Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life Season 1

[cantbeflapped]

31 minutes ago, stillshimpy said:

It's not that I think it was perfect, it wasn't, but it was the most viewing fun I have had in years...and years. 

Aww, I'm glad others were as over the moon about this as I was.  My big fear was dying before Nov. 25.  I made it....whew!

I've been rewatching this week and still have to pinch myself that there's new Gilmore Girls on my screen.  

[Anna Yolei]

On Wednesday, November 30, 2016 at 3:34 PM, BonnieD said:

liked Rory's story of unraveling and don't think it's completely out of character. Yes, she used to be scheduled and organized and ambitious, but in real life those things can fall by the wayside. She got smacked down by reality. That makes for an interesting story of actual growth. 

Me, too. I was disappointed in season six because Rory came off as a petulant brat, most specifically by running to her hrandparents' house the one time Lorelei tells her no, she cant quit Yale. 

This revival is far closer to how I expected that season to turn out. I could've done without a cheating with Logan but at least the fandom isn't slut shaming her for it the way she was in season five for sleeping with two guys in the same season, so there's that.

Edited December 2, 2016 by Anna Yolei
Autocorrect, adding more thoughts

[moonb]

20 hours ago, hippielamb said:

The criticism about Rory being pregnant, and also Lane's choice to stay in Stars Hollow and be a mom bother me because there's this attitude of how much that will suck. Lane is happy, her life doesn't suck, especially when you compare it to Rory's story in these episodes. It's not what either one of them envisioned when they were kids but they can still have a happy life. There's this theme throughout the series of life doesn't always turn out how you expect, and it's a good thing. Luke says it in the diner, Lorelai has said it several times on the show, Rory and Lane's storylines show this. 

I feel like the show tries to have it both ways - I'm thinking of Lorelai's line at the end of season 5 when Rory drops out of Yale: "She was supposed to have more than me. She was supposed to have everything." Common thing for parents to say, and we can guess that Lorelai is referring to an Ivy League education and a chance to try at a career of her choice, to have a spouse and children at a slightly later age than Lorelai, maybe. What our culture thinks of as success.

By the end of the revival, Lorelai is successful by the standards of what lots of 30 and 40-somethings want and dream of: she's in a stable relationship that makes her happy; her business is successful, she's expanding it, and she finds it rewarding; she's rooted in a community she loves and has friends who would do anything for her; she's on amicable terms with her mother, she has a healthy child who loves her, admires her, and wants to be around her. She has "everything." She gave up some things for that, sure. She lived in poverty by choice for several years and gave up a traditional college education (which she rarely seems to regret, since the show only touches on that a few times). Even during the show's original run she had a good portion of that list, except for a stable romantic relationship and a good relationship with her parents.  The show wants to admire that and simultaneously look down on it, it seems like. 

The thing about Rory having a child at 32 instead of 22, leaving aside all the father drama Rory inflicted on herself, is that she had her chance at the "everything" Lorelai talks about earlier. She has her degree, and can get another if that's what she really wants. We can guess she's traveled plenty in the past 10 years, and even during her college years (in the revival, travel's lost its glamour big time. All it gets her is a failed book project and a mistress house). It's not uncommon for dreams to change from traveling and exploring to wanting stability and roots in your 30s.  Like Lorelai, she has some of the "success" checklist; she's only missing the stable relationship and career trajectory, but hopefully providing for a child can give her the kick she needs.

Of course, Rory acting like a teenager doesn't help remind viewers that she's over 30 and pregnant. :)

Edited December 2, 2016 by moonb

[Bumblebee Tights]

5 hours ago, cuddlingcrowley said:

Ha, I very much disagree with that statement. From what I've seen, the most passionate criticisms are things people didn't like in the original show in the first place that carried over or got enhanced in the revival. Be it the girls' personalities/flaws, be it ASP's inability handling social issues. The revival stayed very true to the flavor of Gilmore Girls. The good and the bad. I'd find it hard to call superfans those who felt the original show didn't get changed enough to enjoy the revival.

I tend to agree with this... although I don't want to be dismissive of anyone else's experience, because I get that everything is subjective and I also truly can see loving the series and hating the ending (though as I've said, that was not at all my reaction), but geez, I don't think I could be a bigger fan of this show .. seriously, ask my long suffering husband. And I just LOVED the revival.. I actually was fairly surprised at the amount of vitriol it was receiving, not just about the end, which as I said, I would expect to be fairly polarizing, but about all of it. GG for me was always charming in spite of, and sometimes even because of, it's flaws.

[TomServo]

On 11/28/2016 at 2:33 AM, Last Time Lord said:

I am exactly 11:04 into the final episode, and when it hit me. 

The episode titles. Winter. Spring. Summer. Fall. They're from the show's opening theme song. "Winter, spring, summer, or fall/All you have to do is call"

I just got that. 

 

I think you may have accidentally confused Carole King with James Taylor.

[Dean Learner]

4 minutes ago, TomServo said:

 

I think you may have accidentally confused Carole King with James Taylor.

No confusion, considering she wrote the song.

[stillshimpy]

No confusion, considering she wrote the song.

She did, but the theme song for the show is Where You Lead.  Confusion, ahoy! 

[VCRTracking]

If the point of Rory's whole arc these 4 movies was to show that her at 32 years old taking care of a baby is as terrifying an idea as 16 year old Lorelei taking care of a baby.....

Mission accomplished.

Edited December 2, 2016 by VCRTracking

[Bec]

The show seems to be pushing marriage and children (not necessarily in that order) pretty hard as the ultimate endgame for everyone ("This female character never indicated any interest in having babies? Let's make her have a baby!"). I'm not crazy about that, but TV shows do this all the time, so it doesn't surprise me.

And at the same time it's presenting cheating as sooo romantic. Hmm. Seems weirdly incompatible with presenting marriage as sooo important.

But wait, I guess it actually makes sense this show would do that. Cheating is what happens amongst people who are so afraid of being single they can't end one relationship before starting another.

This is a show that pretty much considers being single the worst thing ever. (Unless you're a widow who has already spent most of your life married. Only then do you get to be free.)

I like what was said upthread about this show being about people finding happiness in life in many unexpected ways, even when things don't go according to plan. Yes, that's a good theme. This show could still use a little more variety in what ends up working out for people. Not everyone has to get married and/or have children. These things are not mandatory, show!

At this point Jess is the only important character who has no children and is also single, right? Can't one character be content living life like this? Jess was never one to fall in line with what everybody expects, so it could make sense for him.

Oh man, it just occurred to me that if Jess gets together with Rory, it would be kind of like getting together with another version of his mother (the single-mother who repeatedly makes horrible life choices and often needs other people to get her out of her messes). Rory is not as much of a space-cadet as Liz, but they have about the same level of common sense. You're better off single, Jess!

Okay, it might sound like I'm complaining, but I enjoyed most of the show (pretty much all the parts that didn't have "romantic angst!" or "baby drama!" in it). I like quirks and laughs and feels. Show delivered these in spades.

[TimetravellingBW]

4 hours ago, Bec said:

The show seems to be pushing marriage and children (not necessarily in that order) pretty hard as the ultimate endgame for everyone ("This female character never indicated any interest in having babies? Let's make her have a baby!"). I'm not crazy about that, but TV shows do this all the time, so it doesn't surprise me.

And at the same time it's presenting cheating as sooo romantic. Hmm. Seems weirdly incompatible with presenting marriage as sooo important.

But wait, I guess it actually makes sense this show would do that. Cheating is what happens amongst people who are so afraid of being single they can't end one relationship before starting another.

This is a show that pretty much considers being single the worst thing ever. (Unless you're a widow who has already spent most of your life married. Only then do you get to be free.)

I like what was said upthread about this show being about people finding happiness in life in many unexpected ways, even when things don't go according to plan. Yes, that's a good theme. This show could still use a little more variety in what ends up working out for people. Not everyone has to get married and/or have children. These things are not mandatory, show!

