One of the great television tragedies of our age was the final season of Gilmore Girls, in which creator/showrunner Amy Sherman-Palladino was ditched and the show ran off the rails. Everything in that last, Amy- less season was wrong; it made me think of The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, when the little boy insists that the woman who looks and speaks like his mom just isn't her.
I gave up a few episodes in, heartbroken that the GG story arc had gone off a cliff. To this day I have no idea how life turned out for those Gilmore Snatchers.
From the beginning, A Year in the Life feels like the true Gilmore Girls. The characters speak and act as they're supposed to. At the same time, the first episode is not *great* Gilmore Girls. It's just nice to see them again.
The second episode is better, but it's not until the third episode that the mini-series truly becomes the show I always loved. That episode is wildly funny, particularly a brilliantly terrible musical that I loved from beginning to end (I disagree with those who feel it should have been shortened).
Like the original, AYITL is very funny and very touching, and I care about its characters, who are the same lovable but deeply flawed (yes, Rory was always deeply flawed, so quit acting like her not being a saint is a betrayal of the series) people I remember. And Emily's journey as she deals with the changes in her life is glorious.
Were there flaws and oddities? Sure. I found Rory's encounter with the rich kids a silly overreach and some characters seem to be there just because they were in the original rather than because they added something to the plot.
So yeah, I could pick at the loose threads of this mini-series, but I won't, in the same way I never picked at the loose threads of the original series. It was Sherman-Palladino's vision, and as far as I'm concerned, whatever she does with those characters is the right thing to do with them. I love them all, and I am thrilled to have a chance to reenter their lives. Here's hoping they return yet again.
I gave up a few episodes in, heartbroken that the GG story arc had gone off a cliff. To this day I have no idea how life turned out for those Gilmore Snatchers.
From the beginning, A Year in the Life feels like the true Gilmore Girls. The characters speak and act as they're supposed to. At the same time, the first episode is not *great* Gilmore Girls. It's just nice to see them again.
The second episode is better, but it's not until the third episode that the mini-series truly becomes the show I always loved. That episode is wildly funny, particularly a brilliantly terrible musical that I loved from beginning to end (I disagree with those who feel it should have been shortened).
Like the original, AYITL is very funny and very touching, and I care about its characters, who are the same lovable but deeply flawed (yes, Rory was always deeply flawed, so quit acting like her not being a saint is a betrayal of the series) people I remember. And Emily's journey as she deals with the changes in her life is glorious.
Were there flaws and oddities? Sure. I found Rory's encounter with the rich kids a silly overreach and some characters seem to be there just because they were in the original rather than because they added something to the plot.
So yeah, I could pick at the loose threads of this mini-series, but I won't, in the same way I never picked at the loose threads of the original series. It was Sherman-Palladino's vision, and as far as I'm concerned, whatever she does with those characters is the right thing to do with them. I love them all, and I am thrilled to have a chance to reenter their lives. Here's hoping they return yet again.