Melissa Jones is a junior creative writing major and writes "Not Your Average Jones" for the Daily News. Her views do not necessarily agree with those of the newspaper. Write to Melissa at mdjones7@bsu.edu.
Editor’s note: This article contains spoilers
Don’t get me wrong, I loved seeing Stars Hollow come back to life in “Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life.” I laughed, I cried and I nervously bit my nails as I binge-watched the four-part event. Overall, I was more than happy with the show, but that doesn’t mean it came without its imperfections. These are the top 10 most disappointing moments from the “Gilmore Girls” revival.
10. Luke and Lorelai’s wedding — or lackthereof
Let me start by saying I loved their pre-wedding wedding. Kirk absolutely nailed it with the decorations (who would’ve thought?), and the cinematography in that scene was beautiful. Yet, part of me still wanted the actual wedding.
What kind of dress was Lorelai going to wear? Would her mother make it through the night without any snide comments? Was the reception going to be as awesome as Lane’s? Fans have been dreaming of this wedding even before we heard of June 3; I was hoping we’d finally see the real deal, but I guess it’ll only exist in our imaginations.
9. Lack of drama
The first two episodes of “A Year in the Life” were oddly slow and uneventful for the Stars Hollow. Even the biggest events seemed to get swept under the rug with an “it is what it is” mentality. When Rory confessed her affair with Logan, even Lorelai seemed more upset with there being no “Didi” in London. And when Rory had a one-night stand with someone she was following as a source for an article (don’t worry, I’ll get to that later), Lorelai commended her on finally living out her young, crazy days. Maybe I’m just still getting used to their more mature lives with less drama.
8. Emily’s maid
Emily Gilmore is infamous in the maid service industry. The woman has been known to fire a maid for the most ridiculous of reasons, like being too quiet. Nearly every episode of “Gilmore Girls” featured a new maid in the Gilmore mansion, so when Emily kept the same maid for the entire year of the revival, I felt a little cheated. It wasn’t like the Emily we knew and (as much as you may hate to admit it) loved.
Sure, you could argue that Emily wasn’t like herself after Richard’s death, but I think she especially wouldn’t put up with imperfect maids at a time like that. Watching Emily go a whole year struggling to communicate with her own maid had me cringing — not to mention the fact that her maid seemed to be robbing her of her house and expensive belongings at some points.
I loved seeing the vulnerable side of Emily throughout the show, but nothing would’ve made me happier than to watch her fire the maid at the end when she finally found peace with Richard’s death.
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7. Lorelai’s not-so-“Wild” hike
As a creative writing major, I’ve studied and fallen in love with the writings of Cheryl Strayed. I was thrilled to see the homage the show paid to Strayed’s popular book-turned-movie “Wild,” but I was a little disappointed in the execution.
I guess I can’t say I was surprised Lorelai never actually made it onto her hike in the wilderness, but I would’ve loved to see it happen. I wanted to see Lorelai go through with the hike. I wanted to see her go through trials and triumphs on her own, really finding herself deep in the trees. I think she ultimately got what she wanted and needed out of the trip, but it seemed like an easy way out.
6. Sookie’s scene
When I heard Melissa McCarthy had time in her schedule to return to the “Gilmore Girls” set, that’s when I knew the revival would be as good as the original. “Gilmore Girls” without Sookie would be like Luke without a baseball cap — it just wouldn’t be complete.
But just one scene? If you’re only going to have one scene in the entire 360-minute show with Sookie in it, you might as well make it a good one. Instead, we got a quick scene in which she seemed a little more like the raunchy characters McCarthy is known for today than the sweet, innocently funny Sookie I remembered.
5. The lack of Jess
I didn’t expect Rory to end up with Jess — besides, they’re family now; that’d be kind of weird — but I wanted to see more of him in the show. The bad boy of Stars Hollow has clearly grown up since we first met him, so what’s changed? How are things going at his press in New York? What new things has he been up to in the past few years?
Let’s not forgot that the book Rory’s writing was completely his idea. His comment seemed like such a quick remark, and the show seemed to glance over giving him more credit for it. I would’ve liked to see Jess be more prominent in the show, especially when Rory was writing the first few chapters of the book. After all, the two mostly bond over books, and he — an author himself — showed Rory his book, a big step in getting his life turned around. It would’ve been nice to see some of those loose ties brought together.
4. Paris not getting together with Tristan
I’ve been a closet fan of Tristan from the beginning. Yes, he was quite the jerk in high school, but he did have an inevitable charm about him.
When Paris — his longtime secret admirer — saw him at Chilton all these years later, I was hoping the two would finally end up together. After her failed marriage with Doyle and having kids that aren’t her biggest fans, it’s the least she deserved. Paris Geller has worked harder than anyone to get to where she is now, so it’s about time she gets the man she’s been pining over for the last 15 years.
3. The missing theme song
While the revival had some of the classic background music and the famous town troubadour, it was missing one major musical element: the catchy theme song.
Sure, the Carol King cameo was a great nod to the woman whose lyrics we all sing, but “Gilmore Girls” isn’t “Gilmore Girls” without the opening tune.
2. Rory’s love life
To be honest, I’ve also been a part of Team Logan, so I was slightly happy to see that they were back together after all this time — well, kind of. It was hard to celebrate the “couple” when they were both cheating on other partners.
Speaking of other partners, we can’t ignore Rory’s relationship with Paul (that’s his name, right?). These last four episodes were perhaps the hardest to support oh-so-loveable Rory. I couldn’t stand to watch her treat her boyfriend of two years (three if you count the whole revival) like he was nothing to her.
1. Rory’s career
From the beginning of the show, we all expected Rory to end up in a great place career-wise. She was a small-town girl who went to Yale and, at the end of the regular series, was off to work for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. I think many would agree when I say she was a role model for writers and journalists everywhere. After all, she was one of the great editors-in-chief for the Yale Daily News. Needless to say, it was shocking to see how her success had taken a turn for the worse.
As someone in the journalism field, it was painful to watch Rory try to build her career. She was sleeping with sources, falling asleep while interviewing people (and not even interviewing them very well) and unprofessionally talking to editors on the phone while trying to get cell service, among many other poorly handled situations.
For the most part, “Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life” was exactly how I expected things to be, but Rory had changed more than I ever would have guessed. Perhaps there was good reasoning for it, but as someone who so greatly identified with the character as I was growing up, it was a major disappointment.
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