‘Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life’ review

Nostalgia is rampant in this Netflix miniseries “Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life.” With the fast-paced pop-culture dialogue, overload of coffee, and irresistible cast, “Gilmore Girls” was a TV show that had generations of fans watching its first run and constant ABC Family reruns. “Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life” recaptures the magic of family friendly fun that viewers got to see in “Gilmore Girls.”

“Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life” is a four-part miniseries that was brought to fans on Netflix on Friday, Nov. 25. Each part would represent a different season to complete the full year: Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall in the life of Lorelai and Rory Gilmore and the characters that surround the Gilmore girls.

This revival isn’t just to bring back the characters we had learned to love, but it’s back with purpose. To give a revival that will satisfy the fans and viewers with a story that had to be told. The long awaited series ending and final four words that show creator Amy Sherman-Palladino had promised and refused to reveal until now. The miniseries is set a decade after the finale of the original series as we follow the Gilmore women through a year.

With the first episode, viewers get a tsunami of fond moments when we’re reintroduced to Lauren Graham’s Lorelai Gilmore greeting her daughter, Alexis Bledel’s Rory Gilmore, fresh off the plane. The mother and daughter duo nonetheless deliver their trademark fast-paced dialogue as if no time had passed.

Lorelai, Rory, and Kelly Bishop’s Emily Gilmore are mourning the passing of patriarch Richard Gilmore. The late Edward Herrmann, who passed away in December 2014, played Richard Gilmore and was an essential part of the show. His absence was missed but “A Year in the Life” honored his character in the best way.

“A Year in the Life” is set in early 2016, just four months after Richard’s passing, which has resurfaced any bitter feelings between Lorelai and Emily. Rory returns home as a journalist and with a boyfriend she can’t seem to break it off with, but nothing has changed at Luke’s Diner.

In anticipation of the numerous expected guest-stars from the “Gilmore Girls” cast, it’s no surprise the amount of nostalgia we feel when the likes of Scott Patterson (Luke Danes), Leiko Agena (Lane Kim), Yanic Truesdale (Michel Gerard), and Melissa McCarthy (Sookie St. James) pop up in beloved Stars Hollow for the first time.

The “A Year in the Life” premiere episode has non-stop references to “Gilmore Girls”. They’ve filled in the gaps from where we left off and paid homage with voice over clips from “Gilmore Girls.” “A Year in the Life” brings back all the feelings of nostalgia that returning viewers want and needed in order to move forward with returning and newer cast members. For viewers who had never seen “Gilmore Girls,” “A Year in the Life” brings new adventures with the same strong female leads to relate to. A mother-daughter relationship that hasn’t deterred from the strong bond fans are used to seeing.

In the following episodes, viewers are greeted with a new fresh show still full of family values that show viewers that life happens but the relationships we create can remain the same.

A family that isn’t your typical white picket fence comes to be a family you grow to love. All of the arguments, uncertainty and unfamiliarity become the familiar and the thing you come home to in “Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life.”