Welcome back to TV Tuesday! This week I’m going to talking all about the Gilmore Girls revival: Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life.

I originally wasn’t going to write a blog post about it because I didn’t think I’d do it justice (just thank the Gilmore Guys and their 5+ hour podcasts on it). But I reluctantly changed my mind, this post is going to be quite long (you have been warned) so I tried to break it up into sections.

The Main Characters

It was so good to see everyone again. I’m so happy that the entire cast (minus Edward Herrmann) were involved in this. I don’t think it would have worked if they all didn’t come back.

First off, I loved how we got to see all the Townies again. They are so funny, and they truly bring their spark to the show. I also loved how the actors from Bunheads, Amy Sherman-Palladino’s other show were in this as well. Plus a few Parenthood actors too!

So let’s start with Rory; she has just stepped off a plane to get back to Stars Hallow. She’s constantly between Stars Hallow, London, and New York, for what I’m not really sure. She has all these promises of jobs, but nothing pans out and she’s left in Stars Hallow to figure her life out, along with a huge group called the 30-somethings who are also unemployed. How sad.
Through the course of the four episodes/ mini movies whatever you wish to call them, she works for free at the Stars Hallow Gazette, and does some soul searching, with the help from Jess, she is off to write a book; a book about her life, and how she and her mother came to be.

Only her mother is very opposed about this book, because her mother doesn’t want the world to know how she struggled in the beginning when she had Rory, she has built her life so that it would stay in the past. I can see Lorelai’s case here, but Rory does it anyways. It’s a huge fight. In the end Lorelai just learns to deal with it.

Then comes her finale last final words:

“Mom,”
“Yeah?”
“I’m pregnant”I was so mad when those were the last four words, apparently they have been planned since the season six finale to be the last four words of the show. Only she was supposed to be 22 when she said them, not 32. I like it because it makes sense for her to be pregnant at 32 not 22, but ugh to just leave it at that, it’s so unfulfilling.

I will talk about her love life in a section I have marked off specifically for the boyfriends, because it’s kinda long, and maybe kinda ranty ha!

Lorelai is doing so well (minus the fact that she is still mourning her father). Her Inn is doing well, she’s living and dating Luke (yay), what more could we need? Oh let’s throw in the they should have a baby together. They really dig into this plot and I just don’t understand why. Even Luke points out that he has Vanessa and he’s always thought Rory as his own, so why do they need one a “fresh kid” Lorelai calls it. What the heck that is, is beyond me. That’s what I’ll tell my future husband, let’s make a fresh kid!

Anyways so Paris is their fertility doctor, and man oh man does Liza Weil bring it as Paris. She goes all out with all the bells and whistles that it’s rather quite comical. I’m very glad they decided not to have a segregate baby because that would ruin their relationship. They don’t need that at their age.

Then Lorelai goes to therapy with her mother, oh gosh that makes for some good television. Lorelai was the one to suggest it to her mother, then her mother got her roped into going. Classic.

After a lot of thinking, she decides that she needs to go on a hike to clear her mind and put her life into perspective. I love her hike expedition, even if she never actually hikes; it is so perfect because she finally reconciles with her mother, ugh a scene that makes you want to cry,

and she finds out that she wants to marry Luke. While Luke on the other hand things Lorelai is going to leave him, because why else would she go on a hike?

Their wedding is perfection. I love how they get married at night, with only Rory and Lane, also a really great scene.

Now let’s talk about Emily, gosh she is just a mess when we first see her. It’s just after Richard has died (or well close enough), and you can tell she’s depressed.

She’s sleeping until noon, which Rory thinks is strange, she’s not interested in anything, and she hasn’t fired her maid yet (or at all, Berta stays all four episodes, which is technically the whole year).

Lorelai tells her she should go to therapy, and it works, until the two start to go together.  As the series goes on, we see her go through all the signs of grieving, and we see her interactions with Lorelai; some of them are just heartbreaking, where they are just screaming at each other, and some are just beautiful and heartwarming, like the two are finally making up for everything.

Emily has a melt down at an DAR meeting and I loved every minute of it. You can see her growing as a character, she’s moving away from everything she has ever known and becoming someone (in my opinion) better, someone stronger and independent.

