Of the many reasons why October could be defined as the greatest month of any given calendar year—reasons which also include Halloween, leaves changing color, and pumpkin-flavored everything—it should be noted this particular October brings one of the greatest gifts of all: seven seasons of Gilmore Girls on Netflix.
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Freaks and GeeksRunning for seven years on the now-defunct WB and its successor, the CW, Gilmore Girls remade the soap opera as something smarter, funnier, and less sensational than the norm, playfully walking the line between sitcom and family drama in a way that looked effortless (at least until the final season, but we'll get to that later). While it's never had the reputation of a West Wing or a Friends, Gilmore Girls is nonetheless a highpoint of television from the early part of this century. And now, finally, it's available for a whole new audience to discover (and wonder how they could've lived their lives unaware of it until this moment).
Number of Seasons: 7 (153 episodes)
Time Requirements: Ten weeks or so. It's easy to handle a couple of episodes a night on weekdays, and three or so each day on weekends. Although, with the weather getting worse, maybe it just makes more sense to stay indoors on Saturday and Sunday and really binge. It's time well spent.
Where to Get Your Fix: Netflix, DVD
Best Character to Follow: It almost feels a little too obvious to say Lorelai (Lauren Graham), considering that she's one of the two leads of the series and arguably the character the show revolves around (sorry, Rory), but she's the one. She's completely magnetic—funny, yet filled with self doubt and as ill-at-ease with herself as she is charming and supportive of everyone else, even if that's not exactly what everyone else might need. A whirlwind of bad decisions, good humor, and neuroses, she is the center of the show's community and pretty much the best character on it. And that—considering you also have Melissa McCarthy's Sookie, Liza Weil's Paris, and Alexis Bledel as Lorelai's daughter, Rory—is saying a lot.
Seasons/Episodes You Can Skip:
Here's the thing about Gilmore Girls that becomes apparent when you're binge-watching it: This really isn't the type of show in which episodes are necessarily skippable, as such. With plot lines moving relatively slowly across episodes, there's a consistency across the entire run of each season that makes the idea of a definitively bad episode in the middle of a bunch of good ones almost impossible. While there are moments that aren't as great as others—and definitely some great standout episodes, as you'll see below—there's nothing that you'll necessarily want to skip ... with one major possible exception.
The show's final season lacked two important participants: creator Amy Sherman-Palladino and her husband Dan. On some shows, that's the kind of thing that can be overlooked, or even lead to an improvement in quality (Star Trek: The Next Generation, anyone?). But for Gilmore Girls, it's a real problem. Between the two of them, the Palladinos had written the majority of the episodes up to that point, and their distinctive rhythms and obsessions were what defined Gilmore Girls. What remains after their departure (a departure that was the result of a contract dispute) is something that seems like Gilmore Girls Adjacent more than anything. It's likely you'll end up sticking around to the end, because you'll have fallen in love with the characters, but the show isn't what it had been up to that point. You've been warned.
Seasons/Episodes You Can't Skip:
Season 3: Episode 1, "Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days" The third season opener may not be an episode that attracts a lot of attention, but that's one of the most adorable things about it. In a surprisingly understated manner, the various emotional cliffhangers from the previous year's season finale are resolved against a backdrop of business-as-usual comedy about the latest town fair and haircare products that really, definitely, shouldn't be used. As a bonus, there is also arguably the greatest bad home makeover ever seen on television.
Season 3: Episode 7, "They Shoot Gilmores, Don't They?" As if the resolution of Rory's long-running love triangle wasn't enough drama for this episode (it may be too much drama, even if it includes Sam from Supernatural and the guy who flew in Heroes), there's the fact that the rest of the town gets obsessed by a 24-hour dance-a-thon that goes way too far. What makes a smart, snarky show with heart even better? Watching your favorite characters collapse from exhaustion because they've been dancing for more hours than anyone from So You Think You Can Dance would ever agree to. Television might get better than this, but not often.
Season 4: Episode 21, "Last Week Fights, This Week Tights" There are actually a surprising amount of wedding episodes of Gilmore Girls throughout the series, with each one being used as a way of checking in on the emotional well-being of the guests, instead of centering on those actually getting married. In this case, it's the sister of Luke (Scott Patterson)—owner of the local diner and object of Lorelai's affections—who is getting married, but the focus is firmly on how that makes Luke feel. Does this mean romance? Does this mean male bonding between Luke and Jess (Milo Ventimiglia), Luke's faux-rebel nephew? Does this mean lots of jokes about how awkwardly Luke deals with anything emotional? You bet your collective butts it does, and the result is very enjoyable indeed.
Season 5: Episode 3, "Written in the Stars" Why, yes; Luke and Lorelai go on their first date—but the reaction of Stars Hollow, Connecticut to that event needs to be seen to be fully enjoyed. (Spoiler: It includes a town meeting and some charts to explain how bad things could get.) Meanwhile, Lorelai's mother realizes that the world—or, at least, her husband's life—doesn't revolve around her, and responds to that discovery very poorly indeed.
Season 5: Episode 13, "Wedding Bell Blues" Is there a better way to celebrate 100 episodes of a series than by having two characters renew their wedding vows? Yes, there is. It's called ensuring those vow renewals are the least interesting element of the episode. Rory makes a move on the then-current apple of her eye. Meanwhile, Lorelai's ex (and Rory's dad) freaks out over her relationship with Luke. Then everything falls apart. It's Gilmore Girls' way of saying that, sure, maybe love will conquer all in the long term, but in the short term, it's sure not going to feel like it.
Why You Should Binge:
This is a strange question to answer. For those who've already seen Gilmore Girls, the answer is clear: because you can't just watch one episode at a time. There's something about its relaxed, welcoming pacing that makes you want to watch more, and more, and more—it's comfort food in television form. It's a soap opera done right, with all the charm, good humor, and emotional melodrama the "soap opera" designation suggests.
For those who haven't seen the show before, if the above doesn't move you at all, consider this: It's a chance to see Melissa McCarthy before she was a big deal, an opportunity to see some of the sliest pop-culture obsessed comedy this side of Community, and a series of love stories done with more subtlety and sensitivity than ten How I Met Your Mothers.
Best Scene—Luke and Lorelai at the Diner:
It's difficult to choose a favorite scene from this show, in part because the joy of Gilmore Girls is its heart, and that’s something that can't be condensed down into just one scene ... but this one from "Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days" comes close to being the best of the run.
The Takeaway:
Family is the greatest thing in the world. As long as it's the family that you actually like. Oh, and television, chocolate, and coffee may actually be better than that at times.
If You Liked Gilmore Girls You'll Love:
The all-too-brief series Bunheads is well worth hunting down. It's the show that Amy Sherman-Palladino went on to create after Gilmore Girls and feels very much like a close relative to the adventures of Lorelai and her mother Emily (Kelly Bishop, who plays Emily to perfection, also stars in Bunheads). Otherwise, you could try Parenthood, which also stars Lauren Graham as a single mother, but with far more problematic kids and less fun all round.
