Well, it has been a long road, but I have finally made it all the way through the gabfest that was the Gilmore Girls.
It has been an entertaining ride, as it was a show that appealed to many different audiences: girls and young women could relate to Rory's growing up; older women could relate to the Emily and her troubled relationship with her daughter; women of all ages could enjoy the romantic lives and loves of Lorelei; men, young and old, could appreciate Lorelei in her single MLF glory; and of course the dialogue was almost always sparkling with wit and frequently incomprehensible references.
As I had been forewarned, Season 7 definitely felt a lot different to previous seasons. The storyline a bit all over the place (more so than usual) and new characters introduced with minimal interest or effect and to the detriment, in fact, of some of the most entertaining characters, in particular Emily and Mrs Kim. The whole Lorelei/Christopher resolution made little to no sense, Logan and Rory's relationship similarly took a turn for the "huh?", and the token appearance by Christianne Amanpour in the final episode felt even more painful than the poor acting involved, so contrived and hastily ended was the encounter. At least Paris was allowed to bloom in her insane, overbearing way - always an amusing highlight.
There have been some interesting storylines through the years [SPOILER ALERT] which I will go into once those who might want to avoid the spoilers have the chance to skip to the next paragraph. Is this enough time, or rather, space on the page? I hope so, as I will go into it.... now: I am not altogether sure how mothers would have appreciated or explained Rory having an affair with a married man; Lane's pregnancy has to be one of the fastest ever, and her baby belly one of the largest; the whole Marty avoidance storyline seemed fairly pointless (though there were a few other threads that went nowhere, to be fair); Paris's tenure as editor of the Yale newspaper was wonderful in a "lessons for dictators to avoid" kind of way; any storyline featuring Emily at her most condescending (anything to do with boyfriends she did not approve of, like Luke, Dean, Jesse...) or martyred (anything to do with Lorelei) was bound to both annoy and amuse; and Lorelei went through at least one engagement per season, which is a fairly high rate, I believe.
But now the ride is over, and, luckily I suppose, the ending is more of a mercy than something to be missed. My respect for Lauren Graham (in particular), Kelly Bishop and Melissa McCarthy has been firmly cemented by all seven GG seasons, and it's amusing to think that most of Rory's exes have gone on to bigger and sometimes more soapy things (One Tree Hill, Supernatural, Heroes and The Good Wife).
A Gilmore Girl film was rumoured to be in the works, but, as much fun as it might at first seem to have all the characters back in action, the general lack of story direction would probably make a 2 hour movie a chore rather than a slow, meandering journey. Here's hoping Lauren stays strong and has a successful series to keep her busy (her movie choices have been... interesting; and Parenthood mysteriously vanished from the harsh Darwinian terrain that is the TV3 prime time schedule after only a few weeks) so that the idea of going back to Stars Hollow is never really given serious consideration.
Verdict: Where they led, I did follow - and for seven seasons. The Gilmore Girls was great fun, better in the beginning and when the original creative team were on board. 7 cups of Luke's finest coffee out of 10.
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