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According to Amy Sherman-Palladino, the creator of Gilmore Girls, there’s “no way” the show would get made today, but holy hell, are we glad it was. Dripping in cozy, small-town charm, Gilmore Girls paired its zany, quick-fire dialogue with some of the most emotionally honest relationships on TV.
Over seven long seasons and a revival, the series explored themes of ambition, family feuds, and the cost of wanting more for your children than you ever had, all while maintaining a genuine reverence for the minutiae of daily life. Still, over 150+ episodes, you’d think there’d be some real stinkers.
What’s incredible is that there aren’t any truly bad episodes of Gilmore Girls; they’re all entertaining on some level because if an episode was ever light on humor or plot, it could always choose from a stable of delightful supporting characters to save the day.
There was Taylor, the tyrannical overlord of Stars Hollow, whose obsession with civic law and order bit him in the ass over and over again. Hapless Kirk, popping up with another new scheme or identity. Mrs. Kim, Lane’s strict mother, who struck fear in the heart of her daughter but also came in clutch at the wildest of times. The list of fascinating oddballs could go on and on. So, while there were standout episodes over the years and certainly ones that felt a little too invested in just maintaining the vibe, it’s interesting to look at how well each season landed as a whole.
Here’s our ranking of all the seasons of Gilmore Girls, including the Netflix revival…
8. Season 7
This is the only season of Gilmore Girls without creator Amy Sherman-Palladino or Daniel Palladino as a showrunner or a writer, and it shows. Season 7 lacks the series’ fundamental spark, and its screwball dialogue often feels like someone else trying to write (fairly decent, as it goes) Gilmore Girls fanfic rather than the real deal.
Season 7 explores the inevitable end of both Lorelai and Christopher’s rushed marriage and of Rory and Logan’s fragile relationship, but it also ends the series entirely until Netflix’s revival 10 years later. And what are we left with when we think it’s all over? Rory goes off to cover Barack Obama’s election campaign, Lorelai and Luke get closer again but don’t fully get back together, and there’s a bittersweet last meal at Luke’s diner, where so many jokes have kept us going over the years.
Season 7 is an imperfect and uneven farewell to Stars Hollow and the Gilmore women, but at least it’s an ending. And we had no idea that we’d get another one a decade later…
7. Season 6
Fans started to feel like the show was running out of steam in season 6, which seemed to spin its wheels with a lot of filler.
Luke and Lorelai almost get married, then break up. Rory and Logan break up but make amends. Rory makes up with Lorelai and goes back to school. Luke gets a surprisingly annoying daughter he wasn’t aware existed, who feels like a contrived plot device deployed to drive a wedge between him and Lorelai so she can get back with Christopher and everyone watching can cry “oh no!” in unison. That’s about all season 6 has to offer in terms of major developments, as it serves as an attempted reset for a show that had run into narrative problems after so many years on the air.
The romantic tension between Luke and Lorelai is gone; there is virtually no spark left between Rory and Logan, and the many supporting characters of Stars Hollow have very little left to do, aside from Kirk, a perfect angel who never did anything wrong and became a very unlikely standout in the series as it unfolded.
Season 6 is definitely better than season 7, but it’s still far from the show’s best.
6. Season 3
Season 3 is definitely darker than the previous two seasons, which is one reason it divided fans who were used to the show leaning into its more lighthearted stories. This is where the fractures between the main characters really set in and expose who they think they are versus who they’re actually becoming.
Rory’s breakup with Dean and her blooming relationship with Jess are the backbone of the season: Rory chooses romantic chaos over sweet comfort and has to reckon with the consequences. As a result, we start to suspect that Rory’s glorious, successful future as an award-winning journalist is at risk because she has her mother’s impulsiveness.
Some of the episodes leading up to Rory’s choice are brilliant, particularly the kinetic Stars Hollow Dance Marathon in “They Shoot Gilmores, Don’t They?” But Rory’s will-they-won’t-they with the volatile Jess has built up so much tension that when they finally get together, the air goes out of the season and it never really recovers. We’re left to watch the inevitable fallout of a shitty teen relationship unfold.
Lorelai is also completely underserved in season 3, taking a backseat to Rory’s relationship drama, though her increasing conflict with Emily and Richard, particularly around Rory’s future, becomes more personal. Her interfering folks are no longer obstacles; they’re rivals.
Gilmore Girls’ third season is about how you don’t grow up all at once, but rather through a series of often painful decisions. It’s compelling stuff, just intermittently compelling.
5. A Year in the Life
Amy Sherman-Palladino’s triumphant return to Netflix’s Gilmore Girls revival series came with a caveat: these new installments wouldn’t necessarily be the snappy, tightly-paced stuff we were used to in the original run, but rather four feature-length episodes covering a year in the life of the Gilmore women. It turned out to be a rather melancholic reflection on the passage of time, which meant losing some of the pace that the old version of the show maintained. Still, A Year in the Life had payoffs to spare, offering an overload of nostalgia (and a surprisingly divisive ending.)
Pretty much everyone gets a moment to shine in the revival series. The episodes make room for most of the show’s iconic characters, big and small. We find a despondent Rory, whose career has flatlined in her 30s, having an affair with an already married Logan, while Lorelai isn’t sure if she and Luke will ever get married. Emily is grieving Richard and is clinging to Lorelai, but she ultimately embraces single life in the most Emily way possible. The whole thing ends with Luke and Lorelai tying the knot and Rory admitting she’s pregnant. We never find out who the father is, but she runs into basically everyone she’s ever slept with during the series, so it could potentially be any of them. Arguably, none of them would be worth keeping around at this point, though Jess remains the best fit for Rory after turning his life around.
