The Glory of the Gilmores

When the hit series “Gilmore Girls” first debuted in October of 2000, viewers were captivated by the witty fast paced dialogue, unique setting, quirky characters, and sense of realism of the show. The show ran for seven seasons. Furthermore, during the course of its run, the series managed to get nominations for a few awards: Gracie Awards, Television Critics Association Awards, Hollywood Makeup artist and Hair Stylist Guild Awards, and Golden Globe awards.

The show even managed to spawn a revival series on Netflix called “Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life.” Despite the acclaim and accolades the show as garnered over the years, it doesn’t arrogate much credit for changing the way society views mother-daughter relationships.

Let’s be honest, many mother-daughter relationships in family shows, were not depicted the way Lorelai and Rory’s were. Other TV moms were not as open-minded as Lorelai was. In other words, she wasn’t dismayed to contour Rory as her equal.

Lorelei did have Rory at sixteen, which exemplifies she was relatively a young mother. This may have contributed to her parenting style. In addition, Lorelai, had a rocky relationship with her mother, Emily, as a child. She didn’t care for how she was raised, so she didn’t raise Rory like that.

“Family Matters”, “7th Heaven”, “Brady Bunch”, and “Step by Step” are examples of shows that displayed a common mother-daughter dynamic, which was to retain their relationship on a parent and child level.

It’s nothing erroneous with this method this ideal, for a series. It is formulaic. These moms would teach their daughters life lessons. They would ground them if they did something wrong, or they use the classic, “Wait until your father gets home” line. But they never tried to constitute a benevolence amidst them. Why is that?

Perhaps society views it as taboo? There has been an episode from any of those shows, which consists of a mom attempting to have a friendship with her daughter, and it goes awry.

Parents deem a child will go down a dark path. This wasn’t the case with Rory, though.Rory was an honor student in high school and college. She was charismatic to everyone around her. She has had the occasional misstep, but she learned from it.

At times, Rory was the more mature and reasonable one, between her and her mother. This may be a result of how she was raised. Because there were no boundaries, Lorelai was able to have a connection with her daughter that came across as realistic.