On Friday, Lauren Graham, who played Lorelai Gilmore through seven seasons of the beloved Gilmore Girls series, gave the Internet a collective aneurysm when she tweeted that she’ll be returning to work on a revival set to stream on Netflix.
The series, which developed a cult following during its run in the early 2000s and garnered even more fans when the original seven seasons became available for streaming on Netflix, is reportedly being brought back for a run of four 90-minute episodes.
Fans were thrilled to learn that multiple members of the original cast, including Graham, Alexis Bledel, Keiko Agena, Scott Patterson, Kelly Bishop and Sean Gunn had signed on to be part of the revival.
Unsurprisingly, Melissa McCarthy, whose successful career has probably eclipsed her Gilmore Girls role as Sookie, the clumsy but well-meaning chef, is not reported to be involved in the new episodes.
News of a revival of any successful series is always met with an initial parade of excitement and anticipation. When John Stamos announced last year that Full House would be revived as a series called Fuller House, the widespread fan base was rife with joy and ready to experience potent nostalgia.
As with Fuller House, many will definitely tune in to the Gilmore Girls reboot. I certainly can’t wait to see characters I grew to love back together on my computer screen.
Yet, even though I know I will thoroughly enjoy them, I have also come to terms with the fact that the episodes will probably be terrible. Terrible is a strong word. There is a chance they will be perfectly average 90-minute pieces of television, but ultimately, does it even matter? Regardless of the episodes’ quality, people are going to watch them.
Amy Sherman-Palladino, the creator and executive producer of Gilmore Girls who is reportedly returning to help with the revival episodes, knows the army of Gilmore lovers assembled through seven seasons of television would jump at even the smallest Gilmore-related bone. In the words of the show’s famed theme song, “Where [she] leads/ [We] will follow/ Anywhere that [she] tell[s] us to.”
The revival could just be hours of Bledel and Bishop singing horrible duets and I would watch it. It could be a slideshow of Patterson holding different food items from the show’s famed Luke’s Diner. It could be a sound bite of Graham saying the word “coffee” ad infinitum and, odds are, I would still live-tweet it.
It seems the purpose of revivals is not necessarily to be good, but to be something — anything — for fans to watch and reminisce over.
The Gilmore Girls revival won’t even touch the original. And how could it? Part of what makes the original great, especially to newer viewers, is the way it told a story using then-relevant tidbits of early-2000s pop culture. Lord knows ’90s kids love reflecting on their childhood days of VHS tapes and antenna-equipped cellphones.
The fictional town of Stars Hollow won’t be the same, but it will still be Stars Hollow, and that will have to be enough.