At this point Jess is the only important character who has no children and is also single, right? Can't one character be content living life like this? Jess was never one to fall in line with what everybody expects, so it could make sense for him.

It's amazing that Gilmore Girls started out as such a progressive show and ended with almost every female character being unfulfilled and/or foisted with surprise pregnancies. It would have been great if different characters found fulfillment in different ways. Some would want the marriage + kids package, and some wouldn't. 

On one hand Logan, Lane and especially Dean wanting/having families by their 30's would feel in character. (At least the s7 version of Logan. And Lane getting pregnant after pursuing her musical dreams in some way would be fine). On the flipside, Paris, Rory and possibly Jess not being interested in that traditional lifestyle would also make sense. (Why couldn't they have traded Paris's kids for her staying with Doyle, and them being an awesome power couple taking over the world? C'mon. And Rory practically ran way from kids in the original series, yes she was young but the level that she freaked out around babies and pregnancy - like not even being able to look at Sookie when she was going into labour - was weird. And Jess may be wary of marriage because of Liz and her 101 husbands and boyfriends she ran to when she needed validation). 

21 hours ago, moonb said:

The thing about Rory having a child at 32 instead of 22, leaving aside all the father drama Rory inflicted on herself, is that she had her chance at the "everything" Lorelai talks about earlier. She has her degree, and can get another if that's what she really wants. We can guess she's traveled plenty in the past 10 years, and even during her college years (in the revival, travel's lost its glamour big time. All it gets her is a failed book project and a mistress house). It's not uncommon for dreams to change from traveling and exploring to wanting stability and roots in your 30s.  

I never thought my complaint after the revival was that Rory wouldn't be successful enough. Based on the original series habit of treating Rory like a special snowflake who almost effortlessly achieved everything she wanted, I genuinely thought the revival would start with Rory struggling and end with her landing a position at the NYT and/or a Pultizer. Not perpetually unemployed, broke, knocked up and back in her hometown with a vague book idea as her only career plan. I was never a fan who bought into Rory's journalistic dreams (we've discussed careers she'd be better suited for a lot on these forums) so I was interested in her facing failure and exploring other options. But I did like her enough to want her to succeed somewhere else. If ASP wanted realism and "we don't always get what we want/you can't control life" then Rory giving up on being the next Christiane Amanpour and becoming the less-prestigious high school English teacher (albeit as a fancy school) would be true to life. But a bittersweet rather than all out tragic ending. 

Basically I don't mind that they brought Rory down to earth but they didn't have to break her completely. A lot of the reviews commenting that Rory's fate seemed to be punishing women for having dreams and ambitions were spot on. 

[ShadowFacts]

I was also bugged by the marriage and kids treatment for so many characters, including Michel.  Jess seemed happily single, so there was that.  Logan was actually pretty happily single in his cheating way, but soon to marry.  Hell, Paris was even in the baby business (which I didn't love, thought she should have been a very heavy-hitting doctor/researcher or something).  It was all kind of retrograde.

Rory's career dreams, even if Christiane Amanpour-style journalism wasn't really going to work, could have flowed organically to something like news production, ending with her landing at CNN or even working on documentaries.  The whole flying around interviewing drunken celebrities and being half-assed about interviews just wasn't Rory, I couldn't buy it.  She would have had a Plan B and worked it. 

[CalamityBoPeep]

1 hour ago, TimetravellingBW said:

I never thought my complaint after the revival was that Rory wouldn't be successful enough. Based on the original series habit of treating Rory like a special snowflake who almost effortlessly achieved everything she wanted, I genuinely thought the revival would start with Rory struggling and end with her landing a position at the NYT and/or a Pultizer. Not perpetually unemployed, broke, knocked up and back in her hometown with a vague book idea as her only career plan. I was never a fan who bought into Rory's journalistic dreams (we've discussed careers she'd be better suited for a lot on these forums) so I was interested in her facing failure and exploring other options. But I did like her enough to want her to succeed somewhere else. If ASP wanted realism and "we don't always get what we want/you can't control life" then Rory giving up on being the next Christiane Amanpour and becoming the less-prestigious high school English teacher (albeit as a fancy school) would be true to life. But a bittersweet rather than all out tragic ending. 

Basically I don't mind that they brought Rory down to earth but they didn't have to break her completely. A lot of the reviews commenting that Rory's fate seemed to be punishing women for having dreams and ambitions were spot on. 

I agree with this. And would add that ASP's "we don't always get what we want/can't control life" thing is being illustrated in the show by Rory having entirely predictable results come from her own actions. It's maddening.  Yes, sometimes life throws a curveball, but flaking an interview because you don't bother to invest the time to prepare is not a curveball. It's a choice with predictable consequences. 

Being a side piece for an engaged man, even if you love him, pretty much guarantees heartache. That's not a curveball. It's a choice, with serious consequences if your preferred method of birth control fails. Which does happen sometimes, and which nobody in Western society can possibly not know, at this point.

Curveballs are things like loved ones dying on you; your career getting derailed because your employer goes out of business; your star-chef up and leaving you when you thought you were partners in an investment; (but waiting two years to fill the vacancy is a choice. *ahem* Lorelai *mmph*); the economy tanking in the middle of your prime earning years. Not... surprise! Your engaged ex-boyfriend really does plan to get married.

I agree so much with the latest "Not a crackpot" article here at PTV, about this series. Emily is the actual protagonist of the Gilmore Girls. She encounters actual surprises, learns, grows, and follows the hero's journey.

Edited December 3, 2016 by CalamityBoPeep

[starri]

4 minutes ago, CalamityBoPeep said:

I agree so much with the latest "Not a crackpot" article here at PTV, about this series. Emily is the actual protagonist of the Gilmore Girls. She encounters actual surprises, learns, grows, and follows the hero's journey.

Zero argument from me.  And honestly, it's why I don't consider my entire time with AYITL wasted.  Well, Emily and Michel.

[hippielamb]

On Thursday, December 01, 2016 at 6:12 PM, shron17 said:

I've had loved to savor it more but was on a deadline.  Had to leave the house mid morning for a family thing so set the alarm for 3 am and watched pretty much straight through.  It seemed like a better option than having to leave before I was finished! 

My eldest called me at 3am and said it's happening! We stayed up til 7 and then I had boring grown up stuff to do the next day. It's all I could think about. 

On Thursday, December 01, 2016 at 6:22 PM, cantbeflapped said:

Aww, I'm glad others were as over the moon about this as I was.  My big fear was dying before Nov. 25.  I made it....whew!

I've been rewatching this week and still have to pinch myself that there's new Gilmore Girls on my screen.  

It gave me a smiley face too just to see the girls again. :) I liked it even better on my second viewing, just to appreciate the little nuances I missed the first time. Like how subtly out of sorts Rory is when she suspects she's pregnant. Lorelai notices but doesn't know why. Or in the funeral scene how Rory puts her head on Lorelai's shoulder just like she did in Kill Me Now. :)) 

[shron17]

On 11/29/2016 at 1:30 PM, Melancholy said:

I think her campfire conversation with the other Wild ladies lends perspective. She actually has a good life unlike the book character. She thinks Luke is a good man and they're happy together. She think Rory is amazing. Even though she just fought with them. She's not Wonderwoman but there's plenty of wonder in the world she made for herself. I think that leads her to gracefully (for Lorelai) accept that she can't walk the trail. She didn't even start the Wonderwoman unbreakable PCT trail but she still experienced beauty and wonder in her view of the nature and she was more than deserving of that even though she breakabl-y flaked on the license. 

I like your explanation but it didn't quite check all the boxes.  Until I put together the part where Lorelai said she felt like she was standing still while the world passed her by with her conversation with Luke about how of course her epiphany had something to do with coffee.  Lorelai does already have the life she wants for herself--all she has to do is move forward from where she is and find that just up the hill is a whole beautiful vista for her to enjoy without having to fit everything she needs into a backpack and take a crazy long hike.  It's been right there, all the time. 

