When I sit down to review a film or TV show I adore I always find it an incredibly difficult process to put into words exactly how I feel about the show without just gushing about it. It’s even harder when I sit down to review something that I know that someone else also loves that thing because I now feel I need to do it justice for multiple people. So sitting down to review Gilmore Girls is going to be one hell of a task because it’s my girlfriend's favourite show, which she introduced me to, and despite the synopsis of the show not really selling me on the idea, it’s been a show I have very quickly fallen in love with as well.
After falling pregnant at the age of sixteen, Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham) runs away from her rich parents Richard (Edward Herrmann) and Emily (Kelly Bishop) to look after her new daughter away from the people who have caused her so much pain throughout her own childhood. Sixteen years later Lorelai and her daughter Rory (Alexis Bledel) live in the tight-knit sleepy town of Stars Hollow, Connecticut. Lorelai manages a local inn, and Rory, the same age her mother was when she had her, is starting a new high school.
Over the next seven years the show tracks Rory’s progression through her final school years, and her life through college. Meanwhile the pair must contend with the re-introduction of Richard & Emily into their lives, the numerous men that they ensnare with their womanly wiles, and the crazy day-to-day life of living in Stars Hollow.
After falling pregnant at the age of sixteen, Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham) runs away from her rich parents Richard (Edward Herrmann) and Emily (Kelly Bishop) to look after her new daughter away from the people who have caused her so much pain throughout her own childhood. Sixteen years later Lorelai and her daughter Rory (Alexis Bledel) live in the tight-knit sleepy town of Stars Hollow, Connecticut. Lorelai manages a local inn, and Rory, the same age her mother was when she had her, is starting a new high school.
Over the next seven years the show tracks Rory’s progression through her final school years, and her life through college. Meanwhile the pair must contend with the re-introduction of Richard & Emily into their lives, the numerous men that they ensnare with their womanly wiles, and the crazy day-to-day life of living in Stars Hollow.
Gilmore Girls strikes an almost perfect balance between comedy and drama, and the main reason it works so incredibly well is because of how great the writing is. Created by Amy Sherman-Palladino, it was a running joke during the shows run that the scripts for a forty minute episode were almost double the length of the average TV show script, likely because of how fast paced the dialogue is in Gilmore Girls in order to create a more lifelike representation of how people actually talk to each other. It’s all killer and no filler either, even when characters go off on long tangents, you’ll always be rewarded with some kind of plot progressing revelation or a side-splitting joke.
For me it’s the characters that make Gilmore Girls so special, and the reason I’m always happy to return for more. Lorelai and Rory are the friends first, mother and daughter second kind of family, though that dynamic certainly gets put to the test a number of times throughout the seven-season run.
Lorelai is a self-made woman. She walked away from money and security at a young age to raise her daughter how she wanted to. Taken in my the owner of an inn, Lorelai lived there working as a cleaner until she could afford a home of her own and had managed to work her way up the ranks to become manager. Being in her early thirties, she’s still a child at heart and has a very happy go lucky attitude towards much of life. Rory however is incredibly book smart and has a promising future in academia, something her mother encourages beyond all else due to her missing out on her own opportunity to finish high school and go to college. These two characters are the heart and soul of the series and performances from Graham and Bledel are so good you’ll forget that they’re even actors.
For me it’s the characters that make Gilmore Girls so special, and the reason I’m always happy to return for more. Lorelai and Rory are the friends first, mother and daughter second kind of family, though that dynamic certainly gets put to the test a number of times throughout the seven-season run.
Lorelai is a self-made woman. She walked away from money and security at a young age to raise her daughter how she wanted to. Taken in my the owner of an inn, Lorelai lived there working as a cleaner until she could afford a home of her own and had managed to work her way up the ranks to become manager. Being in her early thirties, she’s still a child at heart and has a very happy go lucky attitude towards much of life. Rory however is incredibly book smart and has a promising future in academia, something her mother encourages beyond all else due to her missing out on her own opportunity to finish high school and go to college. These two characters are the heart and soul of the series and performances from Graham and Bledel are so good you’ll forget that they’re even actors.
Gilmore Girls has a large cast of recurring characters, Richard and Emily Gilmore being two of the most prominent. Lorelai’s parents who have been absent for much of Rory’s life are brought back into the fold to help pay for some unexpected finances related to Rory, and a bargain is struck that the girls will join Richard and Emily every Friday night for dinner. These are among the best scenes in the entire show, and whilst Lorelai may hate spending time with her parents these scenes are more often than not comedy gold with sharp tongued quickfire witty remarks made by all involved.
Then there’s the eccentric citizens of Stars Hollow such as Sookie & Michel (Melissa McCarthy & Yanic Truesdale), Lorelai’s best friends and colleagues at the inn; Luke (Scott Patterson), a local diner owner who despite putting up a cold front against everyone has a soft spot for Lorelai and Rory; Lane (Keiko Agena), Rory’s best friend who hides a rock and roll lifestyle from her devout Christian mother (Emily Kuroda), Kirk (Sean Gunn) the town idiot who always has a hairbrained scheme, Babette & Miss Patty (Sally Struthers & Liz Torres) former showgirls and local gossips, Taylor (Michael Winters) the uptight grocery store owner and town selectman, and plenty more who pop up less frequently. This large ensemble of characters perfectly complements the characters of Lorelai and Rory, each with their own quirks and frequent hilarious moments.
