I Can Never Forgive A Year In The Life For Undoing Rory's Gilmore Girls Character Development
Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Lifeattempted to give viewers closure after the original series' cancelation, but I can never forgive the Netflix revival for undoing all of Rory's character development. Rory has some of the most noticeable growth throughout Gilmore Girls, with her character transforming from a sheltered, reclusive teen to a more mature — albeit flawed — young woman. Rory often gets on people's nerves as she's going through these changes, but there's no denying that her character arc feels incredibly realistic.
Unfortunately, that's less true of her journey in Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, the Netflix revival that fails to capture the magic of the original show. A Year in the Life is considered a failure for multiple reasons, but its treatment of Rory's character is chief among them. Although Rory is frustrating throughout Gilmore Girls, she successfully grows into a better person by the end of it. Her mistakes in her romantic relationships and fallout with her mother force her to make changes, but it feels like the Netflix revival completely undoes them for the sake of drama.
A Year In The Life Ruined Rory's Character Development In Gilmore Girls
The Netflix Revival Treads The Same Territory With Her Character
Rory grows a lot during the later seasons of Gilmore Girls, learning to handle the realities of adulthood better, even if it's through trial and error. Although Rory is taken by surprise when she goes to Yale and realizes she's no longer seen as "special," she eventually pushes forward — even if it takes some time away from school and an argument with Jess to make it happen. Rory messes up when it comes to her career, refusing to take criticism or put in the work, and she also errs when it comes to her romantic relationships.
Gilmore Girls: All 4 Episodes Of A Year In The Life, Ranked Worst To Best
The Gilmore Girls revival A Year in the Life was infamously divisive, but what are its best and worst episodes and how did they earn these rankings?
Sadly, Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life repeats the same stories when it comes to Rory, featuring similar relationship and career struggles, 11 years after the original series' ending. This might have made sense if the revival had taken place immediately after the original show. However, with Rory in her 30s, it feels like she should have it together at this point, especially after all her growth in Gilmore Girls. Even if she's struggling, it should be with new problems, not the same ones she dealt with more than a decade earlier.
The fact that Rory is still struggling with the same problems indicates that she didn't grow as much as it seemed in the original series.
The fact that Rory is still struggling with the same problems indicates that she didn't grow as much as it seemed in the original series. This is true when it comes to her personal and career growth, but A Year in the Life's ending makes it painfully obvious in regard to her love life.
How A Year In The Life's Cliffhanger Makes Rory's Fate More Frustrating
Rory Shows That She Hasn't Learned From Her Worst Mistakes (Or Lorelai's)
Rory's regression in Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life makes the revival's cliffhanger ending even more frustrating, as it feels like she hasn't learned anything from her own story, or even from Lorelai's. A Year in the Life's ending reveals that Rory is pregnant, though it doesn't explicitly tell viewers who the father is. It has since become clear that Logan is the father of Rory's baby, but Logan and Rory aren't together in the revival. This isn't a bad thing on its own, but the circumstances of Rory and Logan having sex indicate she hasn't learned from her past.
Gilmore Girls: All 4 Of Rory's Boyfriends, Ranked
Rory Gilmore had several dramatic relationships over the course of Gilmore Girls, and of her four boyfriends, some are more lovable than others.
Both Rory and Logan are in relationships with other people when they get together in A Year in the Life; Logan is engaged to a woman named Odette, and Rory is with Paul, a man she's clearly stringing along with no intentions of building a future. This highlights how little Rory learns from her relationship woes in Gilmore Girls, as she strings along and cheats on her boyfriends as a teen. She also engages in an affair with Dean, one of Rory's worst mistakes — and one she clearly doesn't learn from, as she repeats the same thing with Logan.
Why Rory Deserves Another Chance At Redemption In The Gilmore Girls Franchise
A Year In The Life Still Needs A Follow-Up
Although Rory seems to be going backwards in Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, she still deserves another chance at redemption in the franchise. Fans of the show have been calling for another season of the revival for years, and its cliffhanger ending suggests it would benefit from more episodes. The fact that we leave Rory in such a state of regression also necessitates one, as it feels like she still hasn't reached a satisfying ending for her character arc.
While Rory can't undo her repetitive mistakes from A Year in the Life, she could turn things around for her and her child in another revival or even a Gilmore Girls sequel series.
While Rory can't undo her repetitive mistakes from A Year in the Life, she could turn things around for her and her child in another revival or even a Gilmore Girls sequel series. A follow-up to Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life could show her learning to have healthy romantic relationships that don't involve cheating and dishonesty. It could also see her progressing in her career, making it a point to highlight how she's capable of taking criticism and becoming the impressive journalist she always wanted to be.
Gilmore Girls
- Release Date
- 2000 - 2007-00-00
- Network
- The WB
- Writers
- Amy Sherman-Palladino
Cast
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