On Friday the 25th, otherwise known as GG day, I devoted six hours of my life to watch the highly anticipated Gilmore Girls revival when I was meant to be packing up to move house. Not all in one go, I had coffee breaks and obviously needed the toilet, but yes it was a long long day filled with Stars Hollow and it was really bloody magical.
Afterwards I went online, and was pushed into a world of Gilmore Girls reboot psychoanalysis. Articles over analysing the ‘new’ Rory Gilmore, pointing out her ‘weak spots,’ and ‘selfish ways.’ Comments on the characters heightened sense of privilege and entitled thoughts plagued my Facebook feed like Brexit all over again. But I’m going to stop you all right there, because we need to take a step back and stop intellectualising the Gilmore Girls revival.
First things first, Rory has always been selfish. Remember the time she ditched her mother’s graduation, the same mother who would probably cancel her own wedding to go sit by Rory’s side if she got stung by a bee (hypothetically, of course), to go see Jess in New York in season two? Or the time she slept with her now married ex-boyfriend Dean and didn’t appear to give two shits about his wife because they were ‘destined to be together?’ Rory has been selfish and entitled from season one, because no one has dared to ever challenge her and she’s grown up as the apple of her mother’s eye. But we know this, and we have done for seven long seasons.
And don’t even get me started on Lorelai. Lorelai thinks about two people, and two people only. Maybe three when Paul Anka the dog pops up. Herself, and Rory. She left home and 16 to forge a new life for herself and her baby in a sleepy town in Connecticut because god forbid she accepts her mother’s help. Let alone see past the fact that the only reason Emily Gilmore blackmails her into dinner plans every Friday because it’s the only way she can see her own daughter. This isn’t new information, though. The Gilmore Girls are inherently selfish, why so is everyone freaking out about this now?
I gave up hours of my life to watch it all in one go, willingly obviously, and it wasn't until after I went online that I started to doubt my enjoyrment of the show. Am I a terrible person for loving it, does it matter that I don't have a strong enough opinion on Rory's new lifestyle? AM I A TERRIBLE HUMAN?!
I know that Rory is selfish, I know Lorelai needs to hold her mouth sometimes, but these characters still make you feel exactly the same way as they did in the previous seven seasons: frustrated, upset, delighted, happy - all the feelings you should feel when watching a Netflix show. Becayse that's all it is, a show. Yes, I get it, it's a 'lifestyle, it's a religion,' but instead of blasting it the minute it was released can't we just enjoy it for what it is?
It's exactly the type of TV you can switch off. Goodbye Instagram, goodbye WhatsApp, goodbye flatmates because soz you won’t be seeing me for a few hours. I don’t watch it because it’s going to change my life (that's still allowed, isn't it?) but for me it’s the ultimate escapism from whatever has been stressing me out that day. I will hold my hand up high and say I enjoyed the reboot, not because it taught me a valuable life lesson and not because Rory inspired me to go out there and take on the world, but because it made me feel warm, cosy and nostalgic on a freezing cold Friday. That, and it was the perfect distraction from packing up my flat.
Like this? You might also be interested in…
How Gilmore Girls Set Us Up To Be The Forward-Thinking Feminist Women We Are Today
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9 Of The Best Bits From The New Beind-The-Scenes Gilmore Girls Trailer
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.