The long-awaited Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life aired over the holiday break on Nov. 25. Netflix pegged the four part season as being four seasons of change for the characters in the show. In my opinion, they couldn’t have been more accurate.
To be completely honest, when I was opening up Netflix to watch the new series, I had high hopes, but low expectations. I was really worried it wouldn’t be as good as the original series or maybe even turn out worse by repeating old plot points rather than contribute something new. However, Netflix did a wonderful job blending the use of elements from the original series with a fresh attitude. The very opening scene really gave a good representation of my reasoning for all this. It played music from the original Gilmore Girls soundtrack, and Rory and Lorelai jumped straight into their witty, fast-paced banter. It was a wonderful blast from the past, but they easily continued, not lingering too long on recreating the characters.
For me, characterization was a big deal when watching the new series. Would they be able to reanimate those old favorite characters without watering them down to their most basic personality traits? Immediately, this worry was washed away. The lines each character was given did not seem out of place. But at the same time, each character was uniquely different. They all continued their personal growth during the years between the end of the original series and the beginning of this one. While still being uniquely themselves, they were also still new. Speaking of new, the characters they added were pretty awesome too. They fit right into the series, especially that one guy. Wait, what was his name again?
Oh well, back to Netflix’s original claim that the new series would portray four seasons of change. They absolutely achieved this claim. Every episode showed unique growth, not only for Rory and Lorelai, but for the sideline characters as well. It was so fun to see even less important characters, such as the troubadour, to be brought back with more life and more insight into their lives. They addressed old issues that were never truly resolved in the first series and fixed them in a realistic setting. Lorelai’s issues with her parents, the trust issues with Luke, the harsh reality of life as a journalist, were all addressed beautifully with regard to how the original series would have dealt with them.
The biggest complaint I could even consider would be that the series as a whole did not resolve every issue. Some, I’m sure, will feel that this takes away from the finality of the ending, but I don’t think it did. No spoilers, but something happened at the very end that I would assume would otherwise leave this giant cliffhanger ending. Despite it, the series concluded beautifully and really felt like it came full circle. I thoroughly enjoyed the new series and will probably watch it again multiple times before the year ends.
9/10
