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Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life

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Paul Asay

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Life’s short. Talk fast.

For seven seasons (2000-2007), that tagline fit the Gilmore Girls pop-saturated, rapid-fire dialogue to the proverbial T. While most hour-long scripts run, at most, 60 pages, The WB’s little-watched but much-loved dramedy saw its scripts land in 78-page territory, each packed with so many pop culture references and “Gilmore-isms” that The WB published booklets detailing them. (Ah, those halcyon days before everyone had the internet in their pockets.)

The series lost its creator, Amy Sherman-Palladino, in 2006 when the show was folded into The WB’s successor, The CW, and lasted just one more season. Even at its height, Gilmore Girls was never watched by much more than 5 million people—a pittance back when shows like CSI were drawing five times that and more.

But nothing ever really dies in these nostalgia-driven days—especially if your fans holler long and loud enough. Now, Lorelai and Rory Gilmore are back drinking coffee in Stars Hollow, Conn., talking about love and life and dropping obscure Lord of the Rings references—this time on Netflix. Of course.

Pour a Cup and Sit a Spell

Netflix has become America’s nostalgia network these days, serving up everything from sweeping historical dramas (The Get Down, The Crown), ’80s-esque sci-fi homages (Stranger Things) reheated cheesy sitcoms (Fuller House) and even revamped animated kids’ fare (Voltron, Popples). Perhaps it was only a matter of time before Gilmore Girls, which has aged surprisingly well and still boasts a robust, passionate fan base, joined the retro party.

But this version of Gilmore Girls (released in its entirety Nov. 25) is more miniseries than sequel. It’s called Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, and it’s split into four episodes each roughly 90 minutes long. Mini-movies, essentially. While the dialogue is as snappy as ever, even Stars Hollow has to accept the occasional change.

Can You Go Home Again?

Rory has long since graduated from Yale and is now a freelance writer, traveling the world in search of great stories. And perhaps she has a boyfriend in every port of call. She certainly has one in London, despite dating a fella named Paul at home.

And Stars Hollow is still home—emotionally if not literally. Rory renews old acquaintances. She visits her icy grandmother, Emily, who’s still mourning her recently passed husband. And she spends a great deal of her time, naturally, with her mother Lorelai.

“How long has it been?” Lorelai asks Rory in the opening episode, hugging her.

“Feels like years,” Rory says.

But while Rory enjoys her life gallivanting around the globe, she’s also somewhat adrift. And as she returns again and again to visit Stars Hollow, the place begins to feel more like her literal home, too, almost as if she’s the avatar for every Gilmore Girls fan who never wanted to leave.

Burning Tongues

Gilmore Girls has always presented its share of content difficulties. Lorelai had Rory when she was an unmarried 16-year-old, and the romantic relationships of both mother and daughter could and can turn sexual in a drumbeat. Rory juggles boyfriends whom she’s obviously sleeping with, and Lorelai sometimes recounts her own carnal hijinks in discomforting detail. References to bits of sensitive anatomy walk alongside the occasional ogle. The Gilmore girls—along with most everyone else in Stars Hollow and beyond—are not above quaffing the occasional Scotch or dropping the occasional profanity.

But paradoxically, that content goes in hand with the show’s strongest asset: its relentless, stay-on-your-toes dialogue.

This show can feel, literally, like all talk. For the most part we don’t see any scenes of tawdry romance; we only hear about them afterward. Discussion is often (but not always) wrapped in euphemism and asides. And it flies by so fast that by the time you decipher what they’re actually talking about, they’re onto something else: a reference to Rachael Ray or The Mysteries of Laura, for instance. Yes, Rory says “crap,” but it’s just one of about 15 bazillion words that cascade from her mouth so rapidly that it feels a bit like a leaf in a waterfall.

This is not to excuse any of the content, of course. It’s here, and you can’t avoid it. But the fact that there’s also so much else woven into the non-stop dialogue (the wit, the references, the clever asides), and the fact that the show has such a sweet, heartening relationship at its core (the sincere, strong relationship between mother and daughter), does ameliorate those concerns at least a bit.

Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life feels a little like that sweet, funny friend whom you enjoy having coffee with but wouldn’t necessarily leave your kids with for the weekend.

Episode Reviews

Gilmore Girls: Nov. 25, 2016 “Winter”

Rory comes back for a visit, and she and Lorelai visit the family matriarch, Emily, who’s still grieving the loss of her husband, Richard. Emily is still angry with Lorelai for embarrassing her after his funeral, when Lorelai couldn’t think of a sweet anecdote to tell about her father.

One of the anecdotes that Lorelai does recount is how Richard caught her and a beau making out when Lorelai was 15: Richard ran out of the room hollering that Lorelai was losing her virginity, though Lorelai admits that that ship had sailed long before. Rory is dating a forgettable guy (named Paul) in Stars Hollow who apparently sleeps over; she also is seeing another man in London, sharing his flat. (The two kiss and discuss their open relationship; Rory lies to her mother over the phone about the other guy’s existence, saying she’s staying with a girlfriend of hers.) Lorelai and Luke live together; Rory’s worried she’ll hear their “passionate lovemaking.” The two do kiss and giggle. (And the couple does get married later in the season.)

Luke and Lorelai explore the possibility of having children together with a surrogate mother, using an expensive service run by Rory’s old friend, Paris. Paris calls the women she works with “breeders,” and she says she skilled in glancing at a man’s crotch and judging the status of his testicles. (Luke expresses confusion regarding whether he’ll be expected to have sex with the “breeders.”) Lorelai’s right-hand man at the Dragonfly Inn is gay and talks about his husband. Rory and Lorelai discuss Rory’s underwear (or lack thereof).

Characters drink wine, scotch, beer and other forms of liquor. (Lorelai blames the booze on her outburst at the funeral.) We hear about someone drinking vodka because “it has less carbs.” We see churches, priests presiding over a ceremony, and hear a reference to a Nativity scene with an “eggplant Jesus.” Lorelai enjoys watching Lifetime movies with such titles as Restless Virgins and Minnie’s First Time. She has terrible dreams about dirty bathrooms.

A local resident is campaigning to get Stars Hollow a sewer system and is soliciting horror stories from other residents about bad experiences with septic tanks. (We hear snippets of some such stories.) A woman swipes food at a restaurant. There’s a reference to a urinal cake and lady’s undergarments. Characters say “d–n” and “h—” several times, as well as “crap” and one incomplete s-word. God’s name is misused nine times (once with “d–n”), and Jesus’ name is abused once.

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Paul Asay

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

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