It can’t come as a surprise that the ending left fans wanting more.
December 1, 2016 1:52 PM   Subscribe

 
The one thing you couldn’t do with Lane and Zack is have them be sh–ty parents. So them having kids sort of dictated them still living in Stars Hollow.

Not to argue too much, but you can be a good parent outside of Stars Hollow.
posted by jeather at 3:14 PM on December 1, 2016 [5 favorites]


Soo disappointed in Rory, who had so many more opportunities than others....
posted by etaoin at 3:28 PM on December 1, 2016 [1 favorite]


The Life and Death Brigade would benefit from significantly more Death.
posted by percor at 3:41 PM on December 1, 2016 [13 favorites]


TVLINE | How was Rory able to afford all of that air travel?
A lot of it was points. When you travel that much you have points. She’s flying economy. She’s flying JetBlue on a deal. And she’s using her points. We didn’t really focus on money because, quite frankly, I don’t think anyone’s worried that Rory is going to starve. Between Emily Gilmore, Lorelai Gilmore… Logan… there were so many [well-off] people in her life that would’ve made sure she didn’t fall through the cracks.


Oh come the fuck on. That's an insultingly lazy answer.
posted by desuetude at 4:01 PM on December 1, 2016 [10 favorites]


I'm just gonna quote verbatim from Jacob Clifton, formerly of Television Without Pity, currently with Screener TV, and soon to be with relaunched TWoP (!!):

"To me the only acceptable "last four words" of Gilmore Girls have ever been "I'm getting an abortion" -- but that would never happen, because it's a keystone to the intensely, parodically Gen X mind behind the show that Rory absolutely must repeat her mother's mistakes, that poor helpless overlooked Lorelai will always be caught between the rock of Boomer control/shame and the hard place of millennial self-esteem, unable to choose or make changes to anything in her life, and that ultimately Grey Gardens is the only way the story is allowed to end, because anything else would be the end of the world as Gen X understands it:

Flung off the decaying orbit of Baby Boomer narcissism & its hideous gravity, and out into... what? Gen X can't imagine because that's 90% of any story they've ever been told. Pain, and shame, are worse than the unknown.
Lorelai stays at the age of her trauma, like we all do; waiting for Emily to finally die so she can assume her role.

Rory's daughter will be born pregnant, with a pregnant baby, smaller and smaller, until you'd need a microscope to see them."

posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 4:31 PM on December 1, 2016 [14 favorites]


Rory's daughter will be born pregnant, with a pregnant baby, smaller and smaller, until you'd need a microscope to see them."

Like tribbles!
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:31 PM on December 1, 2016 [1 favorite]


Between Emily Gilmore, Lorelai Gilmore… Logan… there were so many [well-off] people in her life that would’ve made sure she didn’t fall through the cracks.

OMG not taking trips to London every other week is not "falling through the cracks"
posted by zutalors! at 6:38 PM on December 1, 2016 [1 favorite]


My favorite take on Gilmore Girls so far (from blogger Phoebe Maltz Bovy)
She announces the book she intends to write with more confidence that anyone will care than I'm able to summon re: the book I actually wrote.

But why should she have other concerns when she comes from a world where spare-room-having establishments are being thrown at her left and right? Which will it be, the posh-sounding cabin offered up by the superrich friend-with-benefits, or the spare empty mansion left behind by her superrich grandmother? And then it becomes clear: She's an heiress. That's why she puts on nice new business attire to go into her unpaid job (side note: remember the flack Hannah Horvath got for that unpaid post-college internship) at her town paper! She may be broke, but the world is her safety net!

So how should the viewer, especially the not-Rory writer-viewer, feel about all this? Either we can say that the show offers an unrealistic portrait of the writing life, or it offers a very realistic portrait. If you're wealthy, gorgeous, and went to the right college, you can just coast along on an impressive-sounding but work-sparse career that consists of the occasional highbrow publication. And a memoir of a couch-surfing early-30s aristocratic woman would probably sell.
posted by permiechickie at 9:44 PM on December 1, 2016 [8 favorites]


The NYT Wedding Announcement section would probably blow a load if they had to writeup Rory.
posted by geoff. at 11:57 PM on December 1, 2016 [3 favorites]


I've nicked it from Dysh over in the FanFare thread, but reading this article in The Week about the Gilmore Girls puts a lot into context, especially re: Rory.

"The revival is, in short, neither heartwarming nor uplifting. But that's not as radical a departure from the original series as it might seem; it's just a much less camouflaged version of the difficult show Gilmore Girls always was. Its emotional logic remains deadly accurate, even if it's less cathartic and more brutal."

When we left Stars Hollow, everyone, including Rory, thought this girl was gonna go places. But thinking about how it ended before 2008 recession (and no smartphones!) and all that happened in the ensuing eight years leaves Rory almost where she should be and needs to be. I think I might have been disappointed if she wasn't a failure. If SherPa had gone ahead with the narrative about how successful Rory is now, she'd be twice as insufferable. Of course, she should fail. Of course, she needs to start realizing that the world doesn't owe her a fucking thing and she may actually have to work harder to get whatever it is she thinks she deserves. Because for all of her money her family gives her (let's face it, no one has that many points for flying international as anyone with a goddamn credit card wil tell you, unless you are businessman), the favours she's given, she has fucked it up by thinking she's aced this. She keeps fucking it up and keeps wondering why this is happening to her. It keeps happening to her because no one has told her any different.
posted by Kitteh at 5:17 AM on December 2, 2016 [5 favorites]


soon to be with relaunched TWoP (!!):

Wait, WHAT? Yay!

(and I guess that's why I can't find his recaps of this on that site? I used to love his recaps of PLL and BSG, but for some reason it never occurred to me to look for him elsewhere)
posted by lunasol at 5:17 PM on December 2, 2016


I wish the revival treated Rory (especially!) and Lorelai like they were questionable in their decisions and/or bad people. I think at least Lorelai got to where she needed to be, even if the arc was sloppy.

Rory was always treated as a precious, special child. When it was revealed that she was hooking up with Logan in the first episode (Winter), I felt kind of excited because it seemed DARK. And it was like, FINALLY!!!!! But nope, Rory's gotta Rory. I think the whole "I'm pregnant" thing would've landed better if it had seemed like Rory had learned anything in the past ... well, since she went to Chilton, mostly.

I would love to be on board with the idea that this is a show about bad people. I just don't think that's the show Amy Sherman-Palladino. I think she's way too dedicated to these characters that she can't see them clearly. Rory (and to an extent, Lorelai) are terrible. That's just not how they're presented on the show, at all. We're supposed to love them. Nope, they're tiring.

(I've watched Gilmore Girls a bunch and the more I watch it, the more I am on Emily's side. Emily is the only one who knows who she is and what she's doing. Emily forever. Lorelai and Rory are exhausting and I hope they're stuck forever in the loophole of Stars Hallow. Emily can go wherever she wants.)
posted by darksong at 10:50 PM on December 2, 2016 [5 favorites]


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