NumberCruncher

I won't spoil it for anyone, but your description of what people are saying is correct. It is trying to be the quirky show it once was but it feels a bit flat now. I think ASP's determination to do the ending she wanted to do 10 years ago actually worked against it because it doesn't really work with the respective ages of the characters. And I'll just leave it at that. But by all means, watch it for the nostalgia factor and no expectations and I think you'll probably enjoy it. I didn't hate it but I do now believe it was utterly unnecessary.

The GG revival...I'm thoroughly whelmed. Oh and it officially has worse character stagnation and regression than Arrow which is saying A LOT.

Well considering that ASP wanted nothing to do with S7 there technically was no proposal in her mind so it's a moot point.

This. I also think I prefer the non-ASP S7 to this mess. At least back then there was some hopeful resolution to Rory's trajectory. It's funny you brought up April's mom because I thought the same thing. Look how creative and original this series is in that: Rory has now become Lorelai 16 years later Rory is carrying a child with the second generation version of her dad (according to ASP) Rory is seemingly only going to acknowledge his/her existence once it's sprung on him later just like what happened with Luke and April's mom. I don't think I'll care to watch more episodes since we can pretty much establish what will happen based upon what's already occurred since ASP loves her parallels so much. Yawn.

I think this was ASP's way of making sure that none of the shipper crowd was happy. You could tell how exasperated she would get whenever anyone brought the subject up. I don't suspect either Jess or Logan fans were happy. What little we did see of Jess wasn't worth watching his pining, puppy dog look at the end. I imagine Logan fans weren't happy with that ending either since it's dubious as to whether Rory even intends to tell him he's the father. Dean actually got a decent ending which his fans should be grateful for since Rory would have undoubtedly run him over like a freight train like she always does.

Yep. I thought this was a letdown. Perhaps I expected too much but I should have known when ASP kept saying that she was so excited to be able to write her original ending...which might have worked 10 years ago but not so much now. This revival felt stale and as I suspected, the character stagnation/regression was off-the-charts for Rory. Aimlessness and stupid decision making are entirely expected when you're an early 20-something. It's not so cute when you're in your 30s. Am I supposed to root for Rory at 32 to basically turn into Lorelai at 16? Sorry, but that ending was gross. The other thing I don't get is that I know ASP wanted to ignore S7 which I totally understand, but seems she wanted to ignore her own S6 too.

Yup. I just posted that very same thing a few weeks ago. It's more than a little disingenuous for Stephen or Marc to suddenly play the wounded puppy when they've been just as much involved in leading fans down the pathway for years. If Stephen wants to pretend that's not what's happened then fine but it's not going to stop me from believing it's true because I have eyes, ears, and a brain. That said, I do think his point is legitimate re: watching the show because you enjoy it as a whole...which is why I stopped watching 3 episodes ago. This is just not the same show I came to know and love. Frankly I'm tired of the repetitiveness, predictability, and incoherence of the storylines. Characters never learn lessons, or if they do, they revert back into bad decisions two seasons later depending on whether they fit the plot. Certain characters I became invested in over 4 seasons have been pushed to the sidelines for new ones. The only thing they seemed to fix were the stunts/fights which I enjoy, but even those have grown tedious. All of this goes far beyond any evil shipper tendencies I may have harbored since I had already backed away from the Olicity train when it was clear that these writers had no interest in writing them in a mature relationship. So yeah--I'm taking your advice, Stephen. It's not my fault that you and your producers keep reducing this to being about one ship--even when that one thing is something you guys have been actively complicit in promoting to the fans in the first place. Refreshingly enough, I can watch all of these con and FB interactions from a distance with borderline apathy. I do, however, continue to laugh at the defensiveness that's been shown. Could those questions have been nicer? Yeah, but I totally understand why they were asked. Marc especially used the shippers to promote the show so I totally get why people who spent hours trending, voting, spending money, and spreading word of mouth about the show are now asking why their source of enjoyment is being marginalized. Is that showing arrogant entitlement? Perhaps, but then again, these are fans who devoted extra time and effort promoting something they loved, often being ridiculed in the process on the show's official social media accounts, only to watch the show then move away from what they loved. I don't know why that concept is so hard for the showrunners to understand without resorting to snotty tweets and comeback responses.

I get what you're saying. I love(d) the show and am so glad that it's back for one last hurrah but I always felt like if it were to happen I'd want to see some real character progression by all the Gilmore women. Luckily it's sounding like at least Emily is getting some. Hopefully we'll see it with Lorelai and Rory. Since people really have only seen the first episode I'm trying really hard not to pre-judge Lorelai deciding on a major life path that Luke doesn't seem to want (i.e. the surrogacy) or Rory hooking up with Logan when she's been dating a guy for 2 years. I'm willing to let the remaining 3 episodes tell the story but I really need to see that these ladies have learned something in the past 10 years in terms of selflessness when it comes to their relationships (both familial and romantic).

Probably because it's portraying the 18th century when women's opinions meant very little. Men in those days could fool around and their wives couldn't do much about it as it was nearly impossible to get a divorce. It's simply reflecting the realities of the age. Thankfully, Demelza is awesome enough to give Ross glorious shit about it.

