I watched all 7 seasons, almost at once. I didn’t know it existed whilst growing up and only heard about it a few years ago. During my binge watching, I was so excited when I heard that there was going to be a revival that would be exclusive to Netflix. I finished the series just in time for the release of Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life. The series gave me a new family, a new found comfort and some hope! It’s such a beautiful and complex show; full of sadness, heartbreak, happiness, failure and success. It’s a hell of a ride and it’s one I loved so dearly.
The revival comprised of four one and a half hour episodes, each named after a season: winter, spring, summer and fall. I thought this was a good way for the creators to showcase the entire year and fit in as much as possible for the fans, whilst allowing for it to be condensing down in a nice way. Overall, I enjoyed the revival and it made me feel a lot of things the series did. It took me through all of the emotions again, and it felt like I was reunited with my family. All of the characters bring me some sort of joy and I wanted it to last forever. However, I still had some issues with various parts of the revival – some of them not as big as others. With this in mind, I am going to briefly discuss some parts – both good and bad – that really stuck out to me in Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life. What follows will contain major spoilers for the show.
Stars Hollow
Stars Hollow, the small fictional town in Connecticut, still has the biggest heart ever within its close-knit community. It was great seeing all of the original people in the town such as Taylor Doose, Kirk Gleason, Miss Patty, Babette, Gypsy, Dean Forester, Lane and Zach and Mrs. Kim. We even see Liz and T.J. still living in Stars Hollow. I should also mention that I’m pleased they dove more into Michel’s backstory and confirmed he is in fact gay and now has a husband!
Kirk Gleason
The character that always stands out for me is Kirk. He is such a heart-warming person, who is always providing some form of comic relief through his weird and wonderful personality. Some highlights are when they were showing Eraserhead in the small theatre and he donned the perfect matching costume. He also made another short film, starring himself and his pig Petal, called “Spring: A Second Film By Kirk” which was absolutely fantastic. (See his first film here). Kirk is one of the most well written characters. Much like the rest of the cast do, he stands out as his own person.
Richard Gilmore
Edward Herrmann passing away in real life meant they had to have Richard Gilmore pass away too. It was so damn sad and basically every time they mentioned Richard I just started crying. It was very emotional seeing how much this impacted and affected various characters – particularly Emily and Lorelai – throughout the episodes. It was conveyed so well and the sadness always loomed over. They achieved the emotion very effectively and seeing how distraught Emily was at times absolutely broke me.
Lorelai and Luke
I’m a big believer in that Lorelai and Luke were always meant to be. It’s just how the show was set up and they are perfect for each other in their polar opposite ways. I was so pleased to see that they were still together and whilst it was distressing to see them struggle, I am so thankful they were able to work things out. The pre-wedding wedding was beautiful and it made me feel really emotional again! Plus how cute was what Kirk did?
Emily Gilmore
As mentioned before, Emily was the character who was probably affected the most by Richard’s death. She lost her soul mate. It meant that Emily took a very interesting journey in finding herself and who she is without Richard. She was wearing jeans, attended therapy with Lorelai and told her DAR pals what she really thought – that it’s all BULLSHIT and all of that stuff doesn’t matter to her anymore. Most of her scenes were really emotive and powerful. Emily is a wonderful, well-rounded character and she every time you can see her pain, I feel as though I felt it too.
Rory Gilmore
Rory is still a wonderful character, or she would be if it weren’t for my main issue with her – all of the cheating! During Rory’s adolescence in the series, she struggled a little with this whilst she was going back and forth with Dean whilst he was with his wife. It’s easy to make mistakes like this, but I didn’t expect this of Dean. In the revival, we see Rory struggling with her career which is normal and realistic – she is not perfect. But I did not except to see her continue into adulthood still being “the other woman.” Forgetting about her lovely boyfriend Paul (okay, I did find it funny – but also, poor Paul), still seeing Logan whilst he’s engaged to another woman and also having a one night stand with a Wookiee was all too much for me. Maybe just one or two of them, but all three seems a bit chaotic if you ask me. I’d have thought Rory would have left these kind of mistakes in her teens/early adulthood. It seems bizarre for her to still to clung to Logan even after they’ve both tried to move on, but given Rory’s history I suppose it doesn’t surprise me too much – like I said, I just expected her to be passed this by now.
