But There Is No One Who Will Be More Here For You Than Me.
Or Why I Have a Love/Hate Relationship with 'Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life'
Confession: I love Gilmore Girls. Okay, that’s not really much of a confession considering I wrote a two-part piece last November listing my favorite episodes (see links below). But nevertheless, it is an important reminder as you may forget how deep my adoration for the series runs as you read my ranting ramblings regarding the revival (that’s right, folks, not a reboot!).
For those of you who caught the subhead above, the cat is out of the bag. While I’m an original, card-carrying member of the Stars Hollow Is Life Society and my love for the show is unconditional, like Emily Gilmore, it doesn’t come without a fair amount of judgment and disappointment.
Complicated would accurately sum up my feelings toward A Year in the Life. (A recent rewatch with a fellow Gilmore gal, where we fittingly gave running commentary throughout, was cathartic.) Feelings that flow all the way back to season four of the series, if I’m being honest. Rory is a huge catalyst for all this inner turmoil. However, from season six onward, she’s not the only reason.
When creator/showrunner Amy Sherman-Palladino and husband Dan Palladino left at the end of season six (they wrote and directed multiple episodes), the series took a noticeable dive in quality. Though that dive began in earnest during Amy's final season in charge.
I SMELL SPOILERS! Seriously, if you haven't watched A Year in the Life or even the OG series yet, this is your only chance to turn back now. Everyone else, grab a cup of coffee and settle in.
Cut to A Year in the Life, which debuted on Netflix in November 2016. I was so excited when the four movies that comprise the limited series arrived. That enthusiasm faded quickly. Basically around the time Lorelai and Luke started their ridiculous yet blessedly short-lived exploration into surrogacy during my initial watch of Winter, the first film.
Turns out, the baffling choices the AS-P made when it came to so many of these beloved characters hadn't been left in the 2000s. Popular question regarding Winter: Why would a smart man like Luke Danes not know how surrogacy worked on a basic level? Follow up question: Why are he and Lorelai even entertaining this option now? Why wasn’t this discussed during the nine years between the series finale and Winter? (Yeah, yeah. Those were two, but whatever, it’s my blog.)
The biggest question I have regarding Lorelai and Luke is how — after all the unnecessary drama concerning the introduction of April as Luke's long-lost daughter and that cockroach Christopher again targeting sniffing around Lorelai — are these two still incapable of having a transparent relationship? Open communication should be their golden rule at this point. Instead, they don’t talk about anything. Not Luke going along with Emily and her Realtor to look at properties for franchising Luke’s diner. Not Lorelai sticking with therapy after Emily bails.
Speaking of Emily, she was totally right when she called Lorelai and Luke roommates. They are not partners. Emily and her husband Richard were partners and lovers, which is why their marriage lasted for 50 years, until Richard died. Lorelai and Luke are basically friends with benefits and not even particularly good friends come to that. It took Lorelai attempting to follow in Cheryl Strayed’s footsteps and do Wild (the movie, not the book) in order for them both to get their heads out of their asses and that is just sad.
But if it means they are finally growing up and stepping up now that they’re married(!!!), then great. I am here for Lorelai and Luke being in a loving, stable relationship. They are the First Couple of Stars Hollow and it’s about damn time they start acting like it. My big hope for A Year in the Life when it came to these two was that they would already be in that phase of their relationship. Instead, they were still stuck in 2006 mentally and emotionally, which is just so frustrating.
This is the perfect segue to Rory. Oh my dear Lord, I didn’t think it was possible she could be a worse person. Thank you, Amy, for proving me titanically wrong.
I am here for the golden child not having the career she expected. That's completely realistic and a good way to keep Rory grounded. Except Rory hasn't been grounded since early in season four. And basically everything about her life is a dumpster fire.
She's bouncing from freelance gig to freelance gig, which is fine except:
She thinks she's too good for most of the assignments (and is pissed when forced to interview at the Sandy Says website after they headhunted her/she ignored them for an entire year);
Has no home to call her own and stashes her wardrobe in multiple places;
Talks of getting a place in Brooklyn when she has no income; and
Thumbs her nose at the legit job offer she receives from Chilton's Headmaster Charleston when she returns to the high school where she was valedictorian and gives a talk to the current crop of students.
Adding fuel to all this is that Rory apparently never learned her lesson following her disastrous affair with her married ex-boyfriend Dean. She's now having an affair with toxic ex-boyfriend Logan, who's engaged to a French heiress and quite happy to have the best of both worlds. Rory also seemingly has no qualms and is just as happy to string along her own boyfriend, Paul, who she literally keeps forgetting exists.
Paul is nothing more than a pathetic punchline that gets run into the ground. I feel bad for the guy; he deserves better. This "joke" makes me cringe every time he appears in Winter or is mentioned in Spring, Summer, and Fall. Such behavior may have been charming or even amusing while Rory was in college; in her early 30s, it's just indicative of how narcissistic she is. Any hope that Rory was becoming a better person at the end of season seven has been dashed as she's regressed into the spoiled brat she was when she was dating Logan while at Yale.
