You knew it was going to happen! I couldn't resist writing up a review of the long awaited Gilmore Girls revamp. I'm going to warn you now, if you haven't finished it, I CANNOT keep spoilers out of this review. If you have finished, grab a cup of Luke's coffee and follow along with me!
Okay, if you knew me growing up or even now, I've never hidden my love of this show. It has all of my favorite things: witty comments, cutesy townsfolk, COFFEE, books, strong women, a brooding rebel boy with gorgeous hair and a heart of gold...wait, what was I saying? Oh that's right, what's not to love? So like the rest of you, I was waiting with baited breath for this revamp to come out on Netflix. It seems like over Thanksgiving weekend, it was all I heard about on social media.
Now, I proceeded with caution here. Netflix has a way of playing with my nostalgia emotions and then falling short. Ahem, Fuller House? But, in general, it was very well done. I can absolutely tell that the original writer came back for these 4 episodes. The last two seasons of the original series without her were lacking. But it gave us what we craved, seeing our favorite characters and what they've been up to for the last couple of years. And how things all turned out for them. So let's see how they're doing.
Emily: Wahhhhhh. I guess they had no choice but to write off Richard Gilmore from the show since the actual actor, Edward Herrmann, passed away about a year ago. It is also very realistic that by the time a child is in her 40s and granddaughter is in her 30s, they should lose a grand/parent or two. Unless you're really lucky. But seeing Emily cope with her husband's death was so heartbreaking. They did it in a good way, though, it wasn't too much or over the top. It had some funny little scenes like the over the top portrait of him. But they didn't drag it out too much, it was just there. I could've done without the therapy sessions with Lorelai. Ugh, can she grow up already and bring her vendetta against her mother to an end? Which brings me to...
Lorelai: Oh, dear. I'm gonna try not to rant here. When I watched this show as a teenager, I wanted to be Lorelai. You know, without the 16 year old kid. She's so strong and funny and I just idolized her. Watching Lorelai as an adult, and seeing her in her mid-40s still questioning what she wants in life or having this vendetta against her parents while continuously asking them for help financially, just rubs me the wrong way. It seems like her character hasn't developed at all from when we left her 10 years ago! Shes still unsure about Luke, which, lets be honest would only make sense if Luke was some one dimensional character. She can't even be a normal person to her mother when her father dies! Just be there and support her and what she's going through instead of dragging up ancient history. I'm 33 years old and I've realized a long time ago that at some point, we need to just accept our parents for who they are. They're just going to make awkward or slightly rude comments about your outfit or whether you're going to have any kids - that's just them! Sorry Lorelai, you gave up the right to ever bring up old issues with your parents when you took money from them for Chilton, Europe, Yale and now the new Inn. Move on, swallow the awkward moments and just be an adult. Phew.
Rory: Rorrrry. I loved Rory so much when I was a teenager. She spoke to my soul because of her love of books and movie/pop culture knowledge. She wasn't the cool girl in school but she didn't care because she was so steadfast in who she was and what she wanted. And also we both wanted to be a journalist! Which made me love her even more. Even though I've always rooted for her, I was sort of glad that the revival didn't make things come easy for Rory. Which is the impression I always got was that they do come easy for her. So it was nice to see her sort of struggle with that a bit and find her footing because even by the time we're in our 30s, things don't just come easy. But she'll figure it out even though we won't (or will we?!?!) get to see what the next stage brings her!
What I loved:
- Luke! He's the same old lovable character that he was in the original series. Puts up with Lorelai's bullshit and just lets her figure it out, knowing she'll come back to him. He's always so confident in them, which I love. It was SO cute how proud he was of Rory and her New Yorker piece.
- Lane and Zack are still married! And the BAND is still together. That seriously made me so happy, I felt like I was 19 years old watching them get married again.
- Luke and Lorelai's wedding - the word that comes to mind is 'finally'.
- That moment we saw Logan without his shirt on. Y'alll know I'm #teamJess all that way and I'm not even into blondes but holy moly oly oly.
- And of course...Jess. I love him, no really. It was so great to see him around and that he made a man out of himself. No more wishy washy kid who doesn't have it together - although that was part of his appeal. Although we did see him towards the end of the original series, having gotten it together and even wrote a book. I also love that he encourages Rory to write a book, as well. And the moment..BAH...when Luke asks if he still has feeling for Rory and he's like "oh no, we're friends" but then we see the way he looks at her. That was enough to make my heart go copper boom.
- That moment at the town hall meeting where they tried to get Taylor to admit his true sexual preference. Haha.
What I hated:
- The freaking musical. What WAS that?!?! It was like 15 minutes long! Whyyy, why was it that long? Why?
- On that point, I hated every scene that felt like filler and went on way too long. There were a bunch of them. I was excited to watch the show because of the nostalgia that it brought me but they didn't need to like force feed me little cutesy scenes for no reason. Like every scene by the pool and the life and death brigade. It was unnecessary.
- Rory being a homewrecker yet again. Come on, Rory. I forgave you when you were 19 and it happened (also it gave you a bit of an edge) but now you're just better than that.
- The story line about Luke and Lorelai needing a baby. Her mom who she never listens to anyways says one comment and all of the sudden they start talking about having a baby and even go through the process of surrogacy? And then it wasn't mentioned again beyond the one episode, except the joke about Luke not getting how it works. I don't understand.
- SPOILER! We might never know the father of Rory's baby!!
All in all, though, it reminded me of why I love this show so much. Its so well acted and with the original writer back for the revival, I can say that its well written too! I love it. I hope you did too! Netflix has been teasing us with these episodes since the summer so its been on my anticipation list and it finally delivered!
I'll go to my grave hoping for a Gilmore Girls: The Rory Years but I won't hold my breath. haha
xoxo.