More an emotional aftermath than a continuation of the original show, A Year in the Life wasn’t a hit with every fan, but it certainly wasn’t low on emotional depth. Whether it was enough to make for a satisfying ending to the series is honestly a matter of opinion, but we enjoyed it.
4. Season 4
The fourth season of Gilmore Girls feels massively unbalanced. It’s inevitable because Rory has to go off to Yale eventually, but the separation between the college and Stars Hollow makes for uneven stuff as we switch between some less-than-thrilling small-town events and the reality of Rory’s tough education.
For the first time, Rory isn’t the smartest person around. She’s surrounded by equally smart people. The constant affirmation from the denizens of Stars Hollow is gone. Rory is simply not getting the validation she craves, and how can she really achieve anything if there’s no one there to pat her on the back and tell her she’s such a special snowflake? Finding some semblance of safety in Dean’s (married!) arms is a real low point for her here.
Back in Stars Hollow, Lorelai has empty nest syndrome and pours all of her energy into opening the Dragonfly Inn. Luckily, the friendship between Lorelai and her best friend Sookie becomes so delightful that we can’t help but root for them as they girlboss the crap out of their new endeavor. This season also sets up the reality of a Luke and Lorelai relationship so well – it feels completely earned when they finally show each other how they really feel.
Though season 4 sets the stage for future seasons, it gets a little lost along the way and has too many low points to rank higher on this list.
3. Season 5
A string of relentless consequences, season 5 thrives on Rory’s spiral into being a fairly loathsome character as she gives up on her dreams after meeting Logan Huntzberger, a rich, privileged playboy who isn’t so much a romantic choice as a lifestyle that Rory decides to embrace after her dalliance with small-town Dean goes absolutely nowhere and she becomes overwhelmed by the pressure she’s put on herself to succeed.
Logan is glamorous and toxic (not to mention highly punchable), which effortlessly keys into Rory’s penchant for recklessness. By the end of the season, she’s dropped out of Yale and is living in her grandparents’ pool house as her potential dwindles in this depressing but rather more realistic season of the show.
Season 5 also thrives when it explores the new relationship between Luke and Lorelai. It’s sweet, but the cracks start to show because Lorelai still hasn’t reckoned with so many of her personal flaws. Elsewhere, Lane and Paris’ storylines become more compelling when Lane starts dating Zach, and Paris mourns old man Asher by jumping into a relationship with Doyle, whose personality immediately complements hers.
This season’s place on the ranking may rankle Logan haters (he is intensely problematic,) but the drama is rarely higher in the series than in season 5, with the unbearable divide between Rory and Lorelai seriously at its peak.
2. Season 1
Straight out of the gate, Gilmore Girls feels fresh and different, with the eccentric town of Stars Hollow coming off as remarkably dynamic given the low stakes of the season’s plots.
When we’re first introduced to the mother-daughter team of Lorelai and Rory in season 1, their rapid-fire banter easily finds its pace and we’re just along for the ride. Through Amy Sherman-Palladino’s sparkling dialogue, the pair takes us on an exhaustive tour of Stars Hollow and Chilton, and we meet so many kooky characters that our heads are spinning by the final episode. Luke, Miss Patty, Babette, Taylor, Sookie, Lane, Jackson, Paris, Tristan, Emily, Richard, Kirk …they’re all so, so much, but we cannot get enough!
There are also key conflicts in play where the comedy gives way to real drama: Lorelai is not happy about making a deal with her rich, estranged parents to ensure Rory gets the best possible schooling, and Rory is meek and out of place among the rich kids at Chilton.
Season 1 is great at building the world of Gilmore Girls, but it’s still a little rough around the edges. Rory is in her passive era here, more reactive than active – defined as a good kid admired by almost everyone around her. She’s just a little too perfect. But there’s also too much in the way of good stuff to be entirely bothered by it.
The pilot is spectacular, the explorations of class divide in “Kill Me Now” and “Rory’s Birthday Parties” still hit hard, and the evolution of Paris into one of the show’s top-tier characters truly begins in “Paris is Burning.” Some episodes haven’t aged particularly well (the awkward gender politics of “That Damn Donna Reed” stand out), but season 1 remains a terrific watch overall.
1. Season 2
The second season of Gilmore Girls is where the show really hits its stride, and it’s hard not to rank it lower as a result. Where season 1 was still focused on the basics, season 2 is much less interested in them, choosing instead to deepen the characters and introduce flaws in Rory that lay the foundation for her mistakes in later seasons.
No longer a wide-eyed newcomer at Chilton, Rory’s unlikely friendship with the neurotic Paris becomes one of the show’s quiet triumphs as they compete for attention yet truly see each other for who they really are. While Paris breaks her own back to be the best, Rory starts lying and misjudging people as her once-admirable intelligence begins to muddy her relationships. Meanwhile, Lorelai’s fear of commitment is infuriating but understandable; her romantic choices with Max reflect the arrested development that set in when she decided to have Rory at such a young age. Yes, Lorelai is witty and independent, but she is also low-key terrified of being alone, which is why people who hate Christopher always get a free pass.
Season 2 is not without its flaws. Sometimes it does coast by on cozy vibes, but the Rory-Dean-Jess love triangle is electric, and the tension building between everyone who knows that Jess and Rory are doomed starts in earnest. The pair’s first kiss in “I Can’t Get Started” is up there with the show’s most dangerous and thrilling moments.
That’s all, folks! Would you rank these seasons differently? As always, let us know in the comments!
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