A large part of Lorelai and Emily's tension is Emily needing to believe all of Lorelai's childhood wasn't horrible vs. Lorelai justifying why she had to leave.  I think Lorelai's call to Emily was her realization that despite not having a warm fuzzy childhood she still has good memories that she can share and give Emily some of what she needs.  This was Lorelai embracing her past for what it was in all it's ups and downs and then going home to move forward and embrace her future, where she already has everything she needs to be happy.

[Andromeda]

Just finished watching. Was thrilled to see both Danny Strong and Melissa McCarthy show up, albeit briefly, now that they're hot stuff.

The biggest and best character arc was Emily's. She showed real growth and change, and it impressed me. I loved seeing her shed the stuck-up DAR women, and sell her home to move to that heavenly place in Nantucket. Wonderful stuff.

I was glad Rory had issues -- I always thought she had it way too easy, with things always going her way and the support of  a ridiculous number of adults. (I just rewatched the last couple of episodes of Season 7, and the town's emotional reaction to her college graduation was so over the top -- as if she was jointly their only human child, and no other young person in town ever did anything or meant anything to them.)

I thought her having an affair with that idiot rich boy Logan I've always hated was pretty awful. she didn't even seem to realize that's what she was doing, until his fiancee moved in. Hey, Rory, news flash! Logan is CHEATING on his fiancee with you, so what the hell are you doing sleeping with him? And why didn't Lorelai take her to task about that?

Rory and Lorelai's mean reaction to Rory's boyfriend Paul was typical of them -- they have always had a mean streak underpinning their wittiness. I'll never forget how they sniped about a B&B that was decorated with country "charm," and made fun of menus that had photos. I never quite got where they drew the line -- they didn't like hokey things, while living in a town rife with hokey things, and disparaging high-class snobby things, while hungering for them. Like Rory and the silly Life and Death boys, who made me want to puke. At first it seemed charming in the original show, but now the infatuation all the guys have with Rory, and their perfectly timed remarks every time, make me feel all stabby. (So none of these guys has changed a whit since college? Really!? Ready to fly out to SH at a moment's notice!?) Which is a shame, because I thought the sequence in the town at night was a fantastic dream, until it turned out to be real (yeah, right, Stars Hollow has a tango club, and the guys can change the words on a sign with no notice, etc. etc., and yeah, buy entire clubs and B&Bs, again on no notice. Very silly.)

I've decided that the Palladinos are full of contempt in their minds and hearts.  Their writing is quirky and full of amusing pop culture references (but ugh, Ben Affleck, why??) but at the heart and soul, their perspectives are full of bitterness and both snobbery and reverse snobbery.

Yeah, that!

As a woman who majored in journalism, and was a reporter on a small paper, then an editor, then more and more varied writing/editing positions and now am very happy in my editing career, Rory has no one to blame but herself for not making it as a journalist. Her first mistake was dumping the Providence job back in S7. I have no idea why a job as an "on the bus" reporter for Obama didn't result in great contacts and further reporting positions, but maybe the blog site went bust long before the campaign ended.

So she's stuck freelancing, which can be a good career if you're good at it, and motivated. Writing a piece every few months or so for the New Yorker or for Slate isn't going to pay the bills for long, and it's her job to come up with ideas (which she failed to do for the website, thus showing her lack of real interest, of course.) The idea of a New York lines story might actually be a fun feature, but it's obviously not cutting-edge issue-oriented journalism, so why Rory would want that kind of assignment...oh yeah, she was desperate.

I think her book idea is OK, but she can't dine on that forever, either. Memoirs are published in the hundreds, especially with self-publishing such a thing nowadays. Everyone has a story to tell. It was all a little meta for me.

Lorelai's "Wild" adventure was funny. I got a kick out of it, until she tried to talk the park ranger into letting her by without a permit. Lame, Lorelai. Like Rory, she also acts like a special snowflake, doesn't she?

The long, long, never-ending sequence for the play made no sense to me. It wasn't funny or cute, just weird.

The wedding sequence, while over the top compared to reality (who is paying for all those fancy decorations!?), was gorgeous, and also dreamlike. I also loved the pig.

ETA: PARIS!! I almost forgot. I have always loved Paris -- and was happy to see her achieve all she set out to. I hope she stays married, though. They were an awesome couple.

Edited December 3, 2016 by Andromeda

[lulu1960]

Quote

But ASP has confirmed that there's one storyline in season 7 that she left out in the revival (I can't find the interview, so I hope you can take me for my well intentioned word!)

ASP did an interview with Michael Ausiello and the storyline that she had to tweak because Season 7 messed with her vision was the fact that Lane and Zack had kids. She ended up going in a different direction with that because she knows that Lane and Zack would never be shitty parents so she had them more settled. (even though they were still cool and rock n roll)

[readster]

I indulged the last 24 hours due to some in Emily's words: "Bullshit" going on right now and taking care of a sick wife and son. Reviewing, besides Mr. Kim's appearance and actually showing some real friendship I haven't seen between Lain and Rory in years. I see the view of Rory and Chris's meeting a bit more. While I think Chris continued to be the classic: "I just let people tell me what to do." I can understand him staying out of Rory's life more and feeling that Lorelai was the better for raising Rory than him being involved and his focus on Lorelai. Hearing he was in a relationship and accepted everything now. That was more of a finished story with Christopher just like with Emily. I still love Emily's story the most, her telling off the DAR and moving on with her life. I know AS-P didn't want to add any other crap with families like the Huntzburgers and other characters we saw over the years. I loved how she told them off and her doing everything was stupid. I mean it was thoughts like that kept trophy wives out of the DAR and people like Shira and other women in the DAR as just that: "bullshit". I would have loved if Emily would have finished saying: "One day you will be dead too and no one will care about this because younger women don't care now." 

  I also enjoyed Dean's end of the story, such a better send off, him happy, kids, life moving on so much better. However, with Rory and Logan, it painted them both as complete idiots. Logan didn't learn anything in the end, even Mitchum showing up and basically saying: "You are me after all." Because yes, Logan has done that, he married to keep things in the family or knocking Shira up with Honour and then her "playing the part". However, he still very smug asshole. He might have been right, but people like that who like to call the kettle black have such egos that when they do die. The only people who care are their families and others go: "glad that asshole is dead." Other wise, AS-P focus on basically Lorelai and Luke still stuck in season 6 with attitudes from April to not getting married after 9 years was too much. Melissa Mcarthy looked great by the way, but her scene was kind of off by so much. Final scene, whatever. If there is a 2nd Netflix series, then I think we could finally see AS-P and her husband actually try to focus on something new instead of being stuck in the past. 

[junienmomo]

Interesting hearing people discuss how mean Lorelai and Rory are, yet praising Emily, who was their role model in meanness, for her truthful yet still mean treatment of the trophy wife. 

Then it occurred to me that Stars Hollow people, quirky though they may be, show significantly less meanness and far more mean-feeling ignorance, like 'we need more gays for our parade.'

I wish Emily's widowhood arc had included apologizing to her daughter for the immense cruelty she showed post-funeral to overwhelmingly Lorelai but also Luke via criticism of their relationship.

[dubbel zout]

8 hours ago, Andromeda said:

I have no idea why a job as an "on the bus" reporter for Obama didn't result in great contacts and further reporting positions

I do: Rory probably felt any position she was offered was beneath her. For someone who said she was willing to pay her dues, she didn't put her money where her mouth is. One campaign is not much experience, and her internship with Mitchell during the OS seemed mostly administrative. Did he ever let her write something, or did she spend her days shadowing him and that's it?

And of course she ends up as the editor of the Gazette rather than as a lowly reporter. 

1 hour ago, readster said:

trophy wives out of the DAR

If you can prove lineal descent (i.e., it has to be your family, not through a spouse's) from a patriot of the American Revolution, you can be a member of the DAR. If the show had really wanted to be snobby, Emily should have been a member of Colonial Dames. For that organization, an ancestor has to have arrived before the Revolution and basically have been involved in the nation-building.

