Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life

Did You Know?

• The miniseries aired on The CW in November 2020 in an edited form, partly because the network needed programming during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• It also aired on Up TV in November 2020.

Plot

Rory Gilmore, working as a freelance journalist, gives up her Brooklyn apartment and stays with friends in New York, Stars Hollow, and London. In London she lives with Logan Huntzberger while working on a book project for Naomi Shropshire, though Logan is engaged and they carry on a no-strings-attached affair. Rory also has a boyfriend named Paul whom she continually forgets. Ex-boyfriend Jess Mariano encourages her to write her own book about her life with her mother.

Meanwhile, Emily Gilmore grieves the death of her husband Richard and tricks her daughter Lorelai into attending therapy with her. Lorelai feels lost after her father's death, her business partners' career progressions, and her decade-long relationship with Luke Danes, which has not led to marriage or children. They consider surrogacy and visit a fertility clinic run by Paris Geller. After a fight with Rory about the book idea, Lorelai attends a performance of Stars Hollow: The Musical, where a ballad inspires her to hike the Pacific Crest Trail.

Emily eventually accepts Richard's death, sells the family home, quits the Daughters of the American Revolution, and moves to Nantucket. Lorelai returns from her trip, reconciles with Emily and Rory, and proposes to Luke. Rory visits her father Christopher to ask why he let Lorelai raise her alone; he says it seemed best at the time. Luke and Lorelai marry in the gazebo, and in the final scene Rory reveals she is pregnant.

Production

In September 2010, Lauren Graham told Vanity Fair that a Gilmore Girls movie was a definite possibility, with people in power discussing it. In June 2012, Sherman-Palladino reflected on her departure from the original series, saying a contract dispute arose because she wanted to hire more writers but was told she and her husband Dan Palladino wrote everything themselves; after they left, the network hired the larger staff they had requested. In May 2015, Scott Patterson said on the Gilmore Guys podcast that talks were ongoing and he was hopeful for a limited series or film.

At the June 2015 ATX Television Festival, Sherman-Palladino told the audience nothing was in the works. In October 2015, TVLine reported that Netflix had struck a deal with Warner Bros. for a limited run of four 90-minute episodes, with Sherman-Palladino in charge. In April 2016, she said the 90-minute format was inspired by the series Sherlock, which she admired for its mini-movie structure. Filming took place primarily at the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, California, with additional exterior scenes in and around Los Angeles. Most of the original cast returned, including Melissa McCarthy, Kelly Bishop, Scott Patterson, and Keiko Agena.

Reception

Critics gave Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life a generally favorable reception, earning a 75 out of 100 on Metacritic from 28 reviews. Many praised how well it recaptured the original show’s tone and character chemistry. The Guardian called it a beautifully wrapped gift for longtime fans, though its nostalgia-heavy approach might not attract newcomers. Vulture pointed to the strong chemistry between Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel as the revival’s emotional anchor, noting their performances held together even the weaker moments.

The Los Angeles Review of Books appreciated how the series leaned into its familiar rhythms and found unexpected emotional weight in its handling of grief following Edward Herrmann’s death. Other critics were less impressed with the structure and character choices. Time found the revival anachronistic, stuck between eras and struggling to feel relevant today. Screen Rant criticized Lorelai’s hiking subplot as disconnected from the show’s usual grounded feel.

A later Guardian piece described Rory’s storyline as a depressing look at a thirtysomething without direction. Collider observed that the revival repeated many of the original series’ blind spots, especially in how it treated supporting characters like Lane and Mrs. Kim. The Los Angeles Review of Books also noted the revival remained uneasy with diversity and class. While some praised the emotional closure, others found the ending inconsistent.

Shaina Weatherhead in Collider summed it up as a thoughtful but uneven attempt to revisit a world that may have worked best in its own time.