Guys, the “Stars Hollow: The Musical” wasn’t actually THAT bad during “Gilmore Girls”
So Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life has been on Netflix for a few days and now that I’ve seen it, I have some ~thoughts~ about the revival. The revival had some ups and downs, ad there has been a lot of talk about Stars Hollow: The Musical. The reviews seemed to be VERY mixed. While many viewers didn’t like the musical, citing it as an unnecessary break from the plot, I didn’t mind it.
While I think I would have enjoyed the revival regardless of the musical’s inclusion or lack thereof, let me state my case as to why I think it was a positive (albeit much too long) inclusion to the revival.
Gilmore Girls is at its best when it’s an ensemble. I mean, sure, the Gilmore family dynamic is at the heart of the show, but the ensemble cast is what really makes the show click, specifically, the quirky residents of Stars Hollow. Most of them are minor recurring characters but their inclusion in the show is so important.
When a pregnant Lorelai Gilmore left her house at sixteen, she went to Stars Hollow and the townspeople took her in. They helped her raise Rory and were a really important part in shaping who Lorelai and Rory are as people. While most of the revival is spent on the Gilmores’ progression in life, it was important to give the recurring residents something to do that was true to Stars Hollow.
In many ways, the musical was an ode to Stars Hollow, the place at the heart of Gilmore Girls.
While it can be argued that the town’s residents had plenty to do during the revival, weaving in and out of the Gilmore girls’ storylines, the musical gave the residents of Stars Hollow, especially some of the long-running characters, the space to truly do what Stars Hollow residents do best:
Get excited about weird and irrelevant things.
Everything that happened regarding the musical was true to the characters. We know how much they love their town history so Taylor would feel the need to write his own musical about Stars Hollow, and Babette would be so mesmerized by the theatrics that she would love it, regardless of how good it actually is. Also, regarding the bizarreness of the whole thing, a weird musical is TOTALLY the type of thing we’d see in Stars Hollow. We saw seven seasons of bizarre traditions in the original series, so including a new one in the revival makes perfect sense.
I do think the musical was far too long, but I don’t think it was terrible. It was too long, but paid a fitting tribute to the unsung heroes of the show, the town and people of Stars Hollow (Whispers: Also it was fifteen minutes we didn’t have to hear Rory complain about something, so that’s another positive!).
