This is a complicated question for so many reasons. I don’t want to go on forever so let me quickly say this, don’t read if you haven’t watched Gilmore Girls all the way through (including the revival) I don’t want to ruin anything for you.
So, to answer the above question, no. I’m a huge Gilmore Girls fan and I have been for years. The second I found out it was coming back I was beyond excited and started counting down the days. On the 25th, when it was finally up on Netflix, I woke up early and got ready to spend six hours non-stop watching the four revival episodes. And to tell you the absolute truth, I was so disappointed with how they came out. It was such a let down after waiting years to find out what Lorelai and Rory had gotten up to. Don’t get me wrong, it had its moments that were absolutely perfect and fit just the way I wanted them to but there were other moments that just seemed forced into the plot or extremely rushed and not thought through enough. The ending was stupid, too.
I’m going to quickly go over what I thought they did well and then we will get to all the things that were extremely annoying. First, the actors all did an amazing job jumping right back into character. Everyone was exactly the same and I missed them all so much. The sets were incredible. Stars Hollow was just as I remembered it. The Gilmore houses were both the same as they were 9 years ago, as if nothing had changed. Luke’s diner and Ms. Patty’s both looked incredible.
They handled Richard’s death very nicely and it was very touching. Just enough drama that it wouldn’t overpower the sadness of losing such an amazing character, as well as not having that sadness overpower the rest of the plot. They also did a nice job with the small character arcs like Kirk and Paris and even Dean, though I think he deserved more than just one scene. Overall, that’s pretty much all I can praise of the revival.
First thing’s first, I think the GG team tried to force as many of the original actors back into their roles as possible. There were a ton of characters that made a comeback and didn’t contribute to the plot whatsoever. They were just strange distractions that took away from the mere 6 hours the season was given, like that weird scene with Rory and her dad Chris? That was so unnecessary and annoying. I was completely fine with him not being in the revival and that scene didn’t add anything to the story, just made you hate him more than you did already. Also, the Kims were just kind of there but didn’t contribute to anything. I understand why Lane had to come back, she’s Rory’s best friend but her character just seemed so boring. It’s also a little hard to believe that Lane’s weird band would actually stick around for 10 years and not make anything of themselves.
I understand that they couldn’t get Melissa McCarthy for very long because she’s pretty popular but the one scene they did have her in was so strange and forced. They tried so hard to make it cute and sweet but it was just really odd. Then Sookie didn’t even end up being at the wedding so that was really annoying.
Another critique is that there was way too much Logan. Out of all of Rory’s boyfriends, he was probably the worst for her during the original 7 seasons. Then in the first episode of the revival we see him having an affair with Rory. He’s engaged to someone else and yet having Rory stay with him whenever his fiancé is away. It’s almost like we’re right back at Yale when he cheated on Rory for the first time, right? He was awful to her and now Rory’s contributing?
Why did Emily get such an awful storyline through the revival? She had that one bad fight with Lorelai in the beginning and then that was sort of it. It’s obvious something happens to her where she finally moves on from Richard and her morning but it’s not obvious what happens. They just show her moving out and then getting a job at a whale museum. No idea what that’s supposed to symbolize. And why wasn’t she at Lorelai’s wedding? The whole show has been leading up to that point and they just couldn’t include her? They had to do it in the middle of the night without her mom there? How awful.
Also, why was Lane at the wedding and not Jess? That was just odd. Luke and Jess were obviously on good terms at that point and Jess was really happy that Luke and Lorelai were finally getting married. Luke couldn’t have just gone and woken Jess up really quick for the wedding?
My last critique (although I have plenty more up my sleeve) is Rory’s career. They could have just had her talking about how she couldn’t get a real job instead of having that weird scene with the SaddieSays lady. I liked the book deal that she had going on with the crazy drunk british woman and how that all played out but the other stuff was a little unnecessary. I also wish that we could have seen Rory publishing her book about her life or at least going into a meeting about it, something that shows it was actually going to happen. That would have been a better ending than the pregnancy bombshell (yeah, that happened and I’m upset about it but I’m not going to go into it because that will start me off on a whole different rant).
Overall, I got to say A Year In The Life was a pretty big letdown. Do I wish they had just left it like it was in season 7? No. I think the season 7 ended was too abrupt and I’m glad they brought it back. I’m secretly hoping they’ll do a second year in the life at some point and clear up this pregnancy stuff, I know they won’t but a girl can always hope, right?