So was it worth all the excitement? The great expectations and feverish speculation? Devotees of the mother-daughter comedy-drama that ended in 2007 after seven seasons have hungered for the opportunity to find out what happens next in the Connecticut haven of Stars Hollow.
It's widely known that the show's creator, Amy Sherman-Palladino, and her writer-producer-director husband, Daniel Palladino, exited before the final season, following a contract dispute. And the show finished with a sense of unfinished business and impressions that the screen lives of Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham) and her daughter Rory (Alexis Bledel) had been left in limbo.
The Netflix commission of four 90-minute telemovies put the Palladinos back where they belong, with Amy writing and directing the first and the fourth instalments, Winter and Fall, and Daniel writing and directing the second and third, Spring and Summer. Watching their work is like relishing a reunion with old friends.
The telemovies find three generations of Gilmore women nine years on, in a time of transition. The series' trademark, machine-gun-speed dialogue, crammed with pop-culture references, still zings, though the family has been rocked by the death of patriarch Richard (Edward Herrmann, who passed away in 2014). Lorelai's mother, Emily (the wonderful Kelly Bishop), is struggling to adjust to widowhood. Lorelai is living with diner owner Luke (Scott Patterson), contemplating the future of her boutique hotel, missing her best pal, chef Sookie (Melissa McCarthy), and bantering with the marvellously snippy hotel manager, Michel (Yanic Truesdale). Rory is trying to make her way as a writer and intermittently seeing her former boyfriend, Logan (Matt Czuchry).
In a nutshell:
Winter: Rory returns home, ostensibly for a visit.
Spring: Lorelai and Emily try therapy, Rory struggles with a biography subject.
Summer: Stars Hollow puts on a show.
Fall: Lorelai goes Wild, Emily makes a move and Rory finds her path. Also: a shock announcement.
Gilmore Girls is not a show for viewers who prefer their TV fictions with a bleak worldview and their relationship dramas with a hard edge. It's a warm-hearted production about a welcoming community in an impossibly pretty town, the kind of place where the community gathers to celebrate milestones and everyone pitches in. Which is not to say that it can't also pack an emotional punch: some of the strongest new scenes feature Lorelai and Emily as their prickly relationship erupts.
So was it worth the excitement? Yes. It's good to have them back. And by the time that Fall ends with the four words that Sherman-Palladino has long said she had in mind, dedicated fans and recent coverts fans are likely to be hoping for more.
Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life is on Netflix.