One thing that does get Emily feeling better is one of Richard’s friends Jack Smith. It does seem like they have a relationship, but I don’t think they did other than friendship, because by the end she has moved away, yes she sells the house that she and Richard shared for decades (although I can see why, she needs to let go in order to move on). I also love that when she does move on and begins to feel better she starts to work at the museum telling stories of history, it’s so good to see.

What I really liked was some of the scenes had montages from the past seasons where Richard was sitting at dinner, or in the living room. They had a scene where Rory goes into his office to start writing her book, and she opens the door and he’s sitting at his desk, tell me that was not sad, yet heartwarming.

I didn’t think they would actually show Richard all that much, I thought they’d touch on it obviously, but not the whole funeral. That’s where I cried like a silly baby because the guy is actually dead, not just the character, but the actor, just so sad.

It was so good to see Michel in all the episodes. Michel we finally find out that he is gay, and he’s married. On top of that his husband wants to adopt children and Michel is just not great with children, ha!

I’m glad they brought him back because he really made conflict with Lorelai and it really moved plots along. The two of them worked so well together, and the amount of compromise they make for each other is sweet. So Michel wants out of the Dragon Fly, he no longer wants to work there, he wants to branch out to somewhere bigger. His thing is, either Lorelai makes the Inn bigger or he’s out, and Lorelai doesn’t know what to do. She doesn’t want Michel to leave, but at the same time she can’t make the Inn bigger because of who her neighbours are. Her next best thing would be to buy a new place, but she doesn’t have the money for that, until she learns of the money left for Luke.

Let’s talk about Luke now. So aside from dating Lorelai, he’s a happy guy, or as happy as grumpy Luke can be. He’s got new rules at Luke’s (no man buns haha, as well as a few others) he gets Wi-Fi, but hates that everyone uses it. I can’t remember what episode we learn this, but as they all sit down we find out that Richard has left Luke a large sum of money to open up Luke’s as a chain restaurant. This isn’t want Luke has ever wanted, he likes his one little shop, so Lorelai decides to ask her mom if it would be okay to transfer the money to her so she can buy a bigger place for her Inn so Michel will stay and so that her business can grow. It obviously takes Emily some time to think on it but she says yes, under conditions of course; Emily wants to see them every Christmas, and two weeks in the summer, very specific terms.

Guest Appearances

I have to start with Kirk, he’s in all four episodes with these random side stories that, it makes sense for the show, and for the most part I love all of it. So we start off with Kirk and his pig, he and Lulu have a pig that the town all got them because they found out that they were thinking about having children and we can’t have mini Kirk’s running around haha.

He’s still living with his mother, and he decides to start his own company, or service, ‘Ooober’ a rip off of Uber, which is hilarious yet a little tiring the amount of times they say it. So the concept is whoever needs a ride calls his mother, who calls him and he gives them a lift to wherever. This I guess comes in handy when Lorelai needs a ride to her mother’s house.

In the last episode he redoes the whole town for Lorelai and Luke’s wedding. He thinks he’s ruined the whole thing, but when Lorelai texts him that she loves it, gosh the look on his face is priceless. That is where we leave Kirk.

Everyone else is only in one episode, some I understand, some I don’t. The one I really don’t understand is Digger, why did they bring him back for one scene? He’s there at the funeral to just tell Lorelai that Richard was like a lion, and he’s trying to stay away from Emily. Was that really needed? I think not.

We get Mrs. Kim for all of five minutes as well, to me that was pointless, we don’t really need to see her, it was great don’t get me wrong, but useless. She’s just terrorizing a bunch of kids, because why not.

We also get SO little of Lane in these episodes. Like how many was she even in? Two? According to IMDB she was in all four, why don’t I remember this? Probably because she had NO plot. She stays at home with her twins (which we do get to see Quwain and Steve for a brief scene) and she now works at Kim’s Antiques, how sad a life, she could have done so much more I feel. Even Zack wasn’t really in the show. We see that they still like to rock, and we get a scene when the whole band is back together, but not much else. Zack is getting ready to take a business type job, that we never get told what it is, only that he hates it. So that’s where their characters are, we need more story here!