Dean, Jess and Logan
Dean only made a short appearance (as he is a busy actor these days) which was fine, but it felt rushed and I wish there could have been more. I definitely don’t see Dean as being someone she ends up with. To me, a romantic relationship with him belongs in her teens.
Jess is someone who I wished would’ve gotten his shit together in the series for Rory, but never did until it was too late. I’m really pleased with how Jess turned out. He’s gone from a troubled teenager to a really nice, laidback and smart man. He has his life together and he always seems to know what’s best for Rory. In the series, his comments were the main reason Rory went back to Yale and in the revival, he’s the one who told her she should write a book about the relationship she shares with her mother Lorelai. I would love for them to end up together, but it seems that it’s still one-sided: Rory isn’t in love with him. If this is how it’s going to be, then I’m more than happy with them being good friends. Jess also appears to have a good relationship with Luke again, which is all I could ever hope for. One of my favourite parts was when he said goodbye to Rory and went outside to meet Luke. Through the window you could see them hug and then Jess grab Luke’s stupid hat from his head and throw it down the street, showing that he still has that mischievousness to him.
I think Logan feels inevitable to Rory. He was always someone she was going to spend a lot of time with and they’ve shared a lot together. I’m not surprised they ended up in such a mess where they were seeing each other on the side whilst Rory was dating Paul and Logan was engaged. It seems like she worked through her issues with him in the end, once she realised that it was never going to be exactly what she wanted.
Life and Death Brigade
With that, let’s discuss the Life and Death Brigade – the secret society that Logan is in. Whilst silly, this group are a lot of fun and I actually really enjoyed the eerie scenes (a nod to Twin Peaks) before they ambushed Rory and the excitement that followed. It was a nice way to tie up a lot of things between Rory and Logan and let her work out what she was struggling with.
Rory’s Novel
Jess giving Rory the idea to write about the close relationship her and her mother share was a great idea! I really love that she does this and calls it The Gilmore Girls with Lorelai telling her to drop the “The” so it’s just Gilmore Girls. It’s something else that brings the story full circle. I also absolutely adore that Rory needed a place to write it and even though Logan offered her this house, she decided on the perfect place: Richard’s office. I honestly sobbed like a baby. It was something that also showed us that Rory was still grieving for her grandfather.
Lorelai Gilmore
Lorelai has always been the character I thought I relate to the most. She’s wonderful and strong, but they still show her struggles which I really appreciate. She’s been through a lot and it’s rewarding to see her upset and struggling, battle through it and come out on top. It was interesting to see Lorelai decide she needs to take a break to figure some stuff out. However, I was not expecting her to want to do this by opting for the Pacific Crest Trail in California. The humour of the people there being “Book” or “Movie” (from Wild by Cheryl Strayed) was great comedic relief and in the end, even though she didn’t do the actual trail, she managed to find what she was looking for in a really emotive scene. Overall, Emily and Lorelai’s relationship seemed to show its typical strains as they both struggled with their individual lives and Richard’s death, but by the end of the show, it seemed to end up in a good place which really warmed my heart. Lorelai calls her mother Emily from the “Wild” trial and finally tells her a nice story about Richard, which was something Emily asked for at the funeral but Lorelai found it difficult and ended up embarrassing her. It was another scene that had me in tears. Lorelai recalled:
I was 13 years old. It was my birthday. And Royston Sinclair III had broken my heart in front of everyone. I’d snuck into your closet that morning and took that green beaded top that was your mother’s, that you kept so carefully wrapped up in tissue paper in your cedar closet. I was never supposed to touch it. But I stole it, and I wore it to school with my Chemin de Fer sailor jeans, and I thought no one was as stylish as I was. But Royston laughed. He said I was cheap. He said the only reason he’d been my boyfriend was because he was mad at Angie Morgan and he wasn’t anymore. He called me loud and weird. And he said there was a rumour going around that I wasn’t actually a Gilmore. That I was the gardener’s daughter and you’d bought me because you couldn’t have children of your own. And I was crushed. And I ran out of class… and I ran out of school, and I went to the mall. And I was sitting in the food court, wishing I had some money to buy a pretzel ‘cause I was starving, and I looked up… and there was Dad. Standing in front of me… at the mall. He never came to the mall. That day, he went to the mall.
