I'm going to start with what we all were thinking while watching the revival (and during parts of the original): Rory sucks. Many people relate to her because she is portrayed as this good-natured, bookworm but she isn't actually that great. She constantly screws over her friends, boyfriend and family members. She disregards their feelings constantly. First with Dean and Jess when she won't admit she should just break up with Dean. It's really selfish of her and mean to both boys she supposedly likes. She disregards her mother's feelings over and over throughout the entire series, including the revival. Rory is a grown woman complaining that her mom won't let her write about her life. Poor Rory who thinks she's too good for everyone and everything. She turned down an actual job for the hope of an extremely prestigious fellowship, she graduated college but was still unwilling to marry her live in boyfriend (which I will never get over, dumb girl). She gets mad at Logan for refusing to lie for her. She gets mad at her grandma because she is given literally everything on a silver platter but is asked to live by the rules of the household- gasp! How ridiculous. I am so over everyone in the Gilmore Girls fawning over Rory and praising her relentlessly. The moment something doesn't go her way she is a pouty, mean-spirited brat. To be fair, many people who are nice tend to blow up disproportionately to balance out their mild mannered alter ego. She isn't just an occasional brat though, she is a judgmental, unapologetic one.
During the revival Rory is in her thirties and is jobless because she is a snobby and thinks she's too good for every single job opportunity that comes her way. She expects to be handed the internet job (that she complains endlessly about being offered) and falls asleep during an interview (right before she ditches her mom to have sex with a wookie). Let's spend a little more time remembering how truly bratty and ungrateful Rory was to trash her job offer. Excuse you princess, lots of us would love for a company to pursue us. As awful as Rory was is the revival (and at various points throughout the series) she was the only character who was were she would realistically be at that point given the trajectory she was on. This is the main flaw of the revival.
The revival was what the original writer wanted for the last season instead of where they would be at that point in their lives and that's why overall it kinda sucked. Everything that was wrong more or less in order of how wrong it was (keep in mind I watched it a while ago so some short comings may have been forgotten by now):
- Luke and Loreali would have been married already. They just wanted to add some drama and show the wedding.
- Logan would be married and faithful. This is probably the most grievous of the insults this revival caused fans. After dumb Rory was far "too young" after graduating college to get engaged to her boyfriend he would have grieved and then moved on. He was in a place where he was ready to commit and become an adult. He would have found someone. It was a true disservice to pretend Logan would have been such a crappy fiance. He may have started out a gross party boy who slept around with women but he wasn't unfaithful or dishonest about it. He never pretended to be a better guy than he was. And then once he became the grown up who was happy to be in a committed relationship he wouldn't have reverted back to his playboy ways, which even at their height never included being a total lying scumbag to the woman he was in a relationship with. If we pretend he would be okay with that at that point in his life then we have to assume he was always a cheating slime ball who was cheating on Rory the whole time they were together. Logan deserves better. Logan's fiance deserves better, and Rory is a heartless wench who strings along her boyfriend for two years, and completely ignores the fact that Logan is engaged to another human being who shouldn't get treated that way. Rory is actually a home-wrecker, with an intense disregard for other women (remember poor Lindsey?) not the innocent angel that the townsfolk paint her as.
- Paris and Doyle are together. Nope, nope, nope would they break up. And just install a stupid elevator already!
(side note: I actually think Palladino has some serious issues when it comes to people getting married younger than mid thirties. It is always written as a mistake and Rory bags on it pretty hard throughout the series, which leads to one of her top dumbest choices. The only one she leaves intact is Lane and Zack and even then they are written a little bit as loser who got stuck with kids and playing in a garage band that never found success. Chill out people can grow together and end up in a MUCH better than waiting around till enough complications come along to strain your marriage.)
-Rory would already have a kid from college Logan if that's what had to happen. I get it we want it to circle around to Rory raising a kid on her own with nothing. But in no universe where she got pregnant (in college or during the revival) Logan wouldn't be like "cool, you got that right? I'll just pretend I don't care I have a kid". This is the biggest instance of Palladino writing what she envisioned for the last season instead of an accurate portrayal of where their life would actually be by that point. At least she could have had Rory get knocked up by poor Paul so there would be a legitimate excuse for not being apart of their life in a much more similar way to Christopher.
-Poor, poor Emily. Throughout the series I've felt that sometimes she goes too far but generally gets a really bad rap for trying her best in the way she has been taught to care for her family. I would have liked Rory to move in with her or for her and Lorelei to reach out more. I do like that she ends up with a happy, busy family but it should be hers or at least one that speaks the same language.
-Luke shouldn't be a butt about therapy or April. Been there done that. Let Luke grow into a better partner.
- Sookie. I get it Melissa is a busy gal but they could have just given excuses why she didn't happen to be at the inn those days instead of abandoning Lorelei.
- Zack is still a man child. Why can't he be a grown up who doesn't whine about his steady job and promotion? Play your band on the side as a hobby, it's really okay. I know a lot of people get mad about Lane and Zack but I don't. Zack is what Lane wanted and set herself up for. Sure Lane is smart but she never cared about college or a career; she wanted to be a rock star! Sure maybe she would have given up on that eventually and would want someone more mature but that's unlikely considering how much she sacrificed to get there.Lane chose Zack so that's that.
- I do have a problem with Michel getting married. My problem is they didn't leave it ambiguous in the original series. I distinctly remember thinking he was gay and then he made a comment about wanting to go out with women. So my problem here is consistency but I'm not super bugged because he was stilled played the role pretty gay orginally so I just pretend he wasn't ready to tell at that point.
- Along the lines of the inconsistency that bothers me a little like the above point is Lane's Dad showing up. He never really exists in the real series; there is even a shot of just Mrs.Kim sleeping alone. I'm fine with Lane having a Dad who is alive but it really wasn't set up that way originally and it even helped explain a little bit of Mrs. Kim. If he had been around that would have changed that dynamic while Lane was growing up dramatically. What the crap. Not even a lousy "he's finally back from Korea" or "it's weird he's coming around again after all these years". It was not only unnecessary, it was annoying.
-Jess should have moved on.In my other post I praise Jess's character development, but I want to point out here that basically everyone is too good for Rory at this point including Jess (who was not too good for her when they actually dated ironically).
I think that's everything. Honestly, up till the end of the last episode I wondered if I was going to like any of it. It was sad to see everyone older and not as vibrant and it was a travesty what was done to some of the characters. Hearing Luke's declaration was great. Getting to see Jess, Kirk and Paris was good (although Paris would be better if they had left her happy life alone!). I'm glad I watched it but I'm not sure how soon I'll be willing to watch it again...if at all.
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