Geekscape Review: Gilmore Girls ‘A Year In The Life’
It was nine years ago when The CW pulled the plug on its popular program Gilmore Girls. Starring Lauren Graham as Lorelai Gilmore and Alexis Bledel as Rory Gilmore. The fast talking, coffee drinking duo returned to people’s small screens this weekend all thanks to Netflix.
Over the course of the four episodes, ‘Winter’, ‘Spring’, ‘Summer’ and ‘Fall’, an ode to Carole King’s song ‘You’ve Got A Friend’, the Gilmore Girls go through ups and downs. Reeling from the loss of patriarch Richard Gilmore, the women, Emily, Lorelai, and Rory all come to terms with the loss and all three go on a journey that make them re-evaluate life.
If you have not seen Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life – read this later. It does contain spoilers. Come back and read once you’re done. If you’ve finished your 6 hour binge and have seen all four episodes, pull up a chair and take a read.
Over the four seasons, we see the the ups and downs of the characters. Emily is grappling with being a widow and ultimately finds herself in Nantucket, selling the mansion fans know as the Gilmore Mansion. Lorelai is dealing with her own complications – she’s happy in her relationship with Luke, but she wants him to be happy. Her Inn is struggling, one best friend has already left and the other is on their way out. Rory is in a rut, where she’s not getting any work, has what it seems like no confidence, and has her things spread across 3 different states. Her story seems to be the one to have taken control of the series and with the ending, it’s understandably so.
In the original run of the show, the crew did what they could to have a big budget item every season. With the 4 episodes, there was a big budget item in every one. With Winter, there was snow for the entire run and from what it seems like – snow is expensive when your show shoots in Burbank California. In Spring, there was a cultural festival where there was a booth for a variety of countries with different kinds of food. In Summer, the town puts on a musical and in Fall, there is a wedding and a full on production number that involves the Life and Death Brigade – who are friends of Logan (Matt Czuchry). Out of all of them, I must say that the musical number with the Life and Death Brigade was fantastic and visually well done.
Story wise, certain points flowed throughout the various episodes. Lorelai and Luke stay together, and it’s not until the end, after a hike for clarity does Lorelai realize what it is that she wants. She wants to marry Luke. Luke on the other hand thought she was leaving him because Lorelai has signs, which fans of the show know all about, and as Luke expressed them, it made sense. Rory struggles with maintaining a job. She expresses to Jess (Milo Ventimiglia) that she’s broke, she’s homeless (over the course of the show she stays in her Mom’s, Paris’, her best friend Lane’s, her grandmother’s) and has no job. It’s Jess who suggests she writes a story about her and her Mom, points out that it’s a “cool story” that only she has perspective on. That does not go over well with Lorelai, but Lorelai eventually gives Rory consent. Rory goes to tell her father, Christopher, about the book and asks him if he was upset that Lorelai raised Rory on her own. While it seems out of left field, perfectly placed, it gives perspective on the ending and makes sense as to her line of questioning.
The show was chalk full of cameos and special guest stars. Over the course of the 10 months, from when they announced the show coming to Netflix, and the actual launch of the series, the list of who is coming back continued to grow. Amy Sherman Palladino dipped into the world of her previous series, Bunheads and brought back four of its actors. Lauren Graham brought some from friends from her days at Parenthood. Cameos were what they are, but never the less, enjoyable for fans, not just of the show, but the actors and their body of work.
What Amy Sherman Palladino and her husband Daniel Palladino are masters at are giving you bits and pieces of the story sugarcoated in other things. The Final Four Words are things fans of this show have been speculating for the last decade. The Palladino duo left at the end of season 6 and were not able to write the ending of the show. A Year In The Life is how they wanted the show to end, which begs the question – Would the final four words have made sense then? The writing of this show is show specific. It’s jam packed with pop culture references, but the reference audiences don’t get or don’t understand, turns them onto Google which in turns educates them. So really, the show is educating their audiences as well. Come award season I would not be surprised if Amy Sherman Palladino gets nominated for her work in “Fall”.
Speaking of award season – I would not be surprised if Lauren Graham gets nominated. The girls all dealt with the death of Richard Gilmore in their own way. At the beginning, Emily was getting rid of everything in the house, then she tried to get back into the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) and then ultimately moved to Nantucket and sold her house. She grieved, she moved on and started a life for herself. She was married for 50 years and knew nothing else really. Rory traveled, had a casual fling, and hunted for a job. She didn’t have anything steady happening. Lorelai on the other hand, still had everything in her life. She had her boyfriend, her job, her house – she just didn’t have her Dad. Lauren Graham played Lorelai on the cusp of breaking down in almost every season. There was rarely a scene where she wasn’t close to breaking down in some form. Graham reigned it in and it wasn’t until she was on the side of a mountain, calling her mother, that she broke down and told her mother a very heartwarming story about her father. It was remarkable work.
This is how Amy Sherman-Palladino wanted the show to end. This was her vision. The last four words were in her mind from the conception of the pilot. Sound off below on what you thought of the final four words and let us know what you thought of the Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life.