Further proof of Rory's devolution: In Summer, she keeps telling everyone she's not back yet she announced her return to Lorelai at the end of Spring when she moved home. To further compound the matter, she's become the editor of the Stars Hollow Gazette (a job she pursued). Sorry, sweetie, but denial doesn't make your situation any less real. And publicly dissing the town's self-described 30-Something Gang — all of whom she's likely known since she was a kid — only shows everyone what a hypocrite she is. I get that the overachiever is embarrassed that she’ll likely never be Christiane Amanpour, but acting like she’s better than her peers isn’t helping.
However, there is hope for Rory. During Fall, she takes big steps in getting her life on track. She decides to write a book detailing her and Lorelai's story. (While I support this idea, let me be on record as saying I've never believed Rory is the voice of her generation unlike everyone else on this show, including Rory. I'm Team Mitchum when it comes to her level of talent and ability.) Having Rory focus on a writing project she's actually excited about and in control of is precisely what this wayward character needs to ground her once more.
She also ditches Peter Pan and the Lost Boys. Make no mistake, despite what AS-P believes, Rory is not Dorothy Gale and Logan, Finn, Robert, and Colin are not the Wizard, Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion. More J.M. Barrie than L. Frank Baum. Her finally leaving them behind is smart move that is a fantastic leap forward for Rory. This group has been dead weight from the off and, regardless of how I feel about her, Rory deserves a healthy group of friends as well as a partner who loves and respects her.
[Side note: When it comes to Rory’s friends, I don’t believe for a second that she and Lane are still as close as the show wants us to think. It’s like she forgets Lane exists unless she’s within Stars Hollow’s town limits. (I’m sensing a pattern…) Paris became Rory’s new best friend once they reached Yale, especially come season five. Just saying.]
And last but certainly not least, Rory finally sees her dad for the man he truly is when she stops by his office. It’s rewarding to witness Christopher being knocked off his pedestal once and for all. Although I hope she came to the same conclusion I did years ago — Logan is nothing more than a clone of her dad. The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up. A horrifying realization considering how this limited series ends. (Now that Lorelai has started therapy, maybe it’s time for Rory to follow suit. Let’s pray her mom continues her sessions despite her epiphany.)
We get those final four words between Rory and Lorelai. Four words that threaten to derail her progress by knocking her up with what we all know is Logan’s kid. (I mean, it has to be right? Although it would be hilarious if somehow Paul managed to get the last laugh.) Those four words would have been a hell of an ending had they been spoken at the end of, say, season three. All these years later, they land differently; more of a shrug than a gasp. Depending on your thoughts about Logan perhaps even with an eyeroll.
That’s really the overall problem with A Year in the Life. All that excitement and anticipation and optimism ahead of its premiere ultimately left me deflated, like air being slowly let out of a balloon — if not by the end of Fall, then definitely within 10 minutes after the start of Spring. Four cleverly titled movies don’t justify four wildly uneven films. It says a lot when the middle two chapters can be skipped without missing a beat.
There was a time when Amy Sherman-Palladino could produce 22 episodes that were consistently filled with good to great stories and written in a unique voice. This is a show that continues to capture the hearts and minds of generation after generation. Knowing she knocked The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, her most recent series, out of the park, it’s just so disappointing that Gilmore Girls fans weren’t able to enjoy a similar feat.
Instead, we get:
Barely any time with characters we love like Sookie, Lane, Mrs. Kim, Miss Patty, Babette, Jackson, and Kirk;
A town musical that’s more nonsensical than whimsical — though Sutton Foster kills it during the song that exists only so Lorelai can understand she needs to step away and think about her life;
Emily basically adopting the non English-speaking family that works for her and has suddenly taken over her life; and
Lorelai, Rory, and Luke behaving more erratically than usual (dare I say unhinged?) so that you occasionally wonder, What show am I watching again?
Also, this is the only time where I’ve felt that Stars Hollow is not a living, breathing character. In A Year in the Life, the town is a mere background player; there simply out of necessity. This isn’t some Hallmark movie where every small town has no personality but sure does look pretty. This is Stars Hollow, CT! Give it the respect it deserves!
This is the point where you’re probably wondering, Isn’t there anything she liked? There is! I swear!
Rory’s wardrobe was on point.
Alex Kingston as Rory’s nightmare author/client Naomi Shropshire and Jason Mantzoukas as Naomi’s lawyer.
God bless Jess and his portrayer Milo Ventimiglia. Every time Jess appeared onscreen was like a breath of fresh air.
Emily’s meltdown during the Daughters of the American Revolution (D.A.R.) interview process where she eviscerated a potential new member and the other women of the D.A.R. that she has known for years.
Lorelai and Luke’s impromptu Wonderland wedding in the town square was absolutely perfect. No notes.
Despite all of my ranting and raving, at the end of the day, I love Gilmore Girls. Through the good (seasons one through five) and the bad (Rory from the end of season four onward; Christopher; Logan; the unnecessary drama concerning Luke’s daughter April; the vomit inducing marriage of Lorelai and Christopher in season seven).
I’ll be right there with a smile on my face should Amy Sherman-Palladino decide she wants to return to Stars Hollow in whatever form that might take. We were spoiled in the very beginning and I just want this wonderful show to be the witty, quippy, quirky, endearing, romantic delight that it is at its heart.
Where you lead, I will follow…
P.S. Never bring up Taylor’s sexuality ever again. I didn’t consider it before and I prefer to remain in that blissful state. Thank you and good night.
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