11 things nobody wants to admit about Gilmore Girls

10. It’s a comedy! Lorelai and Rory aren’t villains

Over the years, Gilmore Girls has been reexamined through a modern lens as fans new and old continue to watch the original seven seasons. Obviously, being a show that debuted in the new millennium and ended years shy of the 2010s, there are aspects that don’t age well. That’s true of any show, no matter when it premieres. We move forward, learn, and change (hopefully).

Lorelai and Rory take the brunt of the show’s criticism. They constantly catch heat for being selfish, unaware of their privilege, and sometimes straight up mean. Have they benefited from white privilege? Absolutely! Lorelai comes from wealth. We’re talking old money in the Gilmore family. She disavows that wealth to build her own life with Rory, but she leans on it again when she needs to provide a worthy education for her brainiac daughter.

Rory has also been called out for various occurrences in her coming-of-age where she’s supposedly put on a doe-eyed persona that lacks self-awareness of the privilege she’s born into. That’s not an incorrect reading (I mean, she stole a boat!), though it’s a lot to put on a person who may not have had the same tools we have now. She was still figuring it all out, and sometimes the process of making your way through the world can be messy.

Sure, Lorelai and Rory have their faults, but it’s hard to view them as some kind of unlikable monsters. After all, the series is a comedy at its heart, and character-driven comedy often derives from people who aren’t always their best selves. If they were perfect and made the right decisions, watching them wouldn’t be as humorous or entertaining. We aren’t always meant to sympathize with their rougher edges, but all we can do is root for them and learn from them.