It's finally here! Share your thoughts on the revival, the updated versions of our beloved characters, and those famous four words.
Spoilers are welcome in this post, so if you haven't seen the new episodes yet read the comments at your own risk.
Let's party!
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Thoughts on Winter: I like that they started off with a classic Gilmore reminder of how incredibly selfish the girls are. I get that the whole Rory's boyfriend is forgettable thing is supposed to be a joke, but it's cruel. That said, I really, really enjoyed the Emily and Lorelai scenes. Also seeing how the actors aged - Keiko Agena is only 6 years younger than Lauren Graham, and somehow still looks like she's 25, it's uncanny. Logan also looks exactly the same (i.e. hot).
The Paul gag would have been funny (mean-spirited, but funny) if she had broken up with him right after he came to visit. The fact that they dragged it so far made it really painful to watch. :/
What did you think of the other three episodes?
So now that I've seen the whole thing I have a lot of Feelings. I might break this up into separate comments by person/pairing because there's just so much. But let's start with the high point imo: Luke and Lorelai.
I was kind of mad that they weren't married with a kid or two already, but I love how they addressed their communication problems and tendency to just let things be how they are instead of telling each other what they want. And Lorelai assuming that Luke wants another kid and dragging him to a surrogacy agency is so Lorelai--just like when she stashed his father's boat instead of getting rid of it, she assumes she knows what he wants and goes for it without actually checking, while Luke has spent the past however many years just going along with whatever she says and making her guess at what he wants instead of making his feelings clear. I thought I would be frustrated seeing them deal with these same issues after all this time, but since it's clear that they moved forward as a couple and built a life together it's actually kind of comforting (and realistic) that their major flaws haven't changed.
One thing I can't quite wrap my head around is Lorelai taking to the outdoors to figure her life out. Like I get that she was basically having a midlife crisis and she does have a history of running away when she needs to clear her head (like that roadtrip to Harvard after she canceled her wedding to Max), it's just the hiking in particular that seems completely ooc. I'm glad she didn't actually do it though and had her big epiphany behind a diner.
I'm not sure how I feel about Lorelai coming back and just springing the whole wedding thing on Luke, given that that's pretty much exactly how it happened the first time. It seems like both times she proposed it was pretty much just to distract herself from whatever crapstorm was happening in her life, first the rift with Rory and now Richard's death. I guess given the aforementioned communication problems and general inertia in their relationship it makes sense, but I kind of wish they hadn't needed something big to happen to push them into taking that step. Luke actually fighting for Lorelai when he thought she was leaving was awesome though; it showed he did actually progress a bit since the first time they were engaged.
The wedding was my favorite part of the entire revival. I love that they just went and did it in the middle of the night, plans be damned. I love that Kirk just happened to mess up the decorations in the absolute perfect way, and that the dancers just happened to be rehearsing right then, and that everything was laid out perfectly for just Lorelai, Luke, and Rory to enjoy as a family without all the hoopla of a big wedding crowd. And I love that Lane was there since Lorelai was basically her second mom--I just wish they'd gotten Jess out of bed and had April there as well, since one is Luke's actual kid and the other may as well be. But other than that it was even better than I'd envisioned. In fact, the wedding was so good it almost makes up for the fact that they weren't married already. I kind of love that their story ended on a beginning.
Next up: Emily. I think she's the one that changed the most since the original series and in ways that I really didn't see coming.
Like letting her maid's entire family move in--on the one hand, I can see her getting lonely in that big house and not minding the company, but on the other hand this is a woman who's spent her entire life thinking she's above the help and even fired a maid because Rory had a conversation with her and helped her in the kitchen. I know grief makes you do weird things but it doesn't give you a personality transplant.
Tricking Lorelai into going to therapy and then leaving her there alone was classic Emily Gilmore, though. So was trying to manipulate Luke into being (what she thinks of as) a more suitable match for Lorelai. I think she really needed a project to focus on and I kind of love that she picked that diner franchise idea from way back when.
If anything I thought widowhood would have made Emily more prim and proper and stuck on tradition, so it was definitely a surprise (I think a pleasant one?) to see her so completely over the DAR. Emily's entire life was built around being Richard Gilmore's wife, so it didn't necessarily feel out of character for his death to change her perspective on all that. And it was great to see Carolyn Hennessy pop up as the head bitch. Emily calling bullshit (literally!) on that whole process was one of the highlights of the whole revival.
My sister in law and I were shouting "say bullshit again" at the tv. I freaking love Kelly Bishop. More feelings when I am not on my phone...
Kelly Bishop is always a joy to watch, but she really outdid herself in that scene! Emily's contempt for the rest of the DAR was palpable and I loved every minute of it.
Where do I even start with Rory?
I'll admit she's never been my favorite character, but this time around I found her completely unlikable. Everyone else has basically the same flaws they've always had, but also the same positive attributes to balance them out. Rory was basically all her old flaws magnified by about a thousand + NO REDEEMING QUALITIES WHATSOEVER. Like, I used to think I disliked Rory because of all the characters she's the most like me, but I spent the entire six hours just hoping I'm not really that much of an asshole because wow.
And the thing is, taken separately there were still a lot of parts to her story I could relate to and a lot of mistakes I could forgive. Putting off breaking up with a guy you're really not that into? I'll cop to having been there (though not for a full year ffs). Dumping people is hard, especially when it's someone who's perfectly nice but you just don't click; nobody wants to feel like the bad guy. Dealing with the stigma of moving back home because your chosen field didn't pan out the way you wanted it to? Preaching to the effing choir, friend. Holding onto an old flame because he's comforting and familiar when everything else in your life is falling apart? Sleeping with a stranger in a wookie costume? Not things I can personally relate to, but hey, no judgment. It's just that when you put all those things together at the same time AND have a totally unrepentant attitude about it, you really start to suck as a person.
This was the biggest disappointment for me, because I was really looking forward to seeing what kind of adult Rory had grown into and it turned out she's kind of an awful one. One of the biggest mistakes she made in the original series was sleeping with a married man because she thought that since she'd had him first she was somehow entitled to him forever, and to see her not only fail to learn from that mistake but repeat it with the exact same attitude is just gross. Then there was the fact that she felt entitled to write someone else's life story over that person's objections (and of course Lorelai ultimately gave in, because Lorelai always gives in to Rory, which probably explains a lot). She just spent the entire revival treating everyone around her like crap and never really getting called out on it.
Which brings me to the famous final four words. I had a feeling two of them were going to be "I'm pregnant" but I thought that part would be coming from Lorelai, as biologically improbable as that might be at this point (I mean, I'm sure ASP didn't think it would take her until 2016 to write them into a script, you know?). On a macro level I get it--the entire series has been about this mother raising her daughter alone, so for the final words to be that daughter telling her mom that she's gonna be a mother herself brings everything full circle (as they kept beating into our heads via Emily and Lorelai). But I never pictured Rory as the type to want kids in the first place, and for her to get pregnant now when her life's such a mess... it's not a satisfying ending.