[Harleycat]

The question I keep wondering about is where Rory will go with her novel when it's finished?

Will she try the indie press route (like Jess) which is hard work but authentic. Young Rory would have loved it, but the current Rory, I don't know about. She has had so many years of a fabulous, easy, jet setting life that I can't see her in this world. She would get discouraged and give up as soon there was the slightest thing that made her uncomfortable and go cry to her Mom as usual about what a failure she is. 0

Or will she go with her corporate connections (like Logan). Unfoturnately, she has burnt a lot of her bridges with this world. Going in for a meeting that Mr. Huntsburger set up for her unprepared not only makes her look uncredible, it looks badly on him as well. Her grandfather would never have put up with it, and he loved her. I don't see anyone putting up with her relying on being pretty for long, so would ultimately fail and end up back on her Mom's couch.

I would hope that she would go back to the world of academia. Write while getting her masters and taking care of her child. Actually put some real thought and critically look into her work. Be one of those people who teach and write without doing major book tours or seeking fame and fortune. But, this is Rory, and she wants fame and fortune, jets and trips the Europe on someone else's dollar. 

[annspal]

I'm finding it amusing to understand Rory's attraction to the Wookie as a misguided attempt to capture the escapism provided by the LDB. Costumes and pretend don't work without the money and entitlement, I guess.

[random chance]

29 minutes ago, annspal said:

I'm finding it amusing to understand Rory's attraction to the Wookie as a misguided attempt to capture the escapism provided by the LDB. Costumes and pretend don't work without the money and entitlement, I guess.

Turns out that money and entitlement provided the escapism, not the LDB.

[Kohola3]

Finally finished watching and it was brutal; I want that 6 hours of my life back.  Hated virtually every single minute.  And the final four words?  Seriously?  That's the best ASP could do?  Talk about an overt grab for another revival - "I'm pregnant" is the staple for every C grade soap opera ever written.  I wasn't expecting Hemingway but this was just so freaking stupid.

I wish I hadn't watched.  Now GG is forever spoiled for me.  I don't think I can watch the original recipe without cringing, knowing what ASP did to our (mostly) beloved characters.

[junienmomo]

The Revival still lands on the list of my favorite seasons above S6 2nd half and S7. 

While Daniel Palladino was particularly bad (see S6 Vineyard Valentine bad) with his part of the writing, the overall arcs worked for me. I suspended logic, just like in the OS. I accepted unaffectionate stage directions for pretty much all characters, just like in the OS. I ignored financial matters, just like in the OS.

What has turned out to be very convenient for me is that the Revival replaces S6 2nd half and S7 for me. 

Now my headcanon is Seasons 1-6.5, plus the revival.

It actually works with only a few rationalizations:

• April was always known to Luke; it was simply that a pregnant Anna had been kidnapped by a cult and April didn't show up until she was 12 (off-camera, and was welcomed by a happily cohabitating LL) after she was thoroughly deprogrammed.
• Richard willingly gave up his spot in the mausoleum so he could have a gravesite long enough that he wouldn't spend eternity with his knees scrunched up to his chest
• Christopher is a slime who was hit over the head at a young age by an anvil
• Logan is Matt Czuchry's Logan and not ASP's (i.e. actually in love with Rory)
• Lorelai's marriage to Christopher was a dream a la the start of Season 3; at the therapist's she simply explaining her dream and isn't delusional
• Sookie's backup chef Manny, who could have easily taken over the Dragonfly restaurant, allowed Luke to steal him for a while, but ultimately ended up on Telemundo with his own wildly successful cooking show
• Emily's psychotic treatment of Lorelai was finally diagnosed and Berta is actually heading up a controlled care facility for her one patient in Nantucket
• Jess was right when he ran off to California and after coaching Rory to go back to school in S6, he walked around Stars Hollow one last time, said WTF and went off to a life free of Liz, TJ and Taylor Doose
• No one will confess to the Liz' and TJ's disappearance, but it happened nonetheless. Most credit Paul Anka the dog and no one questions the very large dog bone reportedly buried in a remote corner of the town square. Doula was adopted by 'barrel of monkeys' hippie gardener guy

[Katherine]

I was so, so excited for the revival, and I had high hopes for it. Gilmore Girls was always one of my favorite shows, but thanks to the last few seasons (particularly season 6), it was also one of the most disappointing. I saw the revival as the perfect chance to fix everything that had been mishandled in seasons 5-7, and for some reason, I had faith that the writers were aiming to do just that. I know a lot of people are really happy with the revival, but overall, I found it pretty disappointing (though not nearly as disappointing as some of the events of seasons 5 and 6). 

What I most wanted from the revival was a return of Original Rory. I missed the Rory we knew in seasons 1-4--an introvert whose idea of a great Friday night was staying home alone doing laundry. I missed the Rory who seemed comfortable in her own skin and defended her right to sit alone at lunch, listening to music and reading a good book. I missed kind Rory--the one who tried to befriend Paris in season 1 and who at least occasionally defended the people Lorelai made fun of. Early seasons Rory was someone a lot of girls could relate to. It was refreshing to have a leading female character who was shy yet confident, someone whose dreams and ambitions were ultimately more important than her love life. Obviously even in those first few seasons, Rory's love life received a lot of attention, but somehow it still felt like Rory herself viewed her high school romances as secondary to her future goals. 

IMO, the character started to go downhill as soon as she met Logan. The Dean affair felt really out of character, but at least we as the audience had Lorelai speaking for us. Initially, I thought they were doing the same thing with Logan (particularly because Lorelai opposed him right from the start). I thought we were supposed to see the whole Logan relationship as Rory's rebellious phase. I never bought that Rory would've fallen for Logan in the first place, but I figured at least their relationship would end with her finding herself again. That seemed to be the direction they were heading with the whole dropping out of Yale thing, but then even after that, the two of them stayed together, and by the last few episodes of season 6, it seemed like we were supposed to be rooting for them. And then in season 7, it definitely seemed like we were supposed to start viewing them as a stable, possibly end-game couple (and the writers did a pretty good job with this--I hate how much crap the season 7 writers get. IMO season 6 was far worse). Rory's character bounced back quite a bit in season 7. She was back on the right track with school, and I actually really liked how the last few episodes handled her budding career (the struggles and the excitement for the future). Then...the revival happened.

I'm really confused about how we're supposed to view Rory and Logan in the revival. As soon as I realized they were having an affair, I figured obviously we were supposed to realize that Logan was all wrong for Rory. I figured Rory was heading for a big rock bottom where she realized that Logan was never "the one", and then she would eventually get her life back on track and get back to the spirit of Original Rory. But...that never really happened. Sure, she ended it with Logan, but she never really seemed to feel like the affair was a mistake. She definitely didn't seem to feel much remorse for cheating on Paul or having an affair with an engaged man (and Logan seemed to have no regrets either). This writing decision really surprised me, but apparently it was all in service of getting to those final four words? ASP wanted Rory pregnant and she wanted Logan to be her Christopher. Okay...but weren't there other, less awful ways of making that happen? If she wanted to completely destroy the Logan character, couldn't she have at least found a way to make the Rory character a little more sympathetic? Or did she feel like she was making them both sympathetic? Did she view their story as romantic and rootable? I'm just so very confused and disappointed.

And as for Rory's pregnancy, I just can't believe this is how ASP wanted it to end. I get that it's "full-circle", but to me, that was never the narrative being told. All along, I thought the point of Rory's story would be finding her place between these two worlds (her grandparents' world and her mother's world). I never thought she would end up repeating her mother's life. And while obviously getting pregnant at 32 is not remotely the same as getting pregnant at 16, it does seem like ASP wants us to believe that Rory is mirroring her mother's life. That's just not how I saw her story ending. For me, Rory's season 7 ending was far more appropriate. She wasn't ending up in Richard and Emily's world (as represented by rejecting Logan's proposal), but she also wasn't ending up in her mother's world (as represented by leaving Star's Hollow to pursue her career in journalism). She didn't have a high profile dream job, but she did have a promising future ahead. It felt right. It felt like that's where the character had been heading all along. But now this revival ending? It just seems like ASP got those final four words in her head a long time ago and was insistent on using them, even if they didn't fit with the narrative and character arc we've been shown. 