We see Jackson for one scene as well, that one was kinda useful, kinda not. He wasn’t useful because it was one scene and we learn nothing about it him, but what makes him useful, he tells us about Sooki. She out doing big things and can’t seem to come back (kinda like a comparison to Melissa McCarthy’s career). That’s why I was SO surprised to see Sooki! I didn’t think she was going to be in the show at all, but there she was in the last episode! She’s in the Dragon Fly kitchen making a million cakes for Lorelai’s wedding. It was just so nice to see her, and I guess end the series with her.

April was in the show for a few scenes, but hers made sense, we all want to know what this brainy child is doing now. Well she has high anxiety, and attends university (I’m blanking to which one right now) and she puts up this whole façade, it’s only when she’s alone with Rory that we learn that she’s just faking and has no idea what she’s doing with her life, but for a 19-year-old I think that’s okay.

We get Christopher for one scene, personally I thought he’d be in more, but I guess not. We only see him because Rory goes to him to tell him that Lorelai is getting married, he tells her he’s okay with it, and wishes her all the happiness, which is good. She also tells him about the book she’s writing, and he’s happy for her, but he doesn’t want her to make him out to be a villain. Rory just goes straight into asking him questions, it’s almost like she hates her mother for leaving Christopher so out of her life. It took me two watches to realize she was asking all those questions because of the situation she’s in, and should she involve the father. 

We only get Paris for two episodes, but we get a lot of Paris and it’s perfect! Aside from seeing her with Lorelai and Luke, we see her at back at Chilton. So a bunch of the students get asked to go back to give speeches, Rory and Paris are among them. Paris gives a terrifying speech, while Rory gives an okay one, Master Charleston wants her to come back and teach, but that means she would have to go to grad school, and she’s not really up for that. Let’s just say Rory isn’t up for a lot of things. She gets offered so many things and yet she doesn’t want to work for them. The other example I’m thinking of is that magazine who want her, she gets an interview and she goes in totally unprepared. How can you do that?

Paris spots Tristan of all people (who sadly isn’t played by Chad Michael Murray like in the original run) but Paris flips out in the girl’s bathroom.

She doesn’t know what to do with her life, then Francie walks in and reinstates everything that Paris is, an MD, and a lawyer for example so Paris should feel inferior to her not belittled. But it is Paris.

With Paris we get to see Doyle! But they’re getting a divorce, I’m so upset about this. They should not, but what can I do. They have two kids together; which Paris states likes the nanny better than her. Doyle is a writer, or well he’s trying to be a better television writer.

I also just want to touch upon the fact that Taylor Doose is around for the majority of the show, and they really just focused on whether he is gay or not. Isn’t there something better they could have done with Taylor? I didn’t care about that plot.

The Boyfriends

Okay let’s talk about Rory’s boyfriends because that has been a very big part of the show. Let’s start with Paul. I didn’t expect Rory to really be with anyone, but I guess it makes sense, but where they take this is just SO strange. So she’s been dating Paul for three years, no problem- she constantly forgets she is dating Paul. How can you forget you’re dating a guy?!? Everyone in her life can never remember this guy either. He’s in every episode pretty much, okay he’s in the first but mentioned throughout. It takes until the very last episode for Paul to break up with her, and even then she forgets about him too.

That was so weird, I didn’t care for it.

Next I want to talk about Dean. Oh Dean, I’ve heard from different people that they really liked the scene with Dean- I did not. I loved that he came back to shoot this, but I wanted more. I’ve never been against Dean, I just thought he was boring. So when we got a ten minute (if it was even that) scene with him, I was disappointed. I wanted a little more, plus he kinda just whizzed in and then flew out.

So Rory runs into him, literally in Doose’s Market, to parallel when they first started dating. Dean spoke super-fast, and it felt so rushed like they wanted him in and out. The catch up was nice, and I liked that they didn’t spend a lot of time on introductions to knew things in either one’s life, so it made it seem like they keep in touch. Dean is married and has kids, as would make sense for his character. What I also liked was the reference to the cornstarch, when he says “pay for it this time”. I thought that was so cute and tied everything up so nicely.

