itgetseasier

So am I the only one here who actually loves this show?

9, 10, 18

I win the prize for most unpopular opinion then, because I'm really glad I saw the revival! (Please tell me that prize is free coffee at Luke's for the next several decades? That is all I desire out of life.) I think it helped that I had been disillusioned with Rory for years, so I wasn't surprised or taken aback by her choices in the revival. Even though I can understand why people found it frustrating to watch, I found it in character. Moreover, once I remembered that almost all of the growth in Logan came during the season AS-P wasn't around and therefore didn't reflect her vision of the character and their relationship, I didn't find him or their selfish arrangement in the revival out of character either. AS-P tends to view most rich people as fatally flawed in nearly identical ways, so to her I always felt Logan = Christopher regardless of whether many viewers agreed, and now in their adult lives Logan was the funloving, charming, adoring but ultimately spoiled and weak guy from Rory's past who she still clung to just as Lorelai had clung to funloving, charming, adoring but ultimately spoiled and weak Christopher. Even Rory ending up with a surprise pregnancy didn't seem that outrageous to me and made sense given AS-P's focus from the very beginning of the show about how family history and patterns repeat themselves. Full Circle writing feels a little lazy and contrived, but it's the type of storytelling that ASP has always loved. This is all an awkward way of saying that in my unpopular opinion the revival wasn't dramatically inconsistent with the rest of the series. It had most of its same strengths and shortcomings to me. Some of the characters' and the show's weaknesses just felt worse because many of us felt they should have matured past them by now, but neither AS-P nor her characters were ever renowned for their maturity! I have to admit that I got chills during LL's wedding and did love revisiting Stars Hollow. I'm not claiming the revival measures up to the original series at its best, but I found it a worthwhile watch overall. As some have noted, with GG it's always all about the brilliance of individual scenes and enjoying its special moments rather than objectively assessing how well the structure, plotlines and character arcs hold together when taken as a whole. My expectations wree modest, and the revival measured up to them overall. If I had expected more, I probably would have been disappointed. As it was, I'm among the only people who was I saw it and will definitely watch certain parts of it again. But don't worry, the musical is NOT one of the parts I'll be re-watching!

I see Paris as a genuinely unstable person, so it gives me a little more sympathy and understanding for her behavior. I know someone who has serious clinical anxiety issues and general neuroses who's a lot like Paris, though of course a real world version who's not as over the top awful. She's extremely bright, driven and does have a good heart but is also extremely defensive, lashes out whenever she feels threatened and has that same combination of deep insecurity and a ruthless determination to prove her parents and the rest of the world wrong about how great she can be. So I feel like I can understand and relate a bit to Paris, and like others have said, in some ways I feel like I can explain most of her dysfunction even though I can't excuse it. And she is a very multi-layered, entertaining and interesting character to me. To me Michel and Emily are in a different slightly different category. They seem less like they have legitimate emotional problems and more just choose to be nasty. I'm guessing some of Michel's snotty behavior stems from being unhappy, like he fancies himself this sophisticated, worldly guy who's somehow found himself in a small town and is a little bitter with his lot in life, but then I find myself wondering why he doesn't just move or at least try to find a different job. His snarkiness is amusing, but unlike Paris, it's not balanced out by many moments of vulnerability or examples of how loyal and devoted a friend he can be, so I sympathize with him less even though I really enjoy his scenes. Emily is someone I have very jumbled and consistently changing feelings about. Maybe that's the mark of a very multi-layered and complex character. In the span of just one or two episodes, I can go from admiring her to borderline hating her to sympathizing with her to feeling like she and I are two different species and I'll never understand her. But just to make sure this is suitably unpopular, while I always see the relationship between Lorelai and Emily listed as among Gilmore Girls' greatest assets, I have to admit that I ended up finding it very exhausting to watch. It followed the exact same dysfunctional pattern over and over, which may be realistic but at a certain part ceases to be enjoyable to watch. And it seemed to highlight the worst sides of both women far more often than it allowed for any real growth.

http://www.countryliving.com/life/entertainment/a40727/lorelai-gilmore-is-the-worst-daughter-ever/ Even as someone who generally defends Lorelai and has very ambivalent feelings about Emily, I found the above an interesting read. And the below article is also an amusing look at Lorelai's flaws. https://moviepilot.com/p/gilmore-girls-revival-lorelai-is-still-the-worst/4155734 I need to stop reading these before they force me to rethink my love for Lorelai! Time to search for articles that explore why Rory is even worse :-)

As much as I love this show and Lorelai, this article had me laughing. Some of the criticisms are spot on and echo those voiced by many posters here. And it was written long before the revival, so I can only imagine what the author thought of Lorelai and especially Rory while watching AYITL! http://www.vulture.com/2014/09/whos-worse-lorelai-or-rory.html

Season 4 is my favorite of the whole series, so this one is already impossible for me and we're only on round 1!

