The Gilmore Girls revival on Netflix seems to be all that anyone has thought about since it was announced. I think it's safe to assume that any fan of the original show was beyond overjoyed to hear about the revival, but I think that it could have been handled so much better than what was presented for a final cut of the show. Just a warning: SPOILERS!!!
To start off, there were way too many cheesy jokes for this show. I mean, yeah the original series had plenty of cheesy jokes but there was way too much going on in this revival. The ongoing joke about Rory forgetting to break up with Paul was particularly annoying to watch. The actors as a whole acted as if they had to force themselves to be these characters again to the point where it was painful to watch. There were very few characters that remained the same as the way we all knew and loved them.
To go off of what I mentioned above about the actors having to force themselves back into these roles, let's talk about how the entire revival was nothing but a huge attempt to name drop some of the bigger names. One in particular was Sookie, played of course by Melissa McCarthy. There was some question about whether or not McCarthy would return for the revival back when it was first announced and after seeing her in the revival, I'm wondering if she should have returned. Don't get me wrong, I love Sookie, she's one of my favorite characters and I love Melissa McCarthy, I think she's hilarious, but it was obvious from the revival that it's been way too long since McCarthy played Sookie. The character wasn't the same as she was in the original, it's like McCarthy forgot how to be Sookie. Another unnecessary character that was added just so it could be said that this character had returned was Dean. I know he's a fan favorite, but he really had no purpose in the revival other than to show up awkwardly in one seen, running into Rory at Doose's. They didn't really even have a significant conversation, just catching up on his children and little sister. Of course there was one person that ended up in the revival that had no place there and that was Rachel Ray. Again, don't get me wrong, I love Rachel Ray, but it was so awkward and obvious that she was just there for no important reason. I get that she was filling in while Sookie was gone at the inn for a brief time, but it was so painfully awkward to watch.
The revival did of course have it's good moments. Plenty of the cast fell right back into the characters they used to play. I'm talking favorite characters like Kirk, Babette, Lane, Mrs. Kim, Jess, Michel, and my personal favorite, Logan. All of these characters were portrayed beautifully, familiarly, and for me, how I wanted them to end up. Well, Logan is the exception to this but I'll get to him in a minute. Babette and Mrs. Kim, though they didn't get much screen time, are exactly as I remember them. Michel is as snooty and fabulous as ever, Kirk is the same awkward Kirk we all know and love, Lane is the cool mom version of original series Lane, and Jess is the same sarcastic idiot with a heart of gold and love of books.
Now we move on to Logan, who is living in London and is engaged to a girl from France. This is my first issue because let's be real, did anyone ever think he'd ever go to anyone but Rory again? I certainly didn't want him to, that's for sure. To make it worse, he's having an affair with Rory on the side like a total scumbag. Like come on, pick one or the other, don't string Rory along and don't cheat on the fiance. You can tell he very clearly still cares about Rory but he needs to get his life together and act like a responsible adult and just pick one of the two girls.
Now this is the part that really bothers me, how Rory is portrayed in this revival. She goes from being this successful Yale graduate to moving back home in her thirty's. I understand that real life works that way sometimes but how can someone go from covering a presidential campaign to having only one successful piece published in a notable newspaper and getting turned down for jobs left and right? It's like Rory let her life fall apart in the ten years since the series finale. And let's not forget the whole bomb drop at the end of the revival where she reveals that she is pregnant. How can the last part of the revival be that without giving fans any closure about who the father of the child is and if Rory even tries to get in touch with him about the pregnancy?
Of course there are some serious highlights from the revival, a major one being that Luke and Lorelei get married at the end of the revival! It's so exciting but one very pleasant surprise was the development of Emily Gilmore throughout the revival. She had never really been depicted as much more than the mother that asked too much of her daughter while trying to spoil her granddaughter rotten. In the revival as she deals with the grief of losing her husband Richard, she goes from being this bossy, terrifying person to anyone that comes in her path, to being this much kinder person at the end of the revival. The character development of Emily Gilmore is a very well done and touching thing to put in this revival.
Along with the development of Emily, it was a pleasant surprise to have the Life and Death Brigade back together again. It was a truly exciting experience despite the fact that half of the time the Life and Death Brigade was shown was in a montage that honestly was a little too much. Nevertheless, it was wonderful seeing all of my favorites again, in particular, Finn. He has always been a really great character for a good laugh and I'm happy he was brought back to provide a few more laughs.
All that to say, I enjoyed the Gilmore Girls revival. I naturally did have some issues with some things that happened in the Netflix version, but as a whole, it was just great to see a bit more closure come to light in the show. The exception to this being the whole Logan-Rory-pregnancy thing. I would like to know the facts about that at the very least, but I'll take what I can get. So if you haven't seen it yet and you were a fan of the original series, go ahead and watch it if you want. I found it great for what it was, there just weren't enough coffee jokes.