On Netflix, a ‘joyous, exhilarating’ revival for ‘Gilmore Girls’
Highlights from the opening day of the Television Critics Association summer press tour, featuring Netflix series.
It has been nine years since Gilmore Girls ended its run, but it wasn’t difficult for cast members to dive back into their roles for Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, due Nov. 25.
“It was easy. It was joyous. It was fun. It was exhilarating. It was the old show. There was no sense of having to resuscitate something,” said Lauren Graham, who plays Lorelai. “It was meant to continue.”
The revival, consisting of four 90minute “chapters” set in different seasons of a single year, offered an intriguing opportunity to co-creator Amy Sherman-Palladino, who favored releasing the episodes individually but was overruled, raising the possibility that viewers will skip to the end to find four final words she’d always planned for the series finale. They’ll “mean a lot more if you’ve taken the journey,” she said. “They’ll mean a lot less if you’ve flipped to the last page.” — Bill Keveney
Coming up: Netflix set premiere dates for eight other series and an- nounced second-season renewals for comedies Lady Dynamite, starring Maria Bamford; Real Rob, with Rob Schneider; and talk show Chelsea, extended for 90 more episodes. It also announced plans for Ozark, a drama series starring Jason Bateman and Laura Linney. Among other new premiere dates: Easy, an anthology series about a group of Chicagoans navigating “love, sex, technology and culture” (Sept. 22).
The Ranch, a second season of the sitcom starring Ashton Kutcher and Danny Masterson as Colorado ranchers (Oct. 7).
Black Mirror, a second six-episode season of the cult British anthology series (Oct. 21).
Lovesick, a second, eight-episode season of a comedy previously known as Scrotal Recall (Nov. 10).
Beat Bugs, a kids’ series with each episode themed to a Beatles song (Nov.
18). Creator Chris Wakely also is working on a series set to Motown music.
One Day at a Time, Norman Lear’s remake of his 1975-1984 sitcom about a single mother, this time featuring a Cuban-American family (Jan. 6). — Gary Levin
‘Stranger’ plans: One show not yet renewed? This summer’s buzzy retro fantasy series Stranger Things, whose sibling creators Matt and Ross Duffer say they left some dangling threads to follow into a second season.
“There’s a bigger mythology behind what happened,” Matt said. They’ll also be ready to explain most of that mythology, from the monster that abducts a boy to the girl with super-psychic powers. But even though they have answers, Ross said, that doesn’t mean you’ll be given all of them. “It’s about giving enough that the audience feels satisfied.