9, 14, 17

I forgot to mention that I also love this show for introducing me to Sam Phillips, who's now one of my favorite singers. The fact that listening to her now reminds me of my favorite show makes me love her all the more. I still get teary when Reflecting Light comes on. Luke can waltz...

This game physically hurts! But I already love it anyway. :-) 8 and 17, but I'll go watch them today to make up for it. Not sure if anyone here is on Tumblr? I'm decades older than most there but just started an account dedicated to Gilmore Girls if anyone might be interested: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/lukecanwaltz

May I have an A?

Favorite characters: Lorelai, Luke, Paris, Lane, Michel Favorite season: S4. I blathered on for paragraphs about this in the unpopular opinions forum 10 favorite episodes - Double Date, Forgiveness and Stuff, The Road Trip to Harvard, Run Away, Little Boy, Those Are Strings, Pinocchio, Scenes in a Mall, Luke Can See Her Face, Last Week Fights This Week Tights, Raincoats and Recipes, Written in the Stars, But Not As Cute as Pushkin That was 12, but fortunately a lot of fans seem to count the final three episodes of S4 as one!

I've spent all day reading these threads and had to come back to bless the poster who mentioned Jess/Paris as a possible relationship. I truly thought I was the only viewer to have that idea lodged in my mind since There's the Rub and then seeing how Jess evolved and improved while Rory's character spiraled from mediocre to appalling. It appeals to me more than any canon ship other than Java Junkie and maybe Sookie/Jackson. It's so validating to read through here and see how even the most unpopular opinions are nearly always shared by at least one or two other viewers. I can't tell yet which seasons are the most popular but it seems like possibly S2 and S5? I do love S2 but S4 is my favorite. I sometimes just watch it over and over. I won't try to calculate how many times I've watched it because it probably qualifies me as clinically insane! I love the buildup to LL, enjoyed Jason more than Luke and Lorlai's other soporific significant others, and watching Lorelai, Sookie and Michel fulfill their dream of building their own inn fills me with joy. Lorelai is more lovable to me this season than any other, with the massive inn undertaking highlighting her determination, creativity and energy while also showing us how vulnerable and unsure she can be. I also like watching her adjust to the slightly altered dynamic with Rory. Some think S4 is when Rory became unbearable, but I thought she was pretty bad as early as S2. I really dislike her role in the Dean and Jess mess and started how noticing back in S2 how she always seemed relatively indifferent to Lane, Paris, Luke and nearly every single person other than Lorelai compared to how much they gave to and cared about her. Even when she gets anxious about doing The Right Thing, it always comes off like it stems from her own fear of being disliked or getting in trouble than out of a genuine concern for anyone other than her mom and herself. So that was a long way of saying that my problems with Rory started well before S4. I actually liked her for parts of S4 because watching her adjust to Yale, filled with some people who didn't quite so readily adore her, was more interesting and easy to relate to. The Dean thing was a disaster, but not surprising and, as people here have argued, actually very much in character. S4 is also when I finally started liking Jess, and S4 is great for those of us who care about the Jess and Luke relationship. S4 also happens to have some of the best moments for my three favorite supporting characters: Paris, Lane and Michel. (I don't really consider Luke a supporting character, but if we do, then please add him to that list!) The stuff with Lane and her mom is particularly great. And I saved the most unpopular reason that S4 is my favorite for last: I actually like Liz and TJ in S4. For the most part. :) They're annoying, but they're supposed to be, and I feel like they both had good hearts. And I loved seeing Luke interact with family other than just Jess. Seeing him as Liz's loving big brother brought out a side of him that I really love. Sorry for the dissertation! It's just very exciting to find a place where people care about this show as much as I do and don't start yawning when I yammer on about it. Or if you are yawning, at least I can't see it. ;)

If it's not too late to start playing, I vote to eliminate 4 and 5, please. These are all my favorite episodes of the season, so it's clear you all have excellent taste! But I can already tell this game is really heart-wrenching for those of us who love way too many episodes. Lorelai would constantly be referencing Sophie's Choice.

My Luke and Lorelai! My love for them has endured through rocky writing and AS-P's highly questionable directorial choices, and I like to believe that their love for each other has survived all their obstacles as well. :) Couples often take a bit of tiem to grow on me, but I fell for Luke and Lorelai from their very first scene in the pilot. Before they even got around to calling each other Junkie and Angel, I knew they were soulmates. I agree with every scene people named as favorites. I also agree that like most TV pairings they had too many of their best moments before finally getting together, but I've been watching S5 again and think they have a ton of beautiful, funny and touching little moments that season too. My goal for the summer is to write a Java Junkie fanfic. One in which Paris is actually Lorelai's daughter and Luke's step-daughter, because I have little tolerance for Rory these days, though that's for another thread. And I like to think that Paris would have called out Lorelai and Luke on their frustrating communication issues far earlier in their relationship!