I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with Rory ending up pregnant. I think it could've been a good ending...but the build-up just wasn't there. If ASP knew all along this was where the character was going, why not lay a little more groundwork along the way? And why not try to make it seem a little happier? At the very least, why not give her a little more career success, instead of just the possibility of a book? I can't quite put my finger on it, but the ending just didn't feel like it belonged with the rest of the series.

I'm also going to throw in a quick complaint about the lack of Jess and Jess/Rory...my other great wish for the revival was that they would be endgame. I did love that Jess' character seemed to be in a good place, and I really enjoyed his interactions with Luke, but I wanted a little more with him and Rory. Even if they were never going to end up together, I would've liked something more from Rory's side of things. Then again, given how the revival handled Rory/Logan, maybe I should be grateful.

Overall, there were moments of the revival that I loved (all the Emily stuff; Luke and Lorelai's wedding; Paris being Paris), and I don't think it tarnished the original series for me, but it definitely wasn't what I hoped it would be. I can't decide if I want more now (in the hope that this time they would manage to correct the Rory wrongs) or if that would just make it worse.

[DisneyBoy]

Katherine, I was going to quote several of your comments but the reality is that I agree with all of them and you worded it all perfectly. We were on the exact same page with regards to this revival.

[TimetravellingBW]

4 hours ago, DisneyBoy said:

Katherine, I was going to quote several of your comments but the reality is that I agree with all of them and you worded it all perfectly. We were on the exact same page with regards to this revival.

I also wanted to requote everything in your post @Katherine - about missing Original Rory, that at least her actions with Dean were framed as a mistake and how her falling into Logan's life felt like something she had to come back from not something that was permanent.

11 hours ago, Katherine said:

And as for Rory's pregnancy, I just can't believe this is how ASP wanted it to end. I get that it's "full-circle", but to me, that was never the narrative being told. All along, I thought the point of Rory's story would be finding her place between these two worlds (her grandparents' world and her mother's world). I never thought she would end up repeating her mother's life. And while obviously getting pregnant at 32 is not remotely the same as getting pregnant at 16, it does seem like ASP wants us to believe that Rory is mirroring her mother's life. That's just not how I saw her story ending. For me, Rory's season 7 ending was far more appropriate. She wasn't ending up in Richard and Emily's world (as represented by rejecting Logan's proposal), but she also wasn't ending up in her mother's world (as represented by leaving Star's Hollow to pursue her career in journalism). 

Yes! Imo the overall "theme" or journey of the show was the struggle between the Lorelai/Stars Hollow world vs. Grandparents/Society world. It was never a journey about Rory copying Lorelai. A fulfilling ending would have been Rory balancing the two worlds and creating her own path.

I'd never thought of the s7 ending in that context but that balance is exactly how they finished it. Illuminated by the fact that the finale was one of the few times the two worlds converged, with Richard and Emily joining the Stars Hollow farewell party. In contrast the revival swung wildly between having Rory in the wealthy world with Logan and trapped back in Stars Hollow. And depressingly it seemed to end with her yearning to join that high society (the escapist LDB sequence) but being trapped in Stars Hollow forever. Just what? 

I now appreciate s7 more, it feels that the writers actually understood the foundation of the show compared to ASP. Because ASP can say the show is about "life" not about teaching messages or morals, but that's exactly what she did. She made the show into a moral about how you'll always end up like your parents. But unlike the balancing two worlds message, it wasn't one that was authentic or consistent with the characters and story. It was the furthest thing from real life as possible: An awkward, shoehorned ending with "symbolism" but no meaning.   

On that topic,the exploration of the two sides of Rory is why I rooted for Jess originally. Dean is Stars Hollow ( Lorelai loved him), Logan is Hartford society ( E&R loved him). Jess is the one who offers another route for Rory and  the guy she wanted rather than him being anyone else's choice. Also ASP, if you want us to stop seeing the show as being about Rory finding the "right" path and the right guy, maybe  stop having Jess pop in to "guide her way" after she's all confused with Logan. 

11 hours ago, Katherine said:

I thought we were supposed to see the whole Logan relationship as Rory's rebellious phase. I never bought that Rory would've fallen for Logan in the first place, but I figured at least their relationship would end with her finding herself again. That seemed to be the direction they were heading with the whole dropping out of Yale thing, but then even after that, the two of them stayed together, and by the last few episodes of season 6, it seemed like we were supposed to be rooting for them.

I'm really confused about how we're supposed to view Rory and Logan in the revival. As soon as I realized they were having an affair, I figured obviously we were supposed to realize that Logan was all wrong for Rory. I figured Rory was heading for a big rock bottom where she realized that Logan was never "the one", and then she would eventually get her life back on track and get back to the spirit of Original Rory. But...that never really happened. Sure, she ended it with Logan, but she never really seemed to feel like the affair was a mistake. She definitely didn't seem to feel much remorse for cheating on Paul or having an affair with an engaged man (and Logan seemed to have no regrets either). This writing decision really surprised me, but apparently it was all in service of getting to those final four words? ASP wanted Rory pregnant and she wanted Logan to be her Christopher. 

That's exactly how I saw Logan in the original series. He never felt like a genuine relationship so much as a representation of Rory trying out her grandparent's world and he was inherently tied to her downward spirals. In both the original series and the revival I kept waiting for Rory to have that epiphany moment and fix her life. Did they actually expect fans root for someone who was often unlikable and made Rory unlikable?  (It's notable Logan's character development and mature relationship with Rory was in s7). After the revival I don't understand how ASP wanted us to care about a couple who clearly bring out the worst  in each other? 

11 hours ago, Katherine said:

What I most wanted from the revival was a return of Original Rory. I missed the Rory we knew in seasons 1-4--an introvert whose idea of a great Friday night was staying home alone doing laundry. I missed the Rory who seemed comfortable in her own skin and defended her right to sit alone at lunch, listening to music and reading a good book. I missed kind Rory--the one who tried to befriend Paris in season 1 and who at least occasionally defended the people Lorelai made fun of. Early seasons Rory was someone a lot of girls could relate to. It was refreshing to have a leading female character who was shy yet confident, someone whose dreams and ambitions were ultimately more important than her love life. Obviously even in those first few seasons, Rory's love life received a lot of attention, but somehow it still felt like Rory herself viewed her high school romances as secondary to her future goals. 

Ultimately imo fans viewed the revival as a redemption. It was about getting Original Rory back (s5-7 Rory never felt like the real one), about fixing the Luke/Lorelai drama of s6 and finally progressing rather than stalling the Emily/Lorelai relationship. Everyone I talked to thought that it was universally accepted that s5 and s6 were bad, that the writing took the characters low to bring them high, that ASP knew all that and was coming back to fix the characters mistakes and her own.

Instead ASP wanted more of the same, doubled down on the worst of s5 and 6, and went "this is Rory is now." I don't whether she's just incapable of seeing her own mistakes or always planned to take a sweet, studious girl to entitled, selfish brat. But that's what we got. So RIP Original Rory.

(Because yes to everything you said about that Rory.I loved that she was a heroine who was shy and didn't have many friends but wasn't the lonely, "loser" girl stereotype,  just happy with who she was. I appreciated that she was a protagonist that wanted to stay in on Friday night and that wasn't weird or needed to change. I don't know why ASP needed to get rid of that girl). 

Edited December 5, 2016 by TimetravellingBW

[dubbel zout]

1 hour ago, TimetravellingBW said:

trapped in Stars Hollow forever

I think this is being a little hard on Stars Hollow. It's not for everyone, definitely, but I think Rory staying there, as the editor of the Gazette (as a legitimate job, not as a stop-gap position) and being pregnant, isn't such a bad place for her to be. (N.B.: I'm working with what we have, not with what I wish we had.) Maybe Rory wasn't meant to have a "big" life. Not everyone is, and there's no shame in that. She tried it and it didn't work out.

