It’s that time of year again. With the warm weather gone, people across the world are settling into their yearly tradition: Rewatching Gilmore Girls.
For me, this year marks my first rewatch. While I’ve seen a lot of the show more than once out of order, last year my girlfriend had me go through the entire thing as it was meant to be watched.
As someone who dismissed the show for years, I have to say I was surprised at how much I loved it. I had no idea what I was missing. The cozy vibes, the beautiful sets and Kirk’s consistent presence quickly drew me in.
With a total runtime of 149 hours, 153 if you include the reboot and less if you’re like me and skip the intro and episodes you don’t like (the Donna Reed one), there’s a lot to take in. When you watch through the show the first time, you find yourself holding a lot of opinions and judgments that will change as the show goes on.
What opinions of mine have I found myself second guessing now that I’m watching the show with full knowledge of what happens? Have any stayed the same?
To get the easiest one out of the way first, I still hate Christopher.
Not only is he a bad father to Rory and a bad boyfriend to Lorelei, he doesn’t learn from his mistakes. We watch him consistently make promises he doesn’t keep, not to mention that he got two girls pregnant 17 years apart from each other.
While we’re on the subject of love interests, I have to make my status as a member of Team Jess clear.
Dean is a whiny misogynist who yelled at Rory for trying to get into Harvard. My only change in opinion about Dean has to do with him cheating on his wife with Rory.
When I first watched the episode, I was one of the many who put almost equal blame on Rory and Dean. However, my girlfriend who has seen the show more times than I can count helped me understand that Dean is more at fault.
Dean tells Rory about his marriage like it’s a horrific relationship where Lindsay forces him to work 100 hours a week and does nothing. In reality, Lindsay is a loving wife who does anything she can to make Dean happy.
Now, I’ll admit that Rory seeing Dean after him and Lindsay split up is not a good choice on her part, but the poor girl was manipulated by a tree with anger issues.
During my first watch, I was rooting for Rory and Logan a lot more than I was on my second watch.
Logan’s smart and charming, but that’s where the positives end. His father gave Rory a total identity crisis and he only made it worse. I’m not afraid to say that Rory is her worst self when she’s with Logan and him cheating on his fiancée with her gives me Dean flashbacks.
What about Jess? First, I am in no way excusing what Jess did at that party. That was wrong and he deserved to get beat up for it.
My appreciation for Jess comes from his unwavering support of Rory. If Jess had had better examples of love in his life and not an almost spin-off show, he would have been Rory’s best boyfriend.
Rory and Jess share the most common interests and have the best chemistry. Jess always pushed Rory to be her best self and was unfairly hated by Stars Hollow. I hope they felt bad about driving him away.
Among all my angrily typed opinions about the men of Gilmore Girls is my biggest realization from my rewatch: The Gilmore girls deserve more slack.
Lorelei isn’t the best mother, but she raised a valedictorian and Yale graduate on her own with no help from anyone else. She can’t be expected to be perfect, and she ultimately did a pretty damn good job.
Rory deserves some slack as well. While she made a lot of mistakes along the way, she made up for them in the end despite her less than ideal childhood and managed to become an impressive adult.
I tried to come up with a pun using the theme song to end this article, but I’ve got nothing so just go listen to it yourself and don’t skip it like I do.
