Gilmore Girls Leaves Netflix: Why Gen Z is in Mourning

The first day of my Big College Internship, I stood on the sidewalk outside my new office, stared up at the high-rise windows and thought of only one person: Mitchum Huntzberger.

For those of you who skipped past Rory’s fall from grace in Season 5 of “Gilmore Girls,” Mitchum Huntzberger — her boyfriend Logan’s dad, a media magnate — tells Rory on her first day of work that she “doesn’t have what it takes” to be a journalist. This prompts Rory to have a breakdown of unprecedented proportions, causing her to drop out of Yale (famously) and steal a boat (also famously).

While luckily I didn’t have to live through the same rejection, my nerves about the start of my own career made me want to say: Rory, please consider this my formal apology for judging you. If I had a Mitchum of my own? Forget the boat, I would’ve thrown myself into the harbor.

When “Gilmore Girls” premiered on the WB in 2000, I hadn’t been born. In 2007, when the show completed its seven-season run, I was 4. 

Like much of Gen Z, I came across the show on Netflix, when I — and many of my fellow first-time viewers — were in the same phase of our lives as Rory was at the start of the show: high school. 

The world of Stars Hollow felt realistic and relatable in a way so many of the shows that defined the later 2000s and early 2010s weren’t. Most of us — hopefully! — didn’t have stalkers who photographed our every move, or two vampire brothers that we were torn between. What everyone did have, however, was homework. And college applications, a best friend, a schoolmate nemesis (the type you can only really have when you’re 16), and a family to love and argue with. 

Is it possible to be nostalgic for a time that you’ve never really experienced? Besides reaching the younger generation at the right time, “Gilmore Girls” has a cozy whimsicality that’s hard to not be drawn into. Maybe it’s the fall New England foliage Amy Sherman-Palladino’s show is so strongly associated with, or perhaps the warm, fast-paced banter between Rory and Lorelai that people spoof on TikTok to this day. 

Thanks to Netflix — which “Gilmore Girls” exited on June 30, after calling the platform home for 12 years — you could binge entire seasons in a sitting, watching Luke and Lorelai go from just friends to engaged in what felt like the blink of an eye. “Gilmore Girls” took on a whole new life when fans brought their love for the show to social media, with fan edits and quotes making the rounds on Instagram and Tumblr. 

The time-tested debate of which of Rory’s boyfriends was superior is basically a rite of passage for any viewer, although no one’s really Team Dean. A school lunch where a friend pitched Jess Mariano to me with all the fervor of someone canvassing for a presidential candidate is what made me tune into the show, keen to see what all the discussion was about. (BTW — Team Logan, always and forever). 

When I got to college, it felt that at least half of the student body had some type of “Gilmore Girls” merch, whether it was a mug from Luke’s Diner, a bubble art sticker of the girls themselves or the lone quirky Etsy sweatshirt advertising Chilton Preparatory. 

Once potential fans no longer had to rent DVDs, “Gilmore Girls” on Netflix created a feedback loop of sorts: the more people talked about it, the more people began watching. Nearly a decade after “Gilmore Girls” stopped airing, the second wave of attention was brought in by viewers across the globe, many of whom were entering Rory and Lorelai’s lives for the first time.

Not everything about the show has stood the test of time: Rory and Lorelai’s criticism of other people’s bodies and women they disagree with, jokes about the queer community and the show’s lack of diversity have all been criticized — and for good reason. Rory, unintentionally, has become a widely disliked character for her poor choices, while a smaller percentage find Lorelai obnoxious as well. But whether you love them or hate them, the Gilmore girls have cemented themselves in pop culture.

The renewed interest in the show rose so greatly that in 2016 Netflix commissioned “Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life,” a revival miniseries that caught up with the family a decade after the series finale, and gave Sherman-Palladino a chance to end the series the way she’d always planned. While reception toward the show was mixed, the title, which will remain on Netflix until Nov. 25, was a popular choice when it premiered and started a whole new line of discussion, leaving the audience with the major cliffhanger: “Mom, I’m pregnant.”

Who knows when we’ll see Rory and Lorelai again, if ever? While the show is leaving Netflix, “Gilmore Girls” is still available to stream and revisit on other platforms. But if you ask me, part of the nostalgia around the show is watching it on Netflix. The Consolas font subtitles and red progress marker are as synonymous with a “Gilmore Girls” viewing experience as a cup of coffee or the leaves changing colors. Or at least, they are for Gen Z.

Goodbye, “Gilmore Girls.” So long, Stars Hollow. See you on Hulu?