Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life Made a Disastrous Mistake Ignoring Season 7

It's unlikely any fan would name Gilmore Girls Season 7 as his or her favorite season.

The disappointment only made expectations for Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life higher.

Unfortunately, Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life has major flaws of its own.

One of them is ignoring Gilmore Girls Season 7.

There's plenty to complain about with Gilmore Girls Season 7. The dialogue's off. Characters (Lucy, Olivia, Marty) are introduced or reintroduced without adding much to the show. The Lorelai and Chris saga takes up too much narrative real estate, and the list goes on.

On the more positive side, Lorelai and Richard's relationship was warmest during Gilmore Girls Season 7, and Logan received serious character development.

When Loralei freaked out about everything from the seats to whether she had enough programs for the Stars Hollow graduation reenactment on Gilmore Girls Season 7 Episode 21, Richard told her not to worry and enjoy Rory's Yale graduation because it belonged to her as much as it did to Rory.

He also sided with Loralei about the Fonz being a good choice for a commencement speaker.

Then Gilmore Girls Season 7 Episode 22 drove home how far Richard and Loralei's relationship had come since Gilmore Girls Season 1. As he surveyed the surprise Bon Voyage party Star Hollow threw in Rory and Loralei's honor, Richard told Loralei he regretted driving her away, and she was a remarkable woman.

Did anyone else's eyes get misty at that scene despite Emily's impatience with sentimentality?

Fast forward to the first episode of Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life aka Gilmore Girls Season 8 Episode 1. Loralei embarrasses herself at her father's funeral and angers Emily because she cannot recall a happy memory about her father.

The reasons Loralei mentions as to why she couldn't think of something at the time make sense. She hadn't eaten in days but had ingested a lot of alcohol. The shock of Richard's passing hadn't worn off. She was put on the spot.

Finding this elusive happy memory so she can come to terms with Richard's passing and make peace with Emily becomes Loralei's quest for the remainder of Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life.

It takes a year of soul searching and traveling across the country to California, but she finally has an epiphany and calls Emily to tell her about the time Richard took her to the movies. Thanks to Lauren Graham's acting, the scene is phenomenal.

The problem is Loralei's dilemma feels manufactured. Loralei's angst and struggle to find her father's happy memory doesn't make sense because Richard already told her he was proud of her on Gilmore Girls Season 7 Episode 22.

The plot provides Graham and Kelly Bishop with great material, but the acting can't cover all the plotholes.

Similar issues plague the Rory and Logan storyline.

Logan railed against his father dictating his life and being forced into the Huntzberger business, but he never dared to fight against it until Gilmore Girls Season 7 Episode 17.

After a failed business deal and reality checks from both his dad and Rory, Logan finally found the strength to leave the family business and go off on his own.

He wanted Rory to join him, so he proposed to her on Gilmore Girls Season 7 Episode 21. She turned him down, and the last we saw of Logan, he was stalking off into the ether.

As we found out on Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, Logan wound up in London and went back to being a cog in the Huntzberger empire. How did this happen? The show does not explain.

TV shows don't need to spoonfeed every piece of exposition, but they also shouldn't leave its audience without the information needed to make sense of the story.

Adding to the frustration is that Logan going back to his family means he lost all the positive character development he gained during Gilmore Girls Season 7.

The rejected proposal is also never mentioned. It's a shame because the proposal, despite occurring years ago, could have generated genuine drama between Rory and Logan.

Instead, Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life unconvincingly casts them as star-crossed lovers, and the whole plot is a misfire.

Emily's storyline is the most lauded. The praise is earned because hers is the only storyline to acknowledge life, and the characters are not the same as they were on Gilmore Girls Season 1 or even Gilmore Girls Season 6. It pushes her into unexplored territory.

As for Loralei and Rory, the seasons' changing can't hide the fact Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life keeps the two of them frozen in time.

Given behind the scenes realities, it's understandable why Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life wanted to acknowledge Gilmore Girls Season 7 as little as possible, but choosing to ignore it led to bad storytelling.