I am an original true Gilmore Girl cult leader. I remember waiting for new episodes to come out. Gilmore Girls has been my show since middle school. The day I learned of the Gilmore Girl revival was so exciting there were tears happy dances and pop tarts. I have been counting down the days to watch the show. It has been circled on my calendar for months. However, all the hype ruined it for me....Jimmy Fallon ruined it for me. Hello Giggles and just Facebook in general ruined it for me.
This show inadvertently has shaped part of my life and it has shaped parts of me. Embarrassing? maybe a little bit. I have dated a dean, a Logan, and a Jess. I have read all the books I talk fast I eat junk food and I have a very unrealistic grasp of reality. Stars Hallow is a dream destination. It is right up there with Green gables and Hogwarts. I love my fiction reality so much. I thrive there. Long before the term "Gilmored" became popular my sister suggested I write a book called Gilmored. The plot would be easy to write. Some people may argue Gilmore Girls has ruined me and made my reality unbearable to live in...oh contraire.
The past eighteen months I have been placed in the role of motherhood and damn it's hard. It is so emotionally and physically exhausting. Yet, nothing has brought me more joy. I love being a mother. On bad days I think of that line from Rory's High school valedictorian speech...My mother never gave me any idea that I couldn't do whatever I wanted to do or be whomever I wanted to be. She filled our house with love and fun and books and music, unflagging in her efforts to give me role models from Jane Austen to Eudora Welty to Patti Smith. As she guided me through these incredible eighteen years, I don't know if she ever realized that the person I most wanted to be was her. Lorelai Gilmore has flaws as a mother. Trust me I do recognize the glitches in her parenting style but she did fill Rory's world with love fun music and books. I hope I can bring that much to Gemma's reality. My mother sure did. She did it effortlessly. What I am learning is that it takes so much work, dedication, discipline, time, love, and coffee to do so.
I digress....back to the revival. The talk and the bla bla of the internet world killed my excitement for the show. Sneak peeks and revealed story lines turned me off. Celebrities and talk show hosts weighing in made me angry. I felt territorial and protective. None of them could possibly understand the connection my generation of Rory aged girls has to this show. It is ours and Facebook was taking it away. It took me four days to watch the first two horrible episodes. I could list out the parts that made me cringe or walk out of the room but there would be too many. The charm and magic was gone. Crass jokes and easy humor abounded in its stead. Paris...strong, insane, smart, insecure Paris was an absolute nightmare. She had turned into her worst nightmare. Her mother. That was not what was suppose to happen to Paris. Not a pending divorce. Not two children ushered out by the nanny and most certainly not that career. Paris was meant for more. Richard's whole funeral flashback made me sick to my stomach. My favorite male character was not honored the way I thought he deserved. The whole funeral flashback....can't even talk about it. Why was Rory so listless and unsuccessful? Her ego was bigger than normal (not a huge Rory fan..sorry) and her affair with Logan was all wrong. She said no to his proposal for a reason. He needed to stay a denied proposal.
Anyway....last night and tonight I finished the show. I had an emotional breakdown. I wish I was kidding. Sobbing uncontrollably. Not sure if I couldn't stop crying because the writing was so bad or because of the brief glimpses at Stars Hallow the revival provided. It all started with that song from that frightful play. Unbreakable. Lorelai decides to go Wild. What a great idea for respite. Choose a great book that means something to you and go do it. Austenland is suddenly making sense to me.
I realized Right then and there that I was not Rory. Yes, I have read all the books, dated the boys, eaten the food, and loved my Grandpa more than anyone in this whole world...but I am Lorelai. I have some bad choices and impulsive decisions under my belt. I make bad fashion choices and dream outrageous dreams. I really love Her character. I love how human she is. She yells and does crazy things. She has a past and shining moments. Just like we all do. As cheesy as it may be...I accepted a huge part of myself after this discovery. The real bawling started with the last line of the show but lets not get into that. I just..I can't....yeah.
Moving on. Rory decides to write their story. Ok...why did she need someone to tell her to do this? Write what you know. Anyone who has ever taken an English class has had this line shoved in their face. To me this is a huge flaw in the grand idea to write the book. She would have thought of it. The fact that she writes it in Richard's study was such a beautiful tribute it made me feel better about the before-mentioned first episode debacle. It made me stop and wonder....what do I know that is interesting enough to write about. The list was there...short...but there. The whole episode...the good funny bad...it made me cry as if I had been mortally wounded. Maybe in a way I was. There was a little bit of good tangled up in all that bad.
Everything was going great. The story was redeeming itself. Sookie made the most perfect début. I really lost it when she popped up. She is the glue that holds Lorelai together. It would have been a colossal mistake for there to be no Sookie appearance. Then the end. WHAT. THE. HELL? I cannot think of a worse way to end this. So please Amy Sherman Palladino. Lets have a redo. We need to revisit the drawing boards for this whole revival thing. You screwed it up so badly. You failed at capturing the Stars Hallow charm and magic. Five beautiful good moments (Lorelai's memory phone call to her mother, Rory writing in Richard's study, Sookie appearing, Emily deciding what processions in her house bring her joy, and Jess) do not make up for the horrendous mess you wrote.
I am glad I watched it. I will never watch it again. In fact as soon as I am done stress writing this post I am going to soak in a tub and watch three of my favorite episodes preferably with twizzlers and ice cream in true GG fashion.
This post is so rambly and weird but it was important to me to publish my emotional response to the revival and send it off into the void. "Goodnight Dear Void". To all my fellow true Gilmore Girls out there...stay strong. Don't let the revival get you down.
CopperBoom
Co
