In recent years, millions of people have gotten used to Netflix's pattern of releasing the entirety of its original series at once, with only the rarest of exceptions. It looked like that was going to be changed up for the return of the beloved drama Gilmore Girls, which is dropping four extended seasonal episodes that were originally meant to come out one at a time. But then Netflix announced recently that all four were going up at once, and now the company's Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos has explained that decision.
If we would not have [released them] all at once the fans would've killed us. [laughs] I'm petrified of those fans; they are so passionate.
To a normal fan, that might seem like a bit of a subjective view, considering each installment is feature-length and potentially self-contained, which is presumably why creator Amy-Sherman Palladino wanted to stagger the episodes out like that in the first place. Personally, I was looking forward to the sporadic releases purposefully giving me (and others) an entire year of Gilmore Girls, rather than all four popping on at once so that my will and resolve won't get tested by binge-ready availability.
But then I guess if anyone is going to have a good idea of what fan reactions will be like before a series is released, it's Sarandos. I'm sure Netflix has people scouring the Internet for what people are saying about Gilmore Girls, and it's possible there was enough negative pre-talk to inspire the powers-that-be to make the big decision to flip the show back to the standard release model.
Sarandos made his admission during the TCA press event (via TVLine), which Amy-Sherman Palladino was also present for. And she didn't pull any punches when talking about her reactions to the choice to put the episodes all out together.
I told them I was going to hang myself with a shower curtain if they put them all out at once, and they said, 'Wow, OK.' It's such a journey and it's such a build to the last four words... However, you don't always get what you want. The good outweighs the bad in the sense that this is a wonderful place to create things and do things in a different way.
That was a really impressive way of gnawing on the hand that feeds instead of biting it. Sure, Netflix isn't getting her show out in the way she wanted it, but the company is the big reason why she's bringing the Stars Hollow gang back to begin with. It's a non-vicious cycle.
A lot of the bigger details about Gilmore Girls' return are being kept under wraps so that spoilers are minimal, but even the few tidbits we've gotten about the characters is enough to make us want to watch all four at once. Not that we'd HAVE to, probably, but still. Keep the promotional train coming, Netflix.
Gilmore Girls: A Year In the Life will debut on Netflix on Friday, November 25, and the UP network will be hosting a fantastic series-long marathon to get you hyped for it. But when you watch, don't be a douche by spoiling those "four last words" that Palladino has been hyping for ages. That would just be rude. What you can do, though, is check out everything else heading to the small screen in the coming months with our fall TV schedule.