Other major recurring characters include Christopher (David Sutcliffe), Rory’s father who much like her grandparents has also been absent for most of her life but unlike Richard & Emily has stayed away because he isn’t ready to face the realities of fatherhood. Then there’s Paris (Liza Weil) who is probably my favourite character in the whole show; a highly intelligent and fiercely competitive young woman whose constant need to be better than Rory forces them together as reluctant friends. Plus, the many men who float through the Gilmore’s lives such as Dean, Jess, and Logan (Jared Padalecki, Milo Ventimiglia, and Matt Czuchry).
It’s rare that I can say that every single character is memorable and special when it comes to a TV show but Gilmore Girls manages it. There’s still plenty of other characters I haven’t mentioned but I would be here all day if I said more than I have already.
Then there’s the eccentric citizens of Stars Hollow such as Sookie & Michel (Melissa McCarthy & Yanic Truesdale), Lorelai’s best friends and colleagues at the inn; Luke (Scott Patterson), a local diner owner who despite putting up a cold front against everyone has a soft spot for Lorelai and Rory; Lane (Keiko Agena), Rory’s best friend who hides a rock and roll lifestyle from her devout Christian mother (Emily Kuroda), Kirk (Sean Gunn) the town idiot who always has a hairbrained scheme, Babette & Miss Patty (Sally Struthers & Liz Torres) former showgirls and local gossips, Taylor (Michael Winters) the uptight grocery store owner and town selectman, and plenty more who pop up less frequently. This large ensemble of characters perfectly complements the characters of Lorelai and Rory, each with their own quirks and frequent hilarious moments.
Other major recurring characters include Christopher (David Sutcliffe), Rory’s father who much like her grandparents has also been absent for most of her life but unlike Richard & Emily has stayed away because he isn’t ready to face the realities of fatherhood. Then there’s Paris (Liza Weil) who is probably my favourite character in the whole show; a highly intelligent and fiercely competitive young woman whose constant need to be better than Rory forces them together as reluctant friends. Plus, the many men who float through the Gilmore’s lives such as Dean, Jess, and Logan (Jared Padalecki, Milo Ventimiglia, and Matt Czuchry).
It’s rare that I can say that every single character is memorable and special when it comes to a TV show but Gilmore Girls manages it. There’s still plenty of other characters I haven’t mentioned but I would be here all day if I said more than I have already.
Despite all this praise there are some thing where Gilmore Girls comes up short, and they mostly only occur from Season Five onwards. I’m not sure if inspiration for new storylines was starting to run thin or if new assistant writers were brought in but there are some puzzling decisions made which do make the latter seasons of the show less enjoyable than the early ones (the final season also suffered due to a change of network and showrunner). For example, in Season Five Richard & Emily turn full moustache twirling villains when they try to turn Rory against her mother (which doesn’t make any sense because they both desperately want Lorelai back in their lives even if they’re too stubborn to admit it); in Season Six Luke puts his relationship with Lorelai in jeopardy because he pushes her away after working so hard for so long to be in her life romantically; and basically anything Rory does circa Season Five onwards.
Rory is a debatable one there, I like the arc wherein she starts out the show as one of the most innately likeable characters, but from the end of Season Four onwards enters this downwards spiral of bad decisions and bratty behaviour to become one of the least likeable characters on the show. In some ways it works because she’s only ever known being praised and doing the right thing, so the moment she starts to screw up her entire life begins to fall apart, but on the other hand I feel like Rory should have been smart enough to know better.
All in all, I couldn’t recommend Gilmore Girls enough. It’s jam packed with references to music, TV, film, and literature and despite having a gradual decline in quality over the final three seasons still manages to be overwhelmingly great from start to finish. For a show that ran for over one hundred and fifty episodes, it’s rare to be able to say that pretty much every episode is great. Gilmore Girls is like a warm hug, it gets you in a feel good mood even when it wants to get the waterworks going, and that is a true sign of greatness.
Rory is a debatable one there, I like the arc wherein she starts out the show as one of the most innately likeable characters, but from the end of Season Four onwards enters this downwards spiral of bad decisions and bratty behaviour to become one of the least likeable characters on the show. In some ways it works because she’s only ever known being praised and doing the right thing, so the moment she starts to screw up her entire life begins to fall apart, but on the other hand I feel like Rory should have been smart enough to know better.
All in all, I couldn’t recommend Gilmore Girls enough. It’s jam packed with references to music, TV, film, and literature and despite having a gradual decline in quality over the final three seasons still manages to be overwhelmingly great from start to finish. For a show that ran for over one hundred and fifty episodes, it’s rare to be able to say that pretty much every episode is great. Gilmore Girls is like a warm hug, it gets you in a feel good mood even when it wants to get the waterworks going, and that is a true sign of greatness.