[Lady Calypso]

43 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

I think this is being a little hard on Stars Hollow. It's not for everyone, definitely, but I think Rory staying there, as the editor of the Gazette (as a legitimate job, not as a stop-gap position) and being pregnant, isn't such a bad place for her to be. (N.B.: I'm working with what we have, not with what I wish we had.) Maybe Rory wasn't meant to have a "big" life. Not everyone is, and there's no shame in that. She tried it and it didn't work out.

I agree. The thing about Rory is that she's always been comfortable in Stars Hollow, but she's also been yearning for more than that since the original series. She's never pursued life in Stars Hollow; even in the revival, her reluctance to be considered part of the thirty something gang connected with her not wanting to seem like a failure who had to move back to her small town. It shows even before she found out she was pregnant that she planned to move to New York again to write. Rory's life, to her, is not in Stars Hollow for her. She's shown to want to be out of the small town life. She may find it comfortable and easy, but she has shown to prefer to be independent from it. So even if she is staying in Stars Hollow, it doesn't seem like she wants to be there. 

[zxy556575]

On 12/3/2016 at 5:20 AM, Andromeda said:

I'll never forget how they sniped about a B&B that was decorated with country "charm," and made fun of menus that had photos. I never quite got where they drew the line -- they didn't like hokey things, while living in a town rife with hokey things

It's not like the Dragonfly isn't a horror show of trite, overstuffed, over-wallpapered shabby chic awfulness.

On 12/3/2016 at 5:20 AM, Andromeda said:

Lame, Lorelai. Like Rory, she also acts like a special snowflake, doesn't she?

Who do you think Rory learned it from? The entire town elevates and coddles Lorelai, polishing her snowflake crown. The only people who don't are her parents, therefore much of her emotional life consists of punishing them for it.

17 hours ago, Katherine said:

I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with Rory ending up pregnant. I think it could've been a good ending...but the build-up just wasn't there. If ASP knew all along this was where the character was going, why not lay a little more groundwork along the way?

Do not look behind the curtain of the great and powerful Palladinos. It still gripes me that ASP acted all aggrieved because she felt fans were overly focused on Rory's love life when she's the one who wrote Rory that way! It was one boyfriend after another for 6 seasons.

I hope the troubadour and his sister are single because every other character has been matched up. Their lives mean nothing otherwise. Romance uber alles.

[racked]

On 12/3/2016 at 5:20 AM, Andromeda said:

Rory and Lorelai's mean reaction to Rory's boyfriend Paul was typical of them -- they have always had a mean streak underpinning their wittiness. I'll never forget how they sniped about a B&B that was decorated with country "charm," and made fun of menus that had photos. I never quite got where they drew the line -- they didn't like hokey things, while living in a town rife with hokey things, and disparaging high-class snobby things, while hungering for them. Like Rory and the silly Life and Death boys, who made me want to puke. At first it seemed charming in the original show, but now the infatuation all the guys have with Rory, and their perfectly timed remarks every time, make me feel all stabby. (So none of these guys has changed a whit since college? Really!? Ready to fly out to SH at a moment's notice!?) Which is a shame, because I thought the sequence in the town at night was a fantastic dream, until it turned out to be real (yeah, right, Stars Hollow has a tango club, and the guys can change the words on a sign with no notice, etc. etc., and yeah, buy entire clubs and B&Bs, again on no notice. Very silly.)

 

As much as I love Logan, or loved what Logan had become by the end of the series, I hate the LBD in this iteration. I loved Rory telling them off in Season 7 and you are so right, their perfectly timed witty remarks were glaringly obnoxious here. They made sense in college, especially since that arc was Rory testing out her enjoyment of snobby, bratty rich kids (in contrast to Lorelei who always hated that world), but sometimes ASP seems so self-aware in her writing and then she just...drops it. Thirtysomething's acting like obnoxious brats, and Rory finding it charming, ugh.  I still did enjoy the revival but I loved that Logan was willing, even eager, to go it alone at the end of Season 7 and I hate that he somehow gave up on that and went right back to his dad's pampered but pathetic world. And Rory still wants in!

On 12/4/2016 at 0:57 PM, junienmomo said:

 

It actually works with only a few rationalizations:

• Richard willingly gave up his spot in the mausoleum so he could have a gravesite long enough that he wouldn't spend eternity with his knees scrunched up to his chest

Wow I totally forgot about the mausoleum storyline! 

[langway]

18 hours ago, Katherine said:

I was so, so excited for the revival, and I had high hopes for it. Gilmore Girls was always one of my favorite shows, but thanks to the last few seasons (particularly season 6), it was also one of the most disappointing. I saw the revival as the perfect chance to fix everything that had been mishandled in seasons 5-7, and for some reason, I had faith that the writers were aiming to do just that. I know a lot of people are really happy with the revival, but overall, I found it pretty disappointing (though not nearly as disappointing as some of the events of seasons 5 and 6). 

What I most wanted from the revival was a return of Original Rory. I missed the Rory we knew in seasons 1-4--an introvert whose idea of a great Friday night was staying home alone doing laundry. I missed the Rory who seemed comfortable in her own skin and defended her right to sit alone at lunch, listening to music and reading a good book. I missed kind Rory--the one who tried to befriend Paris in season 1 and who at least occasionally defended the people Lorelai made fun of. Early seasons Rory was someone a lot of girls could relate to. It was refreshing to have a leading female character who was shy yet confident, someone whose dreams and ambitions were ultimately more important than her love life. Obviously even in those first few seasons, Rory's love life received a lot of attention, but somehow it still felt like Rory herself viewed her high school romances as secondary to her future goals. 

IMO, the character started to go downhill as soon as she met Logan. The Dean affair felt really out of character, but at least we as the audience had Lorelai speaking for us. Initially, I thought they were doing the same thing with Logan (particularly because Lorelai opposed him right from the start). I thought we were supposed to see the whole Logan relationship as Rory's rebellious phase. I never bought that Rory would've fallen for Logan in the first place, but I figured at least their relationship would end with her finding herself again. That seemed to be the direction they were heading with the whole dropping out of Yale thing, but then even after that, the two of them stayed together, and by the last few episodes of season 6, it seemed like we were supposed to be rooting for them. And then in season 7, it definitely seemed like we were supposed to start viewing them as a stable, possibly end-game couple (and the writers did a pretty good job with this--I hate how much crap the season 7 writers get. IMO season 6 was far worse). Rory's character bounced back quite a bit in season 7. She was back on the right track with school, and I actually really liked how the last few episodes handled her budding career (the struggles and the excitement for the future). Then...the revival happened.

I'm really confused about how we're supposed to view Rory and Logan in the revival. As soon as I realized they were having an affair, I figured obviously we were supposed to realize that Logan was all wrong for Rory. I figured Rory was heading for a big rock bottom where she realized that Logan was never "the one", and then she would eventually get her life back on track and get back to the spirit of Original Rory. But...that never really happened. Sure, she ended it with Logan, but she never really seemed to feel like the affair was a mistake. She definitely didn't seem to feel much remorse for cheating on Paul or having an affair with an engaged man (and Logan seemed to have no regrets either). This writing decision really surprised me, but apparently it was all in service of getting to those final four words? ASP wanted Rory pregnant and she wanted Logan to be her Christopher. Okay...but weren't there other, less awful ways of making that happen? If she wanted to completely destroy the Logan character, couldn't she have at least found a way to make the Rory character a little more sympathetic? Or did she feel like she was making them both sympathetic? Did she view their story as romantic and rootable? I'm just so very confused and disappointed.

