+ GIRLS, INTERRUPTED: Lorelai (Lauren Graham, near left) and Rory (Alexis Bledel) still exert a grip on women of all ages, nine years after the original Gilmore Girls ended.
SAEED ADYANI/NETFLIX
LAST YEAR, my mother got addicted. I’d mentioned I was rewatching the original, early 200os series of Gilmore Girls, and she asked if she’d like it. Before long, she was staying up way too late, bingeing on Lorelai (Lauren Graham) and Rory (Alexis Bledel) Gilmore. That sounded familiar. Before writing this, I decided to re-rewatch the pilot. For “research.” Just 44 minutes, I promised myself. Right. Somewhere into Season 1, Episode 5, I fell asleep, curled up in bed with my laptop open and a lamp still on. Once you arrive in Stars Hollow, it’s hard to leave.
With the approach of the four-part reboot Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, it’s worth asking why this fictional world has such a hold on women of all ages. My own answers, in no particular order: the female protagonists, the central mother-daughter relationship, the quirkiness, the dilemmas and the mistakes.