‘Gilmore Girls’ are back – on Netflix
By Lynn Elber
AP Television Writer
LOS ANGELES
The familiar voices float softly from a black screen, as if in a dream.
There’s Luke, gruffly: “How many cups have you had this morning?”
And this parent-child banter: “Did you do something slutty?” Rory teasingly asks her mom. “I’m not THAT happy,” shoots back Lorelai.
Thankfully, it’s not imagined. It’s the reality of “Gilmore Girls,” returning Friday after a nine-year absence, during which longtime fans pined for what they’d lost and newcomers discovered what they’d missed through reruns.
Opening-credit snippets of the show’s hallmark dialogue kick off Netflix’s sequel to the 2000-07 broadcast series with a promise: the characters, their snappy banter and the show’s key notes will be honored.
But the four-part “Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life” is aimed at more than true believers, creator Amy Sherman-Palladino said in an interview.
“We want it to be something that fans are going to know, but if you haven’t watched ‘Gilmore,’ you can come to it fresh and take it on face value: It’s a story of three women, an intergenerational, multigenerational story, and you are catching them at times that each of their lives is changing.”
That trio around which the universe rotates consists of devoted single mom Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham), her equally devoted daughter Rory (Alexis Bledel) and stern grandmother Emily (Kelly Bishop). As the first chapter opens, Lorelai and Rory are still the belles of fictional Connecticut hamlet Stars Hollow – so perfect, quips Lorelai, it belongs in a snow globe.
Luke (Scott Patterson), Lorelai’s on-again, off-again love is here, as are the supporting characters who gave the show, well, character. That includes official town nudge Taylor (now lobbying for a sewer system); reliably idiosyncratic Kirk (he’s just launched Ooober, a nonapp version of Uber) and even, in one episode, buoyant chef Sookie (courtesy of film star Melissa McCarthy’s return to her TV roots).
Whatever bliss viewers find in the girl-power dramedy’s resurrection may be exceeded only by that of Sherman-Palladino, who wrote and produced it with Dan Palladino, her husband and creative partner on the sequel and the original.
There’s a sad shadow, however, cast by the passing of family head Richard Gilmore. That reflects the December 2014 death of Edward Herr-mann, the respected actor who played him in the original series.
The 90-minute episodes follow the seasons and are titled for each, starting with “Winter.” While Lorelai and Emily face Richard’s death in their own way, they also find their relationship affected by it.
Given that all the episodes will be made available at once on streaming service Netflix, Sherman-Palladino sees trouble on the horizon.
After holding close the four words she’s long said should end the Gilmore saga (she wasn’t in charge of the show’s last season on the CW network), she wants viewers to avoid spoiling the experience, either by posting the phrase or by impatiently jumping to the final scene.
“It’s going to mean a lot more if you’ve taken the journey, and it’s going to mean a lot less if you just flip to the last page. ... It’s a fun trip. It’s worth it,” she said.