And as for Rory's pregnancy, I just can't believe this is how ASP wanted it to end. I get that it's "full-circle", but to me, that was never the narrative being told. All along, I thought the point of Rory's story would be finding her place between these two worlds (her grandparents' world and her mother's world). I never thought she would end up repeating her mother's life. And while obviously getting pregnant at 32 is not remotely the same as getting pregnant at 16, it does seem like ASP wants us to believe that Rory is mirroring her mother's life. That's just not how I saw her story ending. For me, Rory's season 7 ending was far more appropriate. She wasn't ending up in Richard and Emily's world (as represented by rejecting Logan's proposal), but she also wasn't ending up in her mother's world (as represented by leaving Star's Hollow to pursue her career in journalism). She didn't have a high profile dream job, but she did have a promising future ahead. It felt right. It felt like that's where the character had been heading all along. But now this revival ending? It just seems like ASP got those final four words in her head a long time ago and was insistent on using them, even if they didn't fit with the narrative and character arc we've been shown. 

I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with Rory ending up pregnant. I think it could've been a good ending...but the build-up just wasn't there. If ASP knew all along this was where the character was going, why not lay a little more groundwork along the way? And why not try to make it seem a little happier? At the very least, why not give her a little more career success, instead of just the possibility of a book? I can't quite put my finger on it, but the ending just didn't feel like it belonged with the rest of the series.

I'm also going to throw in a quick complaint about the lack of Jess and Jess/Rory...my other great wish for the revival was that they would be endgame. I did love that Jess' character seemed to be in a good place, and I really enjoyed his interactions with Luke, but I wanted a little more with him and Rory. Even if they were never going to end up together, I would've liked something more from Rory's side of things. Then again, given how the revival handled Rory/Logan, maybe I should be grateful.

Overall, there were moments of the revival that I loved (all the Emily stuff; Luke and Lorelai's wedding; Paris being Paris), and I don't think it tarnished the original series for me, but it definitely wasn't what I hoped it would be. I can't decide if I want more now (in the hope that this time they would manage to correct the Rory wrongs) or if that would just make it worse.

This entire post sums up my feelings perfectly. Only difference is the ending completely tarnished the original series for me. I love Rory, I was hoping she'd be the type that didn't NEED a boyfriend, or a husband, or a god damn baby. All of these shows do this crap and one of those 3 things has to be endgame, always, which is what turns me off of most television shows. I really thought this show was different, but obviously it isn't. It makes me sick that ASP intended to end the series this way when Rory was 22. Full circle, my ass, you built this girl up to be a fucking superhero, to have goals, to not make her mother's mistakes, and you were going to blow that up for a "full circle" moment? Fuck off. ASP has been talking shit for 10 years that she got fucked over, her ideas were better, whatever, no. Season 7 ended perfectly for the characters. ASP would have turned it into a fucking soap opera, which she ended up doing anyways, come hell or high water. Rory is still 22 in her mind, floundering, acting a fool, being a complete dumbfuck. I'm sure everyone she came across outside of Stars Hollow wondered how she even graduated from an Ivy League University because she's so fucking stupid.

Sorry, I have a lot feelings, lol. Mostly anger and disappointment.  

[Kohola3]

Quote

ASP would have turned it into a fucking soap opera, which she ended up doing anyways, come hell or high water.

I've said it before and I'll say it again.  ASP gave a big fat "screw you" middle finger to every one of the fans who were looking forward to this revival.  Sadistic bitch turned the whole exercise into a pointless driveling soap opera.

[langway]

2 minutes ago, Kohola3 said:

I've said it before and I'll say it again.  ASP gave a big fat "screw you" middle finger to every one of the fans who were looking forward to this revival.  Sadistic bitch turned the whole exercise into a pointless driveling soap opera.

She really did! I should have known better, but I was a dumbshit and stayed up all fucking night to be incredibly pissed off and heartbroken that they're going this way. I hate the "Everyone ends up like their parents" narrative. All the women in my mom's family were teen moms, including my mother. I broke that "curse" because my mother was hellbent on me NOT ending up like them, which is what Lorelai did for Rory basically, but clearly it didn't matter. Lorelai was a teen mom and single mother, now Rory "has" to be a teen mom single mother and she HAS to have a Christopher and a Luke of her own. 

Just. Fuck. No. Just because some people do unfortunately experience a "full circle" type deal, doesn't mean everyone does. They should have sent the message that no, not everyone makes the mistakes their parents did. She's thirty-fucking-two and neglected contraception with a damn near married man who she shouldn't have been fucking around with in the first place, and cheating on her boyfriend who she only remembers exists when it's convenient for her. And now, she's gonna have Lorelai IV, and yay! No, fuck this show.

[junienmomo]

1 hour ago, Kohola3 said:

I've said it before and I'll say it again.  ASP gave a big fat "screw you" middle finger to every one of the fans who were looking forward to this revival.  Sadistic bitch turned the whole exercise into a pointless driveling soap opera.

Honestly, was there any reason to expect a different outcome? I vacillated between wishful thinking and the writer's track record. Eventually I chose to remember there are really fun and enjoyable moments in the OS and dared to hope that some things like LL would be fixed. 

In spite of a whole list of nitpicks, many much larger than a nit, I loved the show in spite of the writers' failings.

It was sometimes pretty, it was sometimes funny, it reunited me with favorite characters, and it was enormously imperfect. Sounds a lot like the OS to me. 

It was good enough for me to invest my time.

[Lady Calypso]

So, Amy came out with another interview, stating that she actually wanted the wedding to be bigger.

A comment on that article actually makes me laugh: 

Quote

Perhaps if she hadn’t wasted so much time and money on the on the ridiculous musical and LDB nonsense, she would have had enough money to give the fans the wedding they deserved. With Emily, and Jess, and Miss Patty, and Babette, and Kirk, and Taylor, and Sookie, and …

Heh. I loved the small wedding, but it's laughable that ASP and DP couldn't create their vision because they most likely ran out of money doing the other big sequences that were not exactly positives. Now, the LDB sequence can be argued whether it was needed or not (I personally say no but I've seen people actually advocating for it). The Musical, on the other hand....did ANYONE like the musical? At all? Besides DP? 

[hippielamb]

For anyone who missed the old opening credits, a fan made a video with the theme song. Definitely made me smile. 

https://youtu.be/EJ4l-yqFqMg

[Taryn74]

25 minutes ago, hippielamb said:

For anyone who missed the old opening credits, a fan made a video with the theme song. Definitely made me smile. 

https://youtu.be/EJ4l-yqFqMg

Well now that was just lovely.  :)

[cuddlingcrowley]

I was dreading the wedding would take over the episodes so I was pleasantly surprised at how it turned out such a small thing.  Yet, it was pretty and special in it's own way, It seemed a fitting ending for the revival, more an ode to family than actually romantic if that makes any sense.

As for the musical, the one good thing about it is that after I noticed it would drag on and on and on by jumping fowards a little I then realized I didn't have to put myself through it so I fast forwarded like my life depended on it.

As for the LDB nonsense, it was at least watchable which is more than it can be said about the musical. It was also very, very pretty and artsy. I genuinetely tried to enjoy it but then I kept remembering those were 30+ year olds acting acting that way . I also remembered Rory was over the lot of them by the end of S6. I get ASP was trying to drive home Rory and Logan were holding on to their (early) twenties by being together but surely it could have been done in a less cringy way.

I liked the Tango place. They could have had some oficial LBD event centered there, sort of like "You jump, I jump, Jack" but you know, with Tango. I think I would have dug that.

(No Logan/Rory dancing though. That will haunt me. Give me Finn, with a rose on his lips, dancing with the other one. You know who. Not Robert.)

Edited December 6, 2016 by cuddlingcrowley

[txhorns79]

Quote

I've said it before and I'll say it again.  ASP gave a big fat "screw you" middle finger to every one of the fans who were looking forward to this revival.  Sadistic bitch turned the whole exercise into a pointless driveling soap opera.

I wasn't thrilled with every development, but I think she actually seemed to try and include things to make the fans happy.  There were call backs to past plot points.  She revisited secondary characters and plotlines from the original series and gave nearly every character who appeared in the original series some screen time.  I don't think it was all soap opera, or anything that ASP did was so egregious as to ruin the entire viewing experience.   

