Even though nearly ten years have passed since we’ve seen it, not many things have changed in our beloved town of Stars Hollow. Lorelai is still sarcastic, the Gilmore girls still quote pop culture and the diner is still running. But they don’t drink as much coffee as they used to, and far less pizza and pop tarts were consumed. (If you’re wondering, there were twenty one cups of coffee drunk in the whole four-part mini-series. Twenty one: that’s it!)
Almost everyone from the original cast returned some point. Max Medina never comes back, but the far less important Tristan does. True, the actual Tristan (Chad Michael Murray) never showed up, but we do see a profile shot of a CMM look alike. As you might expect, Paris is the same, as uptight and in-your-face as she was before: she still freaks out when she catches sight of Tristan. Chilton looks the same, but it’s much more obvious that the set is on a backlot in Burbank. Emily and Kirk on the other hand, have changed big time. Kirk has much more personality, and Emily has started to become her own person while she copes with the death of Richard.
The absence of Edward Herrmann, who played Richard Gilmore, was felt throughout the whole show. His seat in both the living room and dining room were empty, making you feel like he might walk in at any moment and surprise everyone.
While I did love being transported back to this world, there were some things I could have lived without. For example, the obnoxious musical sequence that was ten minutes long should have been ten seconds at most. And, after all Lorelai and Rory have been through, why was Emily so still so horrible? And older Rory is very un-Rory like, all over the place and not exactly sure who she is.
My favorite part of the whole show was when The Life and Death Brigade showed up. Colin, Finn, Robert and Logan all returned for one last hurrah with Rory. When they appear in monkey masks and whisk her away on an adventure, it all looks like it’s something out of dream sequence at first. But then Rory, and the audience, realize that it’s actually the harsh reality, and we have to say goodbye to them.
As a die-hard Gilmore Girls fan, I think that the four part mini-series manages to wrap up all loose ends while still leaving some things open; it gives us hope that a true revival series based on Rory will be coming. All in all, I’d give this five out of five cups of Luke’s Diner coffee.