Gilmore Girls

Television Series. 2000-2007. Amy Sherman-Palladino

A mother and daughter who live in a small town are smart and funny and things generally go well for them.

The Gilmore Girls was made during the twilight of Rock and Roll, and has a strange relationship with music. Rock and Roll is shown to be more or less childish, but still valuable. Latter-day alternative and post rock bands are name checked throughout the series: the show doesn’t rest on whether this is silly or not. Sebastian Bach, king of the Tiger Beat strain of Hair Metal in the late 1980’s, has a long running cameo in a later season of the show as a character that oscillates in funny ways between a Rock and Roll stereotype and a wholesome middle-aged dad. It is never addressed that a late 1980’s Rock and Roll stereotype makes no sense in 2003.

The Gilmore Girls is wish fulfillment for the most part. It often appears to be about letting go, but the fantasy is that you never really have to let anything go. Children go to college but come home on the weekends as your best friend. Old friends are never gone or far away. Your parents split up, but then reconcile. Rock and Roll is silly and obsolete but not dead, never dead. It just bought a mini-van.