[Kohola3]

9 minutes ago, txhorns79 said:

She revisited secondary characters and plotlines from the original series and gave nearly every character who appeared in the original series some screen time. 

I guess it's a po-tay-to, po-tah-to thing.  I thought bringing back so many characters just seemed to be a way to ratchet up the cameo count.  Virtually none of the returnees was on screen long enough to move the plot along or add anything, in my opinion.  Francie?  Elusive Mr. Kim? Don't even get me started on the LDB.  Good grief, she even had to bring back a Tristan clone and to what end?  Although it did lead to that delicious stiletto against the bathroom door scene with Paris.  That was a hoot.

[FictionLover]

50 minutes ago, Lady Calypso said:

So, Amy came out with another interview, stating that she actually wanted the wedding to be bigger.

A comment on that article actually makes me laugh: 

Heh. I loved the small wedding, but it's laughable that ASP and DP couldn't create their vision because they most likely ran out of money doing the other big sequences that were not exactly positives. Now, the LDB sequence can be argued whether it was needed or not (I personally say no but I've seen people actually advocating for it). The Musical, on the other hand....did ANYONE like the musical? At all? Besides DP? 

The small wedding with Reflecting Light was beautiful. My problem was there was about 30 seconds of Luke...there was more of Rory than the groom. Maybe they were showing how happy Lorelai is but it just seemed odd to me.

50 minutes ago, Lady Calypso said:

 

[nolieblue]

57 minutes ago, hippielamb said:

For anyone who missed the old opening credits, a fan made a video with the theme song. Definitely made me smile. 

https://youtu.be/EJ4l-yqFqMg

That was fantastic. Someone has a career in editing ahead of them. ?

[Winter Rose]

I didn't mind the small wedding in theory but it was upsetting to see key people missing from it. I don't know if it was all down to too much time spent on secondhand embarrassment gimmicky things like the musical and the LDB stunt, but I don't want to think the reason Jess wasn't there was because ASP wanted our last impression of him to be the way he looked at Rory through the window.

Also, as a concept, I've never understood the obsession with the "come full circle" ending. For small things it's fine like, for example, Lorelai and Rory having coffee at Luke's. But time doesn't go in circles, it moves forward and if the characters and plot don't move with it, I question why anything beyond the pilot even matters. Even if in this case it's Rory ending in the place Lorelai began, it's a story trapped in a loop.

[nolieblue]

I didn't like Rory's ending although I liked them showing her career struggle. I did really like Emily and Lorelai's stories so I was happy with that. I loved Rory in the earlier seasons 1-3, but once she hooked up with Logan and the very awful LDB I lost interest in her. 

The idea that ASP ran out of money for the wedding when she spent so much time and money on the LDB and the musical is hilarious, and I'm sure total bull.

[blueray]

Quote

I liked the Tango place. They could have had some oficial LBD event centered there, sort of like "You jump, I jump, Jack" but you know, with Tango. I think I would have dug that.

That would have been better. It would have gave a better reason for them all to be in town. And have it already planned that Rory (and other girls) were planning on attending.

[tarotx]

The LDB was shot over the course of a few months. That probably affected them not dropping it for the big wedding. I personally loved the LDB scene but I think the wedding would have been a priority if not for the already having shot a chunk of the LDB scene by the time most of Fall was shot. Plus the Tango scene is the only part with extras. Though all the cameos (that of course, includes the members of the LDB) is probably the real money hogger. 

I loved the small wedding. I just wish it was Luke, Lorelai, Rory, and Kirk. I think Jess would have been there if they could have scheduled Milo. Lane and Michel made it feel slightly off. 

http://tvline.com/2016/11/28/gilmore-girls-revival-life-and-death-brigade-sequence-video-logan-rory/

15 hours ago, nolieblue said:

I didn't like Rory's ending although I liked them showing her career struggle. I did really like Emily and Lorelai's stories so I was happy with that. I loved Rory in the earlier seasons 1-3, but once she hooked up with Logan and the very awful LDB I lost interest in her. 

The idea that ASP ran out of money for the wedding when she spent so much time and money on the LDB and the musical is hilarious, and I'm sure total bull.

 

 

 

 

Edited December 6, 2016 by tarotx
Because it was error loaded >.<

[MsPH]

I was actually positively surprised by this revival. Maybe it's because I haven't watched the old episodes in years and season 7 was such a forced mess in my opinion. I only watched the last episode to remind myself how the show even ended and this revival felt much more like the good old GG. There was some stupid stuff like the musical that dragged on and on, and indeed Lorelai and Luke not mentioning kids until she's almost hitting 50, but that gave us Paris, so I'm good. I absolutely loved seeing all those familiar faces, which IMO looked surprisingly unaged considering the decade in between, apart from Luke that is.

Perhaps the main reason I liked it though is that it gave me a glimmer of hope that Rory will one day end up with Jess, which is something I wasn't expecting at all. I didn't even know Jess would make an appearance, so I was excited to say the least. I started watching the show as a teenager after catching the end of some episode with Rory and Jess and I was really invested in their relationship. I always wanted to Rory to end up with him and didn't care for her other relationships at all. Never liked Logan and his three stooges, they're just a bad parody of trust fund kids, and I always thought he was a bad influence on Rory. Not that Lorelai is a good influence either as proven once again. Rory really is her mother's daughter, self-involved to the max. The whole cheating and not caring one bit about her actual boyfriend is just not cute from a woman in her 30's. What I imagine happening after this is Rory never telling Logan about the baby, since her morals are what they are, they already said their goodbyes and there's no point ruining his marriage and name, unless Rory wants him back. She will raise the child by herself with help from Lorelai and Luke. Jess will be her Luke and at some point down the line they'll end up together, since Jess clearly still has some feelings for her. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Hopefully there won't be another season, so I can keep my fantasy.

I also really liked the Emily storyline and thought it was very realistic by GG standards. When you go through such a massive loss, things that once seemed important lose their meaning and you have no choice but to find meaning somewhere else in order to keep your sanity. The move to that house with gorgeous views would help me a lot that's for sure.

I don't think it's that unrealistic that Lorelai and Luke weren't married yet considering the whole quickie marriage with Christopher. Maybe it put her off marriage for a bit and then they just never got around to it. The kids thing was weird though, since she did seem to want more kids before. But I liked seeing them all settled into their relationship. They were acting like a couple that's been together for a decade and I think it would've been unrealistic to witness them still in the honeymoon phase. I loved Luke's passionate rant when Lorelai got back from her failed hike.

The one thing I was left wondering about was the fate of the Gazette. Rory saved it and now she's writing a book, so what happens to the paper? She can't let it die! I actually loved the storyline about her career going nowhere, and the 30-something gang. It's a hard world out there and a good degree doesn't automatically quarantee success anymore. You need drive and passion and a good amount of luck. I always felt that towards the end of the series Rory was mainly relying on her smarts and was more in love with the idea of being a famous journalist than in love with journalism, so it's not surprising she didn't end up making it. Not gonna lie, I found the interview for the website kind of hilarious. She was keeping it as some kind of a fall-back option and then had nothing to offer them when put on the spot. Finding out she's only passionate about writing about herself and her mom is pretty much the perfect ending and Jess is a genius for suggesting it. He knows her so well. Hopefully raising that kid will make her pull her head out her behind, but then again, just look at Lorelai.

All in all, I think this was worthwhile. I haven't really been invested in any fictional TV shows in recent years, so it's nice to have a few more hours of what used to be my favourite show.

[Taryn74]

8 hours ago, Kohola3 said:

I've said it before and I'll say it again.  ASP gave a big fat "screw you" middle finger to every one of the fans who were looking forward to this revival.  Sadistic bitch turned the whole exercise into a pointless driveling soap opera.

I don't think it was all horrible, but yeah.  Pretty much agree with this.

ASP is just so hard to figure out, you know?  Sometimes we get lovely little bits that are obviously a nod to the fans, sometimes we get 'Squee on this, bitches.'  And there's no rhyme or reason to it.