Gilmore Girls: Retrospective
Gilmore Girls is a television series that lasted so long, it became a part of life, my childhood, my upbringing. If I’m being vulnerable here, it shaped who I am today. I’m best friends with my parents, I have a coffee addiction, and I only talk in pop culture references. When I watched the show, I was young and impressionable, but as I get older my views and opinions have changed with age.
The show is about a mother and daughter who are more like best friends, a show my mom and I loved to watch together. It was a comedy but not in the hi-jinks way, they would talk fast, make pop culture references, and present the difference of social class. When I was younger I thought what a great relationship Rory and Lorelai have, Rory is a genius, and Emily was a buzzkill. Now that I’m older and wiser, I don’t stand by those points anymore. This is an evolving opinion based off of the original series, with almost little to no influence by the Netflix reboot.
First off, Emily was the real parent figure in the show, she had no choice honestly. When Dean built Rory her first car, Lorelai only saw the romantic gesture and Emily had to step in and say that’s cute, thanks but no thanks. Lorelai wanted to be a cool mom and best friend most of the time. Lorelai would order pizza and junk food, everyday was a slumber party at their house. Lorelai would talk to Rory about the men she dates like teenage girls in the bathroom. Emily had to step in as the authoritarian figure to balance out Lorelai’s lack of parenting.
Rory is presented as this beautiful genius that loves reading and school, she studies a lot and makes it into all the top schools in the nation. I thought of Rory as this model student but things always worked out for her, like unfair. It just wasn’t a character easy to empathize with, every inconvenience she had was champagne problems. In retrospect, she had the privilege of her grandparents’ network connections and their bank account. Lane, Rory’s best friend, is deemed just as smart as Rory but she doesn’t get the same opportunities. In the reboot, Rory doesn’t have the life she imagined for herself when she was younger (don’t we all though). It seems like Rory was told she was great too much as a kid and she was the big fish in a small pond called Stars Hollow. The only humanizing part about her was the season when she took time off Yale, and took a break speaking to her mother. I rewatch the show and now I think Rory needed more conflict.
That brings me to my next point, Lorelai was bad at being the parent and setting boundaries, she set bad examples for Rory when it came to her dating life. Her dating life flourished more than her teenage daughter’s, and she even dated her daughter’s teacher. She was selfish, especially when it came to her relationship with Luke, it was about her all the time. Ok yeah there was that time Luke lied about finding his daughter but he was just planning the right time to say something that serious. Also Lorelai has a kid too, like what she’s the only person in the relationship that’s allowed to have a kid from a past relationship. Let’s not forget Luke bought a dream house for Lorelai and she wanted to stay in her house. So Luke had to lose money on the deposit and spend more money remodeling Lorelai’s house.
That’s basically the only criticism I have of the show, I am still super fan that will continue to watch it once a year. My favorite character is Kirk/Kurt and Jess was my first crush, probably my sexual awakening as a tween. I think the show is a great one to watch with your mom or daughter, because of that girl bond it shows. When I watched it as a little girl, I was excited to do “Gilmore Girl” things with my mom like getting coffee and binging movies and TV. It’s a show that presents that important bond between a mother and daughter with the obstacles of trying to protect them while also trying to be their best friend.