I Know Every Episode. I Still Watch. — 25 Years of 'Gilmore Girls'
By Natalie McCarty
I know Gilmore Girls so well that I don’t even need to look at the screen anymore to know exactly what’s going on.
Still from Gilmore Girls
I joked for years that the show was meant to predict my fate — that wherever Rory led, I followed. However, I’m grateful to say I’ve since grown out of it and am much more of a Lorelai (without a kid or the questionable taste in men pre-Luke). I’ve watched it an embarrassing number of times, not because it’s perfect, but because it’s familiar. And it is, admittedly, excellent.
Still from Gilmore Girls
A lot of that comes down to the writing. Amy Sherman-Palladino (and her husband Daniel) write like they don’t believe in pauses. The pacing is relentless, and I love it because that tempo is how I talk! The jokes stack on top of each other, references fly past whether you catch them or not, and the characters ramble the way thoughts actually feel when your brain is moving too fast for your mouth.
Truthfully, it shouldn’t work. Half the references are blink-and-you-miss-it, the sentences are long and winding and overly specific, and, somehow, it all lands.
Image Sourced through Pinterest
The show really was lightning in a bottle. You can see attempts to recreate it everywhere: the fast-talking women, the cozy town, the mother-daughter closeness, the “quirky” side characters. But without the Palladino voice, it falls apart. Because the magic isn’t the small-town aesthetic (though that’s a treasure I get to be a part of every winter on the Warner Bros.’ lot), but it really is the rhythm of the show.
You recognize yourself and everyone you love in the characters on this show. Ambitious, reckless, giving, caring, unique. Rory is so important to so many because of that recognition — what it feels like to think you’re doing everything right and still end up somewhere you didn’t plan. The shame that comes with realizing you’re not who you thought you’d be and the relief of knowing you’re still allowed to change.
Still from Gilmore Girls; Image Sourced through Pinterest
Lorelai is even more special to me now, as I observe and recognize her as someone who made a choice and never stopped negotiating with it. Someone who fills every space with noise and is unapologetically her. Someone who loves loudly, messily, sometimes unfairly, and still shows up.
The show doesn’t romanticize mistakes, but it doesn’t punish them either. People mess up and have to live with it. There’s this tender understanding that life keeps moving, even when you don’t feel ready for it to, and I think that’s what makes the show so timeless.
Still from Gilmore Girls
Twenty-five years later, Gilmore Girls still doesn’t feel dated, which is rare considering how rooted it is in its time. The references have aged, sure, and some choices don’t hold up, but the voice does. In attempting to just be a show that lived in the now, it built a legacy of forever.
And that’s exactly why I keep watching it.