Now let’s talk about Jess. Now I’m #TeamJess all the way, always have, always will be. As much as Jess was always a trouble maker, he made Rory’s life interesting and gave her life that little something it was missing. So when he comes back to give her advice and help her in her soul searching, that just made me love him even more.

I’m glad that they didn’t end up together, I will say it. I love how they are friends and they are close, it just feels right for them.

I like that he didn’t just come back to see Rory, obviously, he came back to see Luke as well, and that made everything worth it. I loved all his scenes with Luke in the diner, they were all so comical and heartfelt.

I don’t have much more to say about Jess without saying I love him a million times, so let’s move on to the last one…

Logan, ugh.

I’ve hated Logan from the moment he was introduced on the show. I find him rude, and overbearing. He does nothing to really enhance Rory’s life,
he’s just there to look nice and buy pretty things.

So he’s in every gosh darn episode, blah. So we meet him when Rory is in London and we find the two of them are sleeping together, while he is engaged to someone else. Rory and her poor choices. She actually gets mad when she calls and his fiancé is there; what is wrong with you Rory? Gah this whole revival did not do well for Rory.

So when she finds out she’s pregnant, we can all guess that Logan is the father. If you think otherwise, who would be the father? It only makes sense. I hate that so much, that just means there would be a mini Logan running around (if they were to ever pick the show back up, which I feel could be a possibility, but could also not be).

As much as it was great to see the three boyfriends again, I wasn’t completely satisfied with all of them.

I just wish Rory was with someone we haven’t met because I didn’t want her to end up with any of her past boyfriends because they are in the past for a reason. I also want to say, they never even mentioned that Logan proposed to her at the end of season seven, they just glossed over that like it never happened, and they’re still sleeping together, kinda strange. Oh well, it’s done now right.

The Weird Stuff

I’m dedicating this section for all the weird things that they addressed, that felt like it wasn’t needed (in my opinion).

So first we need to talk about Mr. Kim- what was that? We never saw him in the original run. He was mentioned in conversation, but we never see him, did they feel like they needed to show him so that we could have closure? Like Lane just goes oh my dad showed up, then Rory goes Hey Mr. Kim like it was nothing, and he waves back, how pointless was that? I feel we could have forgone this one tiny scene.

Next would be the portrait of Richard. Okay so this wasn’t really weird, I thought this was actually funny. When Emily gets the dimension’s wrong and the portrait becomes the size of the whole wall. It feels cute, and a nice way to keep Edward Herrmann in the show since you can’t miss it at all.

Then Emily in jeans. That was something we will never see again, and again not weird per sae, but just something that is just out of place, but something else I see as cute. To know she’s wearing Lorelai’s clothes is heartwarming.

Speaking of Lorelai and Emily, but their therapist is a weirdo, and probably the worst therapist on the planet. Then Emily brings up this letter that she received from Lorelai, but Lorelai denies it… and then the letter just gets dropped and never mentioned of again, does that not classify as weird? How can you drop a major plot like that?

I feel like the revival didn’t really close off any of the plots, they just opened new ones.

Moving on to the next really weird and bizarre thing: The Musical. What was the point of that? I did not see a point to it. It was way too long; it was 10 minutes but it felt a lot longer than that. All to show the history of how Stars Hallow came to be, it didn’t even really tell you anything about Stars Hallow. Or maybe it did and I missed it? Still the most pointless plot out of all the episodes. I hear people liked it, but I hated it!

I also can’t forget Liz and TJ! They join a vegetable cult. We don’t even get to see them, but we just hear of this strange event. It is very typical of these characters to do this, and I liked this plot, I just wish I got to see them.

The last weird thing I want to talk about it (as I’m sure there were plenty of other strange weird things) is that sequence with Rory and Logan. I thought it was a dream, but I hear it’s not, like the talking bird, the foggy, empty Stars Hallow it makes sense for it to be a dream, if it was it would have made this whole thing better. It was just very weird, and I don’t really know what the point of this was either (this is becoming a trend), I don’t even know what else more to say about it because it was just so random. Maybe it was their way of saying goodbye to some of the characters.

Okay, if you have made it to the end, pat yourself on the back! I knew this was going to be long, so even if you read half of this, thank you for stopping by!