After 7 episodes, Tyler's already showing a level of maturity and self-awareness when dealing with fans that Guggenheim hasn't in 5 seasons. I may not really care that much about his character, but Tyler is a pretty cool guy based upon all of his interviews (and not just this one comment either). He and Joe Dinicol are coming across a lot more agreeably than Rick Gonzalez is in these media bits.

This. I find all 3 women rather selfish and always tended to sympathize with their significant others. I much prefer the Emily/Lorelai/Rory relationship over their romantic entanglements because I feel like they don't treat the men in their lives very well at all. Maybe that's to be expected due to the female-centric focus of the series but it is what it is, I guess.

Considering Terry Kinney is getting 3rd billing on the show, I'm confident we'll be seeing more parole officer scenes. I really enjoyed the pilot episode but I'm reserving judgment until I see a few more episodes. I do like that the show is not afraid to show Letty at her absolute worst right off the bat, yet still make her sympathetic as she makes very human mistakes Michelle Dockery is showing a lot of range and ability here that she never could do stuck in period dramas. I also agree with you in being unsure about Javier. I like Juan Diego Botto's portrayal, but I'm having a hard time with the notion that the show is inevitably going to try to make us sympathize with Javier and want him to have a relationship with Letty. Dude's a killer (and not even one in the name of justice)...I don't know how you come back from that.

Yes, we are supposed to like Ross but I think the show hasn't exactly been shy about showing the audience that he's both a noble and a deeply flawed man. I do, however, have to disagree that he only looks out for his interests. He's really one of the few gentry members who fight to employ and even feed the common folk. Even his stubbornness in keeping his mine open is, in large part, driven by his desire not to see his workers' families starve. As to your request, here's as much hope as I'll give you without providing too much in terms of spoilers:

Hey, at least Brian apologized for perceived offenses, which is more than I can say for Guggenheim. That guy will never admit fault.

Is that confirmed or just speculation?

Kudos to Harry for issuing that statement. The press coverage has been completely disgusting. I'm glad he slapped them upside the head.

To be honest, I'm kind of surprised by the hatred for the finale episode. Granted, I have not watched the 70s series but I have read over half of the books in the series and I really enjoyed this episode. Sure it doesn't follow the books verbatim but I've never been one who believes that TV adaptations have to be completely faithful. I enjoy new twists to surprise me as a viewer without deviating enough to change the overall plot. I frankly loved the Dwight/Caroline scenes and didn't think it diminished either character to set aside propriety and convention given the cruel circumstances facing them. I liked the Trenwith riot scene as well because it gave us some of the strongest acted moments of the series between AT and JF. As for Ross and Demelza's reconciliation, I admit that the scene played out much better in the books and I'm still miffed that we never heard the word "sorry" from Ross, but overall it wasn't terrible. I think the writers were successful in showing Ross's honesty both about the situation with Elizabeth and his ultimate choice in Demelza. In that moment I believed Ross was sincere. The finale, along with the S3 preview, made me excited for more so I have no doubt I'll be watching again. My only major complaint is that the wait will be too long!

I'd rather not have the showrunners here TBH. I like the frank, unfiltered discussion about the show and what's going on behind the scenes without worrying about hurt feelings. That said, given their blatant animosity towards fan opinions as of late, I highly doubt they really care anyway.

Obviously people should decide what's best for them but I'm at the point of stockpiling episodes. I really liked the first 3 but the last 2 have been incredibly "meh" to me. I said at the beginning of the season that I would give it 5 episodes in which to decide whether to watch live or just keep them on the DVR for future viewing until things start turning around and making sense again. I ultimately came to the conclusion that between the sub-par writing and the EP/writer rudeness with fans that I'm exhausted by it all. I haven't given up completely--I just have limited patience to devote to a show that only seems to go round and round in circles. If things wrap up well by the end of the season then I'll use the summer hiatus to get caught up. If it continues to be a hot mess then I haven't wasted a bunch of time.

Keep digging yourself deeper there, Ben. These people never learn.

Not only this but it's also a bit disingenuous to then accuse fans of being "entitled" for expressing their displeasure after he spent the last 4 years baiting the shipper crowd. If he's somehow upset that they feel they deserve something then MG needs a good look in the mirror. After all, he was the one over on Tumblr all throughout S3 stoking the shipper fires. He was the one to having heart-to-hearts with jbuffyangel at conventions, fully knowing that she was a die-hard shipper and was going to turn around and write a detailed summary of their conversation to be read by her thousands of shipper followers. For him to act all indignant at their anger and resentment is rather LOL-worthy.

^^^This. I'm not sure where exactly they got the idea that rebooting the show was so important. Maybe in S2 but S5? At that point your audience is pretty well established. After spending 4 years growing to love the characters and their journeys they probably aren't going to be excited to see massive character regression, time-traveling erasures of plotlines/characters, retreads of prior seasons, and a bunch of new people sucking the screentime away from the characters in whom they've spent years investing their viewership. MG clearly doesn't understand the nuance.

Chris Carter....*violently shudders*

Yeah, his responses were pretty bad. Maybe it's how that Tumblr person is relating the conversation but...it's not helping the situation. People watch TV shows to escape all of the crappy garbage going on in the world so for Marc to belittle their desire to be entertained is pretty low. Maybe he is just responding to the negative comments directed at him but then again, if he's so thin-skinned then perhaps he should just walk away from social media because snapping back at fans like that is not a good look for a show that isn't exactly tearing the world up with its storytelling and ratings.