Today is Thanksgiving, and we here at CinemaBlend are hoping that you're having a lovely time with your friends and family. And while we all love stuffing our face and having awkward conversations with family members, there is another reason to celebrate. Because tomorrow Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life will finally be released on Netflix, to the joy of its rabid fanbase. After its sudden cancellation in 2007, it seems like Gilmore Girls would never get the finale it deserved for providing seven seasons of laughs and tears. Luckily, Netflix recently scooped up the series, and tomorrow will see the release of four 90 minute new episodes. But could this have happened with another streaming service or network?
Gilmore Girls head honchos Amy Sherman-Palladino and Dan Palladino recently sat down with the folks at Collider about the new four part event. When discussing the production of new episodes, Amy revealed that it probably wouldn't have been possible on any other service, mostly because of how act breaks and advertisements are currently functioning on TV.
Our best episodes, we would not have been able to do because the last 30 seconds were our most emotional part of the show, and that would have been cut. It just became a format that is not creatively fun to write in anymore, which is what's so great about something like Netflix or Amazon, and these great services. Just from a purely creative standpoint, it's pure storytelling for the sake of storytelling, and it's not dictated by what marketing is saying you need to do or not do. Without the world that we live in now, where we live in the world of Netflix, I just don't think we would have ever revisited this. I just don't think it would have happened.
There you go, ladies and gents. Netflix is apparently the only plausible home for Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, so it looks like fans of Stars Hollow have something to be thankful for this year.
It's true that important moments certainly feel more intense in commercial free places like Netflix. When something heartbreaking eventually happens on Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, the audience will be able to stew in their feelings for a while, making it more powerful. This would be quite different if Gilmore Girls was brought back to The CW. Because on TV cliffhanger and emotional moments would be immediately followed by commercial breaks, taking the audience out of the moment. So a streaming service like Netflix, Amazon, or Hulu truly does seem to make more sense.
Amy Sherman-Palladino isn't the first writer and producer to praise Netflix's way of doing business. The service allows their filmmakers to take the reigns creatively, rather than worrying about timing and sponsors. You can look at hits like House of Cards and Orange is the New Black to see how Netflix has changed the world of television forever.
Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life will be released in its entirety on November 25th, 2017.