Sookie
In the series, Sookie was a pivotal character in Lorelai’s life and it was disappointing to not see her and Jackson running around clumsily with their children all the time. Of course Melissa McCarthy who portrays Sookie is another who has a busy career, but their time together in the revival just didn’t seem complete to me. I also feel like McCarthy didn’t put much effort into reprising the role of Sookie – for example, her voice wasn’t as high pitched with is like the hallmark of the character. But obviously reprising a role from a show that ended nine years ago must be a hard thing to do (although most of the others managed it perfectly fine), and maybe I’m just being picky.
Lane Kim
I wish we got to see more of Lane and Rory interacting with each other, but they both have a lot going on in their lives and there was a lot of story and characters to cover in these four episodes. I mostly wish we could’ve seen more of Lane and Zach’s children and how they function as parents. We see them mostly as still playing in their band Hep Alien – but I would’ve enjoyed seeing them properly rock the cool parent’s thing. I do remember creator and writer Amy Sherman-Palladino saying she does regret Lane having kids so young because there were so many other things that could’ve happened to that character, but having kids really restrains that.
Paris Gellar
Paris is such an incredible character. She’s strong, high-strung, complex and smart. I wish there was more time for us to have seen how she interacts with her job (which was quite bizarre to me) and her home life with her children and her relationship with Doyle. I’m so glad she is still the fierce and feisty, no-bullshit woman she was during her adolescence. I’m also glad they show her struggling with some things, because like Rory, she isn’t perfect. And it’s evident that all the characters in Gilmore Girls have their flaws which are only what makes us human.
The Final Four Words
I’m sure by now we all know the final four words. “Mom?” “Yes” “I’m pregnant.”
Now I did pick up on the fact that she would be pregnant before this happened, although I didn’t know how it would be condescend into four words. I realised that she had slept with Logan and also the Wookiee, she asked her father Christopher some hard hitting questions about his choice to not be involved when she was younger and she was acting strange in one scene (the wonderful Kiefer Sutherland one) before she headed out. The scene with Chris was quite emotional and must have been difficult for both of the characters. If anything it seemed like she was finding out more information for the novel about her life, but she definitely had an ulterior motive. Considering the time frame, it’s evident that Logan has to be the father and she’s wondering about the likelihood of his appearance in hers and the baby’s life or if she will have to be a single mother much like her own mother Lorelai. It’s something that was shocking but brings Gilmore Girls full circle. Whilst Rory is definitely not as young as Lorelai was, Rory seems to still be in a lost place and she is alone.
On Getting More Episodes
I feel as though there will be more new episodes depending on the success of the revival on Netflix. I believe this because the way it ended left a lot of unresolved issues. Most of the stories and issues were tied up, apart from the fact that Rory is still left feeling lost in this weird cloud of confusion. It makes me feel unsettled knowing that she had just gotten most of her problems sorted out or on the right path for her only to fall pregnant to a man she has loved most of her life who is engaged. And just when she finally realised it was time to move on from that shipwreck. On the other hand, a baby could be just the thing that is missing from Rory’s life. It could be just what she needs in order to give her life a purpose again when everything else seemed to be falling apart. She watched Lorelai raise her alone and still achieve everything she wanted to do. Maybe now, it’s just time for Rory to do the same. She’s an independent woman, she don’t need no man. Not right now anyway. Plus, maybe, Jess is Rory’s Luke. I can dream.
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