“We’re like the Gilmore Girls, but with bigger boobs!” That’s what single mom, Georgia Miller, says to her daughter Ginny on Ginny and Georgia Season 1 Episode 1.
The line was used in the trailer before the show premiered. If the goal were to pique the interest of Gilmore Girls fans, I’d say it was a success. Everyone wanted to know if this show was the new Gilmore Girls.
Yes, both shows do have things in common. Both focus on a single mother and her daughter. Both mothers got pregnant as teenagers and have to learn how to survive. Both mothers are forces to be reckoned with.
A few other comparisons can be made. The shipping has similarities. Many have compared Zion and Joe to Christopher and Luke, as well as Hunter and Marcus to Dean and Jess.
Both shows also take place in small towns. So yes, the shows have similarities. I’m not denying that. However, at their core, these shows are about two very different things.
Gilmore Girls had many aspects that people enjoyed. The zany antics of the denizens of Stars Hollow were fun, and the slow-burn romance between Luke and Lorelai was epic.
However, the main reason people loved the show was the relationship between Lorelai and Rory. The concept of a mother and daughter who were close was very appealing.
Daughters loved the idea of having a mother who was more friend than mother. They wanted that closeness. Even more so, mothers envied that close bond with their daughters.
Rory worshiped her mother. She loved her more than anything, considered her the best friend she’d ever had, and wanted to be exactly like her when she grew up.
Some have noted that maybe what made the show appealing wasn’t exactly a healthy dynamic. For example, how can a mother properly discipline a child if she’d overly concerned with her daughter liking her?
In the early seasons of Gilmore Girls, the dynamic seemed to work. But, later, as Rory became more dysfunctional, some wondered if maybe Lorelai’s style of parenting wasn’t the great success we all thought it was.
Still, there was a sense of comfort in watching these two girls binge tv and eat junk food while talking about boys the way we all wanted to do with the mothers and daughters in our lives. What mother didn’t want to be Lorelai Gilmore?
It’s clear from watching Ginny and Georgia that Georgia wants to be Lorelei Gilmore. For one, Lorelai came from a privileged background and was strong enough to walk away and build a life on her own.
It’s a much more appealing narrative than Georgia’s own, as an abuse victim who came from nothing. Although, in fairness, Georgia did also work her way up.
However, at the end of the day, Georgia wants a Gilmore Girls relationship with her daughter. So she goes out of her way to be the cool parent and have her daughter like her.
This is where the shows differ because as much as Georgia wants that close-knit relationship with Ginny, it just doesn’t exist.
Ginny hates her mom more often than not. She resents her. She gets embarrassed by her. She lies to her and keeps secrets from her.
All of Ginny’s friends are obsessed with how “cool” Georgia is, but Ginny can only see where Georgia falls short, and she’s very salty about the whole thing.
I’m not calling Ginny out. Truthfully, teen rebellion is very normal. Aside from that, Georgia has committed many grievances that would be hard to forgive.
She’s a murderer. She’s lied to her children about their background. She often uproots them and takes up with a new man, only to repeat the cycle all over again.
She crosses moral lines all the time, creating an unstable environment for her two children, where they don’t know right from wrong, and think it is perfectly acceptable to stab another student in the hand with a pencil.
Georgia is a survivor who has been through a lot. She likes to pretend she has it all together, but she doesn’t.
The narrative she has in her head works better if she’s the perfect mom with a daughter who trusts her, but she hasn’t earned Ginny’s trust.
Georgia is a badass, and she’s been through some serious sh@#t. It’s hard not to be in awe of her or to judge her too harshly for her behavior, given the lessons her tough life taught her.
However, much of what she does is not okay, and her mothering technique needs some work. No mother is perfect. In that, Georgia is much like her fellow mothers, bemoaning why her kid acts out and won’t talk to her.
She wants to be cool. She wants to think she’s doing it all right, but she’s no better at motherhood than the average mother of a teenage girl in this day and age.
Yes, Max thinks Georgia is cooler than her own mother, but Ginny probably envies Max’s family’s sense of normal. If Georgia were Max’s mother, she’d likely share some of the grievances Ginny does.
It’s an interesting dynamic, to be sure, but the show is more about Ginny’s life and Georgia’s life than it is about their relationship.
They aren’t facing the world together, as Rory and Lorelai were.
Instead, they are each living their own narrative, often complicated by the existence of the other.
While there are many similarities and differences between both shows, this one key difference is why I believe these shows are really not alike at all.
Both are worth watching, but so are WandaVision and Anne With An E. You wouldn’t confuse one for the other.
Do you think Ginny and Georgia is more like Gilmore Girls, or more different?
Which mother does it better?
Do you prefer one show to the other?
Let us know in the comments.
Leora W is a staff writer for TV Fanatic..