As almost every person on the internet is at least slightly aware of, the hit TV show Gilmore Girls is coming back for a huge revival series on Netflix. This series, titled Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life is set to have four episodes that run ninety minutes each. Essentially, they are handing us four movies centered around the current lives of the two women for which the show is named. It can easily be considered a historic event for the millions of die-hard fans the show has accumulated since it began in October of 2000, but I am fully aware that there are more than a few skeptics who doubt the significance of the revival show. They question what made the show so popular in the first place, as they never ‘got into it’ or they never watched it to begin with. Unfortunately, there is no shortage of fans who are willing to scream at said skeptics about the magnificence that is Lorelai and Rory Gilmore. But the loud and obnoxious fan-girling is only a small part of the feelings and emotions that Gilmore Girls and its upcoming revival bring up. Personally, the revival is about so much more than a wonderfully written show full of colorful characters. It’s about going back to my roots.
Typically, Gilmore Girls fans can be divided into two groups: those who wish they had a mom like Lorelai, and those who actually do. I am one of the very lucky few who can proudly say that they are the Rory to their mother’s Lorelai. Growing up, I spent more time with my mom than I did anyone else. She was who taught me to love music and art, who showed me how to behave and how to get along with everyone even if we didn’t see eye-to-eye. One of our traditions, starting way back in 2000, was to sit together and watch Gilmore Girls. I was barely two years old when it first aired, but some of my earliest memories are of sitting in the living room and watching the show with my mom. Most of the jokes went over my head, but the antics of the mother-daughter duo always made me smile. I remember looking at my mom and drawing an unmistakable connection between the Gilmore's and the two of us. That connection has stayed with me my entire life. I’m convinced that it became a self-fulfilling prophecy, as so many other things in my life trace back to that show. My mother and I love coffee, have the craziest banter back and forth, and seize every opportunity we have to eat junk food and binge watch our favorite movies. We like the same things, have the same laugh, and we are each other’s best friend. Even now, with two younger sisters added since then, the connection between us four is something straight out of the TV series. Seeing it on screen, being acted out and loved by so many, made me realize just how special our bond is. When the show finally ended, it was as if I was seeing a part of my own life come to a close. It was emotional, wonderful, and completely bewildering all at once. A tradition we once had, one that shaped my life, was gone. After that, we were stuck catching reruns on TV until the show made its way to Netflix.
When I heard that there would be a revival to the show that shaped my early life, I was overjoyed. It wasn’t just because I loved the show, or because I loved the community of Stars Hollow. It was because I was finally going to regain a piece of my life that had been seemingly gone with the wind. Nine years after the last episode, so much in my life has changed; I’m an adult, who makes adult decisions, and I cannot always depend on my mom anymore. Just like Rory, I have grown and changed and my life seems to be taking me away from my lifelong best friend. I’m not sure how my past is going to play into my future, and that’s a scary thought. The return of the Gilmore's is a reassurance that not everything has changed completely, and a reminder to reflect on the treasured events of the past now and then. It is also a signal to look towards the future eagerly. This seemingly impossible return has become a reality- who’s to say other impossible things won’t occur?
On November 25th, Gilmore Girls fans from around the world will have the opportunity to glue their eyes to their screens and take in every new twist and turn that unfolds, as well as the opportunity to look back on all the memories Stars Hollow and its occupants have given them. For people such as myself, these memories are not solely centered on the events of the show. They include the jokes from my childhood, the bonding experiences my mother and I had as we sat together on the couch, and more importantly the reactions of my younger sisters as we introduced them to the show for the very first time. There is a deeply felt sense of hope, anticipation, and relief being delivered to those of us who have spent most of our lives with this show, and the beauty of it is that we never anticipated it so long ago. The famous line “where you lead I will follow” from the opening song is taking on a whole new meaning.
