Wrecked Rory's Character [spoilers]
I enjoyed the original Gilmore Girls. I delayed watching the final few episodes plus "A Year in the Life" just to have something new of the show to see when I really needed it. I thought it would be cozy and fun... never imagining they would trash the characters and storyline like this.
At the end of the original Gilmore Girls series, Rory is choosing between married life with Logan and her own career. For years we've been led to believe that she is a wunderkind. Brilliant and beloved. Sure to do amazing things after Yale. So when she chooses her career, we're left with a feeling of optimism, even though she has just turned down a guy who would have made a great husband.
We then catch up with her 10 years later. Surely she is going to be in some sort of high-powered position rocking the world, fulfilling her early promise, and making her break with Logan worth it? No. She is a complete mess, not doing anything of importance. To top it all off, she and Logan have gotten just plain trashy, cheating on their partners with each other. They could have had a beautiful love story. Instead they've sunk to the lowest level. (I didn't like it in the original series when Rory and Dean were cheating either. I had hoped she had learned a lesson from that? Apparently not.)
THEN the conclusion. After everything, Rory is basically just going to re-live her mom's life.
One thing that annoyed me about the original series was how it wouldn't let Lorelei progress. She was constantly stuck in a triangle with Luke and Christopher, pin-balling between them in a flaky way and never really able to move forward or change as a person. And now Rory is inheriting that same position. No growth.
Imagine if Rory had married Logan in 2007. Gone to California as a journalist just as the tech world was ramping up to be a dominant cultural force. She could have entered on the ground floor and become a leading investigative journalist. She and Logan could have become a power couple navigating all the craziness of Silicon Valley. (Lots of fodder for drama too if he's a tech investor/entrepreneur and she is a reporter.)
But no. She is going to be living the same old life with Lorelei (who btw, now looks like she has had a lot of plastic surgery and doesn't have the same range of facial expressions, which was sad to see). What were all of Rory's struggles through high school and college even for? (And Lorelei's efforts to push her ahead?) All their hopes and ambitious plans came to nothing.
Now I can't even bring myself to watch the original series. Knowing that after everything, Rory literally goes nowhere. Plus she seems to have bad character and terrible judgment even as a fully grown woman. GG is no longer a cozy comfort re-watch now that I know where it all ends.
One thing I LOVED was the arc of Emily Gilmore's story. That to me was perfection. But what they did with Rory was such a let-down that it has poisoned the whole show for me.