I have finally finished watching all seven seasons (154 episodes!) of Gilmore Girls. Considering it was only released on Netflix Sweden 27 days ago, that is quite good going (and many many verrrrryyy late nights!).
I have not revised my previous opinion, but I am glad I stuck it out and watched the entire thing because the last episode was utterly wonderful, and I am going to miss the show immensely! But now I can watch the new Gilmore Girls series when it airs and be up to date with all the characters. Can’t happen soon enough for me!
I still maintain that almost all the characters are childish, selfish and completely self-absorbed. The only exception I can think of is Luke, who often shows kindness and generosity towards other people, going way out of his way to help them.
This series has very fast-paced dialogue and intense characters, so that can be a bit much if you binge-watch, as I did. I would probably have found them less irritating if I had paced myself, and taken it more slowly.
What I did find interesting is that there was no significant character development throughout the series. Generally in books or films there is a protagonist that starts out selfish, arrogant, annoying or a total creep, but they develop from the bad guy to the good guy. Think Damon in Vampire Diaries. He started out the totally evil brother with absolutely no redeeming qualities, but ended up being universally adored because he showed more and more goodness as time went by. Of course that is boring so he has to turn bad now and again to keep interest up. In Gilmore Girls that does not happen. All the characters that were 90% horrible at the beginning, are still 90% horrible at the end. One tiny exception could be the character of Richard Gilmore who showed marginally more flashes of kindly grandpa as time went by. BUT, even though it was only a small part of the time, each of the Gilmore Girls characters does show genuine kindness and love at regular points in the show.
The thing that annoyed me most of all throughout was how unspeakably everyone in service professions treated their customers and their staff – Luke, Michel, Emily Gilmore, Paris, Lane, Sookie, Jackson, Mrs Kim. To me that is not whimsical and quirky, that is totally unacceptable. Then again, one of my bugbears is bad customer service so that could just be me.
All in all though, I would recommend watching. It has not dated badly (apart from some of the clothes in the early seasons) and has definite charm to it.
Having watched the entire series from beginning to end, it seems strange to think that Luke and Kirk were never intended to be in more than one episode each, but they were so popular they ended up being major characters.
Gilmore Girls reminds me very much of Seinfeld. Self-absorbed characters, etc. My job has a customer service focus and I wouldn’t have it with a Gilmore Girls attitude, lol. What I see (and can at times relate too, I’ll admit) in GG are characters not concerned with evolution as much as avoiding past doormat tendencies, and swinging the pendulum too far.
Very good point!