The coffee-drinking, quick-witted, dynamic mother-daughter duo of Lorelai and Rory Gilmore will be back and better than ever in the revival of Gilmore Girls. The show has confirmed its return as a revival with four episodes that will be coming to Netflix at an unconfirmed date.
According to a press-release from Netflix, each episode will be 90 minutes long and will correspond with a specific season–winter, spring, summer, and fall, respectively (nice play on the show’s opening song, “Where You Lead,” by Carole King). Amy Sherman-Palladino, the show’s first producer, has been confirmed as producing the revival episodes.
Since filming for the revival began on February 2, the public has been in a frenzy over the prospect of this fan-favorite from the 2000s returning to the big screen. Starting with subtle reunion pictures posted from the Instagram accounts of many of the original cast members and gradually progressing to a slew of sneak peeks of the set, the Gilmore Girls revival has been the talk of the town. So, which of the original cast members should we look forward to seeing?
Lauren Graham, who plays the role of sarcastic and fun-loving Lorelai Gilmore, will be returning and joined by her partner in crime, Rory, played by Alexis Bledel. Kelly Bishop (Emily Gilmore), Scott Patterson (Luke Danes), Keiko Agena (Lane Kim), and Sean Gunn (Kirk Gleason), amongst many other supporting characters, will be returning to the small town of Stars Hollow to reprise their roles.
However, not everything and everyone will return to the small town of Stars Hollow. Sookie St. James, played by Melissa McCarthy, will not be joining her fellow cast members as the lovably klutzy chef and best friend of Lorelai Gilmore. McCarthy took to Twitter to confirm to fans that she will not be taking part in the Gilmore Girls revival. In a tweet posted by McCarthy herself, she sarcastically states, “Thanks for the invite, but sadly no one asked me or Sookie to come back to Stars Hollow. Wish them all the best!!” So now, we, the viewers, are left with the pressing question of who exactly will be feeding Lorelai Gilmore’s coffee addiction and sustaining the Gilmore family with her delectable and innovative dishes.
With the return of Gilmore Girls looming in the distance like a bright light at the end of the dark tunnel that we have been abandoned in since the show went off the air in 2007, we as Stone Ridge girls have been given a gift from the gods. Having grown up as products of the late 90s and early 2000s, Gilmore Girls profoundly impacted our childhood.
Alex Hudome, ‘16, started watching Gilmore Girls about five or six years ago. Says Hudome, “My mom was actually the first one to start watching it, and she noticed similarities between Lorelai and Rory’s relationship and our own mother-daughter relationship. It really became our show–the show that we will always watch together and relate to.”
However, what has really connected Hudome with the show is not simply its humor and plotline, but rather the message that the show sends. “I think what really attracted me to the show is that it’s one of the few television shows, let alone a hit television show, that depicts a struggling single parent.”
Kathryn Paravano, ‘17, also mentions the empowering message the show sends to its viewers. Having just started and finished Gilmore Girls this past summer, Paravano was initially inclined to watch the show because she had heard positive feedback about it. What Paravano took away, however, was more than simply another good television show watched to add to her television bucket list.
“I think what I took away from the show is that it sends a very powerful female message. Both Rory and Lorelai both go in and out of relationships, but at the end of the day, the relationship that they value the most is the one they have with each other,” says Paravano. “They exemplified that they did not need to have a man or really anyone else […] they just needed to be surrounded by their empowering female role models,” she continues.
Hudome agrees, stating “I think the show fully depicts the message of female empowerment. There are tons of strong, independent, annoying, sarcastic, and hilarious female characters in the show that I’m sure any woman could relate to. I think that overall, the show is just the embodiment of the representation that we oftentimes do not see in the media.”
When asked her feelings regarding the revival of Gilmore Girls, Hudome responds saying, “I love seeing TV shows that I used to watch when I was younger be brought back to life in different circumstances that pertain to different people and times. You get to see how much of a different vibe the show takes on. But, moreover, I think that bringing it back, especially during these times, is a really good idea for better representation on TV.”
Paravano and Kara Posniewski, ‘17, are looking forward to the revival, mostly because they are in search of a better ending than the one they were offered upon the final episode of the original series. “I thought that the ending could have been better […] it was pretty disappointing,” states Paravano. Posniewski agrees, saying, “I’m really hoping that the revival will give us a chance to have that better and more satisfying ending we were all hoping for.”
