Why Gilmore Girls Season 7 Was So Bad

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https://www.cbr.com/why-gilmore-girls-season-7-bad/

The final season of Gilmore Girls was widely derided by the fans. Here's why Season 7 is considered the show's worst by a long shot.

BY SAM STONE
12 HOURS AGO

As the revival miniseries Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life prepares to make its television broadcast premiere on The CW just in time for Thanksgiving, fans are poised to revisit Stars Hollow and its familiar characters thirteen years after the original series came to an end. And while there are plenty of debates among audiences that have continued for the past twenty years -- who is the best boyfriend for Rory Gilmore, what the hell happened to Dean Forester -- one thing isn't a point of contention at all: Gilmore Girls Season 7 is easily the worst season from the show's original run.

Gilmore Girls' seventh season not only closed out the series that began in 2000 but was also the first one to air on The CW after The WB merged with UPN and branded itself. The changes behind-the-scenes extended far beyond a change in network moniker, stemming from both budget and creative concerns by series creator and showrunner Amy Sherman-Palladino. Sherman-Palladino and her producer and co-writer husband Daniel Palladino reportedly wanted to expand the writers' room to give themselves a bit more breathing room after the marathon run of helming of the series for its first six seasons. Additionally, the two wanted to conclude the series with its eighth season to give them more space to let their story unfold more organically.

The CW and the creative team's inability to reach an agreement ahead of production commencing on Season 7 led to Sherman-Palladino and her husband to leave the show they had created to pursue different opportunities elsewhere. Without the guidance of its original creator, everything in Gilmore Girls' final season just felt off. The rapid-fire, pop culture-flecked dialogue lacked its signature charm and the performances didn't quite feel as authentic as they had in seasons past. Gilmore Girls Season 7 was a pale imitation of everything that had come before, and even with much of its fan-favorite cast back, the voice that had endeared it to millions was off-pitch.

Perhaps more tellingly was the visible compression of the season's overarching storylines and treatment of its eponymous protagonists. Picking up from the Season 6 cliffhanger ending, Lorelei Gilmore and Rory's father Christopher Hayden impulsively decided to marry only for their relationship to quickly fizzle out. Similarly, Rory's last major boyfriend on the series Logan Huntzberger was unceremoniously shuttled off the show as his and Rory's serious romance just kind of came to an end with an impromptu marriage proposal that seemingly came out of nowhere, effectively putting a kibosh on the two until the revival.

While several elements introduced in Season 7 are directly referenced in A Year in the Life, most notably Lane Kim and Zach Van Gerbig having twins, most of the elements that took place in the concluding season are quietly ignored in the revival miniseries. Fans have largely taken a similar approach, acknowledging that Gilmore Girls Season 7 has taken place without delving into the specifics of how the show ended its original run. In the end, Season 7 serves as another case of a creator being unable to fulfill their final vision.