This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at UC London chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.

With the arrival of colder months, a lot of us go back to those key comfort pieces that help us enjoy the rainy days ahead: pumpkin spice lattes, lighting our favourite candle and for some of us, Gilmore Girls. The TV show, originally released in 2000, has made a comeback this past year, its small town aesthetic combined with romance and witty humour appealing to the audience more than ever. Its rise in popularity going hand in hand with an increased presence on social media, many people refer to it as “free therapy”. But when it comes to the characters found relatable by viewers, the thought that often arises is “Shouldn’t these characters go to therapy?”.

Let us attempt to unpack the issue, and take a journey into the traits the Gilmore Girls characters would probably talk about, should they ever decide to see a therapist. You can also see this type of content around social media, specifically on TikTok, with the show’s rise in popularity. Let me warn you however, beware of spoilers, as this article will contain plenty of them. Can’t say I didn’t warn you!

Starting with the focus point of the show: Rory Gilmore. Rory is a complex personality, described from the very first episode as a top of the class student, who never had a problem acing a test, an avid reader never to be seen without a book. The latter personality trait quickly became a big part of her personality. This brought about a lot of expectations for our young heroine, and as she grew older and her academic requirements became more difficult, she had trouble coping with academic failure. Scenes like the meltdown in class after missing a test at Chilton or having to drop a class at Yale, culminating with her dropping out of Yale altogether, suddenly make sense when you think back to where she started. No doubt on this issue: Rory is a textbook “golden child”. And as such, she believes that her achievements determine her sense of worth, and her identity heavily depend on what other people expect of her. She bears the weight of enormous expectations, single handedly representing the chance for her grandparents to have the perfect daughter they never got, her home town’s pride for ‘getting out’ and attending an Ivy League university, and her mother’s chance to vicariously live the youth she never had. Thus, her previous successes in all of those aspects, impact her ability to accept criticism when she grows up and moves to an environment where she is not the star in everyone’s eyes.

Moving on to Lorelai Gilmore, the sixteen year old mother who had to move out and make a life for herself and her daughter Rory. Lorelai is often presented as the rebel, who never accepted the upper-class life her parents were raising her in, and whose free-spirit ultimately led her to build her life under her own terms. As a result of Rory being her most stable support, the two develop a co-dependent relationship. Rory becomes Lorelai’s therapist, the person she goes to with all of her problems, thus pushing Rory from a very young age to take on the responsibility of her mother’s feelings and that of making her feel better. Their relationship gets further complicated when it comes to romantic relationships. Every time an issue arises in that department, both fear the reaction they will get upon sharing their feelings, and most of the time end up fighting about it. Many examples come to mind such as Rory not wanting to discuss her relationship with Jess, as Lorelai disapproves of him, while Lorelai refuses to discuss the reason she ran away from her own wedding with Max Medina. They also struggle with letting men inside their ’bubble’, only having had each other for so long.

While we can agree that the characters of Gilmore Girls are not perfect, these specific traits which would be unpacked in therapy make the characters more realistic and relatable to anyone watching. By building these characters with imperfections, the creators of the show successfully depicted along the seasons ‘real people’ with ‘real problems’ and the coping mechanisms they use to overcome them. In my humble opinion, this sense of authenticity is the secret explaining why so many people across the globe and the generations love this show, and why it will remain a classic.

Sources:

IF GILMORE GIRLS WENT TO THERAPY

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