Warning: Spoilers ahead!
While the Gilmore Girls revival was both loved and hated by fans, there’s no denying that it tackled some important issues, and one thing it has been praised for is normalising therapy.
While earlier in the series, Emily Gilmore condemned therapy, she finally agreed to attend some sessions after Richard died and she was getting her life back on track. Lorelai originally talked her into it, however her mum shocked her by tricking her to come along with her.
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While at first Lorelai was resistant, she eventually came around to the idea after her mum stopped attending, once she found that talking through her issues was helpful. It helped her to realise that perhaps she wasn’t as happy as Luke, and work on how to figure out what she wanted, which led to a (very short) Wild style trip.
The creator of Gilmore Girls, Amy Sherman-Palladino, spoke to BuzzFeed News about her decision to introduce therapy into the show.
“There are times when you just can’t figure shit out by yourself, and you need somebody to talk to. A lot of times your family’s not the best person to talk to about this stuff because their agenda is going to be very different,” Sherman-Palladino said.
While she said that therapy was originally a way for Emily to ‘manipulate her daughter again’, it ended up being beneficial for Lorelai.
“Lorelai, who’s always so strong and always follows her own individualistic path … she was the one who really ended up needing to talk to somebody,” Palladino said. “And she got some stuff out of it.”
By giving an insight into the therapy sessions and showing that Lorelai got benefit out of it of her own volition, the revival normalised therapy and showed what good it can do.