This Endlessly Rewatchable 2000s Drama Is Leaving Netflix — But Its Spin-Off Is Staying – SlashFilm

Basic women of the world, I invite you to join me in our time of mourning. “Gilmore Girls” is leaving Netflix, according to a social media post from the streamer.

On June 15, fans of Amy Sherman-Palladino’s beloved 2000s drama got terrible news when the official Netflix account on X broke the news. “It’s a show? It’s a lifestyle. It’s a religion,” the post reads, referencing a line spoken by the two series leads Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel as mother and daughter Lorelai and Rory Gilmore (specifically, about “The Donna Reed Show,” of all things). “We are sorry to say that ‘Gilmore Girls’ Seasons 1-7 will be leaving Netflix in the US on June 30,” the post continued. “Raising a cup of coffee to every fan who visited Stars Hollow with us.” (Stars Hollow is, of course, the tiny and fictional Connecticut hamlet where the vast majority of the series takes place.)

This, for so many reasons, stinks. “Gilmore Girls” has been on Netflix for years at this point, and as someone who has shamelessly watched the series in its entirety several times over, I know that for a fact. Obviously, something leaving Netflix, or any major streamer, isn’t out of the ordinary. Licensing deals change all the time. Still, this feels egregious because — and I will be circling back to this — in 2016, Netflix debuted the revival series “Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life,” which is exclusive to the streamer. For that and so many other reasons, it absolutely sucks that “Gilmore Girls” is leaving Netflix.

When we first meet Lorelai and Rory during the first season of “Gilmore Girls,” we learn that Lorelai is 32 years old and Rory is 16 — which is pretty easy math, even for an English major like myself. Rory, who’s extremely precocious, gets the news that she’s been accepted to study at the prestigious Chilton Academy, something that could help her get into a great college. Lorelai, who works as a manager at a local inn, doesn’t have the money to send Rory to Chilton on her own … so she goes to see her controlling and wealthy parents, Richard and Emily Gilmore (Edward Herrmann and Kelly Bishop), promising them that she and Rory will be a bigger part of their lives if Richard and Emily will pay the Chilton tuition.

From that point on, “Gilmore Girls” is marked by endless cups of coffee (Lorelai is absolutely addicted to the stuff), plenty of silly local festivities in Stars Hollow, tense Friday night dinners at the Gilmore family mansion in Hartford, and love triangles galore. Even though some seasons are better than the others (the dreadful Season 7, which was made without the input of creator Amy Sherman-Palladino and her husband Daniel Palladino, comes to mind), “Gilmore Girls” is a truly delightful, funny, and whip-smart show featuring some of the fastest dialogue in TV history. Plus, the fact that the show is set to leave Netflix on June 30 feels particularly egregious because almost every season of “Gilmore Girls” begins as summer comes to a close. How are fans of the show supposed to celebrate the start of fall if they can’t turn on Netflix and queue up the show while they sip their coffee?! This is yet another reason physical media is important.

In 2016, nearly a full decade after “Gilmore Girls” wrapped up its original run in 2007, Netflix gave fans of the series a gift: a four-episode miniseries, “Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life,” that brings audiences back to Stars Hollow with each installment centering on a different season. (The miniseries begins with “Winter” and concludes with “Fall,” mimicking the order of the seasons listed in Carole King’s song “Where You Lead,” the theme song for the original show.) With Rory now “living” abroad in London (she’s technically crashing with her ex-boyfriend, Matt Czuchry’s Logan Huntzberger, who happens to be engaged to another woman) and Lorelai happily settled with her longtime love, Stars Hollow diner owner Luke Danes (Scott Patterson), the mother and daughter reunite whenever possible. They also, in some of the revival’s most devastating scenes, comfort Emily, who’s navigating life as a widow; Edward Herrmann passed away in 2014, and canonically, Richard passed away after the original show’s timeline.

I, personally, am a defender of “A Year in the Life.” I think it’s pretty charming, despite some stumbles (the Stars Hollow musical comes to mind). A lot of people hate it, though (something that also baffles Lauren Graham), and I bet those fans will be bitterly disappointed to see this stay on Netflix while the original series vanishes. As of this writing, “Gilmore Girls” is still available to stream on Hulu.