More Gilmore Girls thoughts (though this time reflecting more on A Year in the Life)
Still no overt spoilers though I might recommend watching the revival before reading on, it's not necessary, but it might help. I'll type a bit about the emotions that the show has for me.
I think part of why this show is so influential to me is that Rory's character is so close to my own age, but also because Lorelei's character embodies so much of the growth (throughout the entire show not just the revival) that I hope to have in my life. Much of what I feel like I've dealt with in the last 4 years is reflected in some of what happens in the show simply because Rory is of a similar age and the show really does reflect a bunch of what is going on for people of a similar age demographic -- of course nothing on TV is going to be the same as real life and well, I like to think that the personal growth that I've had in my life is more real and more substantial than the growth that Rory has (I would argue that her character's journey is somewhat unsatisfying as she doesn't grow as much as I might want her to have, yet this does seem somewhat truthful for the character and doesn't seem poorly written: so many people in my life (not excluding myself) have journeys that are similar in one way or another to hers in this one year. It's admittedly hard to show in about 6 hours of television the growth or stagnation that an individual might actually go through in the course of a single year, no matter how much humor, emotion, etc. the show might employ.
I feel like the revival is a great story arc for Lorelei's character. I feel like Rory's character could stand to develop more (and if the show is ever revived again, I feel like it ought to focus on her continuing storyline moreso), but that's important not just for us as viewers but to the arc of the entire show from 2000-2016. Yes the ending of the show that the producer/writer/creator really truly wanted is there, and yes it can be both predictable and shocking... but I'd argue that it fits a whole lot better with the series now than they would have had the series ended with an 8th season in 2008, but who knows? I mean the show could have taken a whole different direction in the 7th and 8th season if things were different.
I like how the show challenges me. It isn't a simple story: I have never been solidly on team Dean, Jess, or Logan for example (unless you count being on team Dean before any other beaus were introduced, realistically before that character was fully developed, back then I was more naive and young in the way of relationships and the world), particularly not after the whole arc of the original run of the show. I can see the arguments that people have for each of these three characters, however. I can see a bunch of my previous relationships in each of these characters and I can see their flaws in hindsight, just as one can overanalyze a TV show better than one can actually have perspective on my own life.
I like to hope that the relationships in my life are better for the media that I watch or read. Perhaps my favourite male character from the show has always been Luke (or at least ever since I stopped being a teenager, it has been because I admit that when I was a teen first watching the show, I had a much harder time identifying with Lorelei when compared to studious Rory)... and I guess that might tell me a whole lot about some of the traits that I value in relationships as an adult.
The Netflix show is a bit more edgy than I remember the tv show being -- but then again nearly a decade has passed and Netflix is a whole different medium, really. Six hours of tv is a lot, but it's not an unmanageable amount to binge in a single day (multiple sittings in my case but I was trying to be productive).
I liked the commentary on technology that I saw in the show -- even though like with most tv representations of technology there are a lot of liberties taken and a lot of problematic moments. I found the way that the return of multiple beloved characters was handled was good -- even if some only got scant minutes of screentime, it was helpful to see it.
I feel like there are a lot of loose ends but those are good fodder for imagination. The door is both closed and open to new content at some point eventually. And you know what? I'm pretty okay with that. I wonder at whether it would jump the shark in another revival or whether it would continue along in the same vein.
I think I smiled or cried in each episode for different reasons. There were those awkward moments, and moments of reflection in all the 4 episodes. There were a few times I felt like things went on for longer than I desired, and others where I think that more could have been done, but that's TV for you. I don't watch much TV but this show has and has had such a strong impact on my emotions and thought processes I could probably write all day or talk all day in an environment where I wasn't worried about spoilering things for other people.
Suffice to say it, I'm full of emotions with regards to this show and for me that's probably a positive all in all.
I think part of why this show is so influential to me is that Rory's character is so close to my own age, but also because Lorelei's character embodies so much of the growth (throughout the entire show not just the revival) that I hope to have in my life. Much of what I feel like I've dealt with in the last 4 years is reflected in some of what happens in the show simply because Rory is of a similar age and the show really does reflect a bunch of what is going on for people of a similar age demographic -- of course nothing on TV is going to be the same as real life and well, I like to think that the personal growth that I've had in my life is more real and more substantial than the growth that Rory has (I would argue that her character's journey is somewhat unsatisfying as she doesn't grow as much as I might want her to have, yet this does seem somewhat truthful for the character and doesn't seem poorly written: so many people in my life (not excluding myself) have journeys that are similar in one way or another to hers in this one year. It's admittedly hard to show in about 6 hours of television the growth or stagnation that an individual might actually go through in the course of a single year, no matter how much humor, emotion, etc. the show might employ.
I feel like the revival is a great story arc for Lorelei's character. I feel like Rory's character could stand to develop more (and if the show is ever revived again, I feel like it ought to focus on her continuing storyline moreso), but that's important not just for us as viewers but to the arc of the entire show from 2000-2016. Yes the ending of the show that the producer/writer/creator really truly wanted is there, and yes it can be both predictable and shocking... but I'd argue that it fits a whole lot better with the series now than they would have had the series ended with an 8th season in 2008, but who knows? I mean the show could have taken a whole different direction in the 7th and 8th season if things were different.
I like how the show challenges me. It isn't a simple story: I have never been solidly on team Dean, Jess, or Logan for example (unless you count being on team Dean before any other beaus were introduced, realistically before that character was fully developed, back then I was more naive and young in the way of relationships and the world), particularly not after the whole arc of the original run of the show. I can see the arguments that people have for each of these three characters, however. I can see a bunch of my previous relationships in each of these characters and I can see their flaws in hindsight, just as one can overanalyze a TV show better than one can actually have perspective on my own life.
I like to hope that the relationships in my life are better for the media that I watch or read. Perhaps my favourite male character from the show has always been Luke (or at least ever since I stopped being a teenager, it has been because I admit that when I was a teen first watching the show, I had a much harder time identifying with Lorelei when compared to studious Rory)... and I guess that might tell me a whole lot about some of the traits that I value in relationships as an adult.
The Netflix show is a bit more edgy than I remember the tv show being -- but then again nearly a decade has passed and Netflix is a whole different medium, really. Six hours of tv is a lot, but it's not an unmanageable amount to binge in a single day (multiple sittings in my case but I was trying to be productive).
I liked the commentary on technology that I saw in the show -- even though like with most tv representations of technology there are a lot of liberties taken and a lot of problematic moments. I found the way that the return of multiple beloved characters was handled was good -- even if some only got scant minutes of screentime, it was helpful to see it.
I feel like there are a lot of loose ends but those are good fodder for imagination. The door is both closed and open to new content at some point eventually. And you know what? I'm pretty okay with that. I wonder at whether it would jump the shark in another revival or whether it would continue along in the same vein.
I think I smiled or cried in each episode for different reasons. There were those awkward moments, and moments of reflection in all the 4 episodes. There were a few times I felt like things went on for longer than I desired, and others where I think that more could have been done, but that's TV for you. I don't watch much TV but this show has and has had such a strong impact on my emotions and thought processes I could probably write all day or talk all day in an environment where I wasn't worried about spoilering things for other people.
Suffice to say it, I'm full of emotions with regards to this show and for me that's probably a positive all in all.