I think it’s not a big stretch to say that most fans of the original “Gilmore Girls” series were somewhat unsatisfied with the way it ended. Not enough closure, no real evidence of happily-ever-afters for the characters we had grown to know and love…

And now, suddenly, in our social-media-outcry day and age, we have an entity like Netflix that can see a show with a cult following, realize that that cult following was unsatisfied, and identify that making a reboot of the show is a good idea.

But the question is, does this reboot satisfy?

The High Points

Now to start with, the Netflix “Gilmore Girls” reboot did take us back to the quaintness of Stars Hollow and give us a taste of all those characters we missed, not to mention a healthy dose of the snappy dialogue we all love so much. So far so good. Nostalgia satisfied.

But, as “The Office” character Dwight Schrute once said, “Nostalgia is one of the great human weaknesses… second only to the neck.” Meaning, in this case, that nostalgia may have made me want to watch this reboot, but fulfilling my nostalgia for the original was just not a strong enough high point to make me feel the entire thing was worth it. Because…

What are these people doing?

Come on, guys. How are you still so screwed up?

It’s been supposedly almost ten years since the series’ ending, and Rory is still floundering (and sleeping) around, not settled, unable to find her place in life. While this might be nice and relatable to average floundering millennial viewer, how depressing! This girl had so much potential. Why can’t she grow up and figure her crap out?

And I mean, artistically speaking, what were they going to do for plot and conflict, if not make her job situation and love life messed up? Well… you people wrote five plus seasons of great plot, I’m sure you could have figured something out (reboot writers Amy Sherman-Palladino, and Daniel Palladino both left the original show before the seventh and final season… and I personally think the greatness of the sixth season’s plot is debatable…).

And don’t get me started on Lorelai. In almost ten years, she and her now boyfriend Luke have somehow never had the guts to either decide to get married, definitively say, “The heck with it, we’re shacking up forever…” or figure out for sure if they want kids together. That’s her main plot issue in this series, and it feels… sickening? How have you not figured this out by now, people?

This mini-series kind of felt like they took the things I disliked most about the last two seasons of the show and ran with them for six hours. Not cool.

Moral Issues

Not a lot different than the series itself. A little occasional language, and the prevailing loose sexual morality of these people who can’t seem to grow up. That, and a couple weird additions: Lorelai’s coworker Michel is now gay (he used to be kind of metro but into women); and Paris now works for a surrogacy company, so artificial human reproduction is treated as being fine and dandy (although, it might be argued that Paris’ over-the-top general attitude kind of makes a mockery of the surrogacy industry she’s intending to promote – if that was the intention, I say mock away, people!).

Over All

Sigh. I had such high hopes. It’s not terrible, and I think I would have wanted to watch it even knowing it wouldn’t quite satisfy me. But ultimately, I can’t help but think that it should have been so much better.

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