By Amanda Valentovic
ASSISTANT FEATURES EDITOR
Get your coffee mugs and dictionary of pop culture references ready, because last month Netflix confirmed it was reviving everyone’s favorite TV show starring Lauren Graham, “Gilmore Girls.” (Sorry, “Parenthood.”)
If you’re unfamiliar with the show, “Gilmore Girls” is centered on the relationship of young mother Lorelai Gilmore (Graham) and her teenage daughter Rory, played by Alexis Bledel. The show originally ran from 2000 to 2007 and there have been rumors of a reboot ever since the streaming giant made the episodes available and the cast reunited last year.
Graham and Bledel are set to go back to their colorful, ridiculous and unfortunately fictional hometown of Stars Hollow, Connecticut, for four 90-minute episodes and I am very excited about it. Here are some thoughts I’ve had on the show’s rise from the ashes.
Friday Night Dinners are back! (I hope.)
Lorelai and Rory were only one part of the Gilmore family – Lorelai’s parents, Emily (Kelly Bishop) and Richard (Edward Herrmann), played a major part as well. Over the course of the original seven seasons, Lorelai’s complicated relationship with her parents grew and changed through the delight that was Friday night dinner – a deal that she and Rory would have dinner with Richard and Emily every Friday in exchange for them paying Rory’s school tuition. The Friday night dinner scenes had some of the series’ funniest dialogue (“Oy with the poodles!”) and the relationship between the generations was interesting to watch.
Sadly, Herrmann passed away in 2014, so Richard Gilmore won’t be making an appearance in the revival. But Netflix confirmed that Bishop is returning and hopefully they honor Herrmann with dinner on a Friday night.
Paris will be there, thank goodness.
Rory’s high school enemy turned college roommate and best friend Paris Geller will be making an appearance in a few of the episodes. I’ll be happy as long as she drops one-liners similar to, “I should be at a discotheque. Are kids still into that?” And my personal favorite, her answer to the question “Is it raining?” “No, it’s national baptism day. Tie your tubes, idiot.”
We need you, Melissa McCarthy.
Before Melissa McCarthy became the comedic star that she is today, she played Sookie St. James, Lorelai’s friend, business partner and chef extraordinaire. But McCarthy hasn’t been set to return and she recently tweeted that she wasn’t even invited back. I hope Netflix can work some magic and get her to the set, because Sookie was an important part of Lorelai’s life, not to mention hilarious. And what would the Dragonfly Inn be without her?
Lorelai and Rory (and the people they date.)
We watched both Lorelai and Rory go through a series of different relationships and we all have opinions about them. There is not a person on Earth that watched who doesn’t argue Team Jess versus Team Logan in the Battle of Rory’s Boyfriends. (Does anyone like Dean? I don’t think so.) After too much thought, I finally came to the conclusion that I don’t really care who Rory ends up with, if anyone. (As long as it isn’t Dean.) There were much more interesting things about her character and we have nine years to cover since we last saw her.
But if Lorelai and grumpy yet loveable diner owner Luke Danes, played by Scott Patterson, aren’t still together in the reboot, I might actually cry.
It will be nice to see the fast-talking, coffee loving mother-daughter duo back in their weird but wonderful world and on our screens.
The release date is still to be announced but nonetheless thank you, Netflix.