THE FIRST’S GOT CLASS…. THE REVIVAL… YEAH… NOT SO MUCH
I was really bored. We were at our holiday home a little on the outskirts of Mumbai. About three hours away. There was greenery everywhere and it was pouring. There was really not that much to do other than cuddle up in bed and watch stuff on the internet endlessly.
But the regular stuff was so boring. I had already caught up on all of the Shonda shows, Modern Family and everything else that I had on my computer. Netflix India didn’t have any of the new stuff so I went looking for something else that I could watch. I came across this show that sounded interesting. Well, I looked at it and decided this could probably be something. All the description added upto was the fact that the show was about a feisty single mom and her journey in raising her daughter. What the hell? I had nothing else to do, so I began watching it.
I didn’t and couldn’t stop for the next three months! It is the fastest I have binge watched any show. “ Gilmore Girls” was a show that was brought to life in such a realistic and hilarious manner that it was completely and utterly impossible to turn off. The wit, the complex and yet rather real portrayal of the characters and their relationships and how they grow over those seven years was amazing.
Since then, I know of a lot of others who have similarly binge watched the show and everyone I spoke to seems to relate to one of the mother daughter relationships, whether it was Lorelai and Rory or Lorelai and Emily. Gilmore Girls was like any of us watching our family members go about their day-to-day lives. Their conversations, fights, worries, issues were all so relatable. Even the smallest things such as Emily yelling into the phone when she travels to Europe and her saying how she still thinks of long distant calls as a big deal is so spot on. I mean, lets face it, we all have that one parent/grandparent who will yell into the phone no matter how many times you remind him/her and say, “ Hey, this is really not that big a deal anymore”.
When the revival was going to come out, the build up was tremendous and having seen the entire series, I was eagerly looking forward to seeing what had happened in their lives.
Not to be too harsh but squat is what had happened in the lives of those characters over the last 9 or 10 years. Really, what the hell was that revival about? Was it supposed to be a tribute to, “ Richard Gilmore”? Was that the purpose? The only reason I ask that is because that is seemingly the only thing that has changed.
Ok, there is one other thing that changed. Rory’s life has seemingly travelled to hell and has come back to precisely where she started. What is she doing? Is that what a Yale Graduate does? Flail about with no purpose and run a newspaper with two old people who sleep and are filing the same documents for nine years?
And what is with the body shaming tripe? Back Fat Pat? I mean, really… could it get anymore distasteful than that? Not to mention the “ Thirty Something Gang” who seem to be encouraging one another to do nothing but drink milkshakes for the rest of their lives.
Time has stood still in Stars Hollow except for technology. Taylor is still campaigning door to door so who knows if even technology has happened for them.
The once cheerful Lorelai is now this bitter, strange human who is dissatisfied forever and has a weird stress tap dancer daughter who taps her lack of a job or a life away.
So what is it that everyone was doing for nine years? Hibernating? Was all of Stars Hollow in Rip Van Winkle mode for the last nine years?
Ok let’s give Lorelai the benefit of the doubt. She is mourning her father. Fine. So her storyline is strange.
Her daughter was the sensible one, the one who had her act together. Let’s see what’s happening with her. She has no job, no home, a boyfriend who for some reason she just cannot remember (I mean what is that all about?) and she is busy fooling around with her ex boy friend who is engaged. And everyone other than Emily is busy praising some one off article that she wrote.
I mean, it would be normal if she was Dean, or even Jess but she isn’t. Speaking of Jess, he seems to be the most put together person on the show closely followed by Emily. Some might say that the fact that the only kid doing well is the one that dropped out of school, a really deep dig at the various educational institutions depicted on the show.
Revivals and sequels are rarely the same as the originals. However, this is the only sequel/revival where most of the characters don’t even remotely resemble their former selves. The only characters that are recognisable are Emily, Jess and Luke and even these characters have discrepancies. Emily doesn’t know who Kirk is. Huh? In the original story Emily learns about Lorelai and Luke dating from Kirk but sure she suddenly doesn’t know who he is.
Even the basic personalities of the other characters have changed entirely despite nothing having changed in their lives. Also it’s just amazing how Lane’s dad just shows up. I mean he’s been MIA for the entirety of the original series.
The end of the show, the last four lines that were spoken about with such anticipation turned out to be the most frustrating thing about the show. “ Mom, I am pregnant”. While there is nothing wrong with that, what was the point of this show? Really?
Lorelai slept with Christopher (from her “ hood”) and had Rory when she was sixteen. She dropped out of school and got a job, moved to Stars Hollow, raised Rory to be smart, independent, and got together with Luke (the guy who was secretly in love with her but not from her hood). Meanwhile Rory went to Yale and then grew up and had a few jobs. Then Rory slept with Logan (the Christopher equivalent except for the fact that he was engaged when that happened) got pregnant and Jess is the Luke equivalent. To top this extremely appealing situation off, Rory does not even have a job. How is this different from Lorelai except for the fact that Rory grew up privileged and Lorelai didn’t? Ok, maybe it is different in other ways as well but it definitely isn’t better. In fact, it is barely watchable which is a travesty considering how brilliant the original show was!