Gilmore Girls: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Gilmore Girls: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie Review

Talking heads.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III June 25, 2026

Amy Sherman-Palladino's Gilmore Girls was popular enough to last for seven seasons on two networks but, since ending in 2007, its pop culture footprint has grown thanks to DVD and streaming, where its prominent position as a Netflix staple -- for a few more days, at least -- only strengthened the show's devoted fanbase. The four-part "sequel" A Year In the Life materialized in 2016, reuniting many of its characters during four movie-length installments which were collected on Blu-ray the next year thanks to Warner Archive. Speaking of 2017, that would have been a perfect time to release the series proper on Blu-ray, but Warner Bros. unwisely sat on the opportunity for almost a full decade despite growing interest. While "better late than never" doesn't always apply to all situations, it certainly does in this case: even with inevitably lower sales and the studio's recent switch to awful Epic keepcase packaging, I'm thrilled to finally have Gilmore Girls on Blu-ray. (And just for the record, my wife is even more thrilled.)

Those who know every episode by heart, begin yet another run through the series each fall, and/or have attended a GG-themed outdoor festival need not read any further -- you can breeze right on down to the technical portion of this review, where I'll take a look at this Blu-ray set's A/V quality, packaging, and bonus features, all of which have been ported over from the old DVD sets with only minimal omissions. For total newcomers, below is a quick series overview which includes A Year In the Life. I myself lie somewhere in the middle: before sampling many an episode in this hefty but compact collection, I hadn't actually watched more than a few random ones but gradually absorbed a very basic understanding of the series and most of its characters via slightly muffled audio from two rooms away.

Do you like fast-paced chatter, non-stop pop culture references, and quirky small-town charm? Gilmore Girls might be right for you, but it's also a pretty touching drama about mothers and daughters, personal growth, love, ambition, and the challenges of balancing independence with family obligations. True to its name, the series revolves around 32 year-old single mother Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham) and her 16 year-old daughter Rory (Alexis Bledel). Lorelai became pregnant as a teenager and chose to raise Rory on her own rather than follow the rigid expectations of her wealthy and socially prominent parents, Emily and Richard Gilmore (Kelly Bishop and the late, great Edward Herrmann, who passed away between Season 7 and A Year in the Life). After leaving home with infant Rory, Lorelai built a life for herself in the (unfortunately for fans) fictional town of Stars Hollow, Connecticut, where in earlier seasons she works as a manager of the Independence Inn alongside her best friend and chef Sookie St. James (Melissa McCarthy, before her film career) as well as the obnoxious desk clerk Michel Gerard (Yanic Truesdale), who somehow keeps his job indefinitely.

Rory's first-episode acceptance to the private high school Chilton drives much of Season 1's initial drama, which also includes the financial catch of grandparents Emily and Richard re-entering the Gilmores' lives, and Rory's own suitors include the likes of local Dean Forester (Jared Padalecki), Chilton student Tristin Dugray (Chad Michael Murray), Luke's bad-boy nephew Jess Mariano (Milo Ventimiglia), and later, ultra-wealthy Logan Huntzberger (Matt Czuchry). Besides for mom, of course, Rory's main support group includes her best friend Lane Kim (Keiko Agena) as well as whip-smart Paris Geller (Lisa Weil), at least eventually; during the course of the series, she faces the typical teenage challenges of independence, school prospects, learning boundaries, breaking them, and finding out what happens when you steal a yacht. Some of these challenges lead us full-circle back to her relationship with Lorelai, who shares many of Rory's ups and downs as the show progresses while trying to find the right balance of regular love and tough love.

The close-knit, eccentric community of Stars Hollow becomes a cozy backdrop for much of the show's humor and warmth, but Gilmore Girls is overwhelmingly driven by the lives and relationships of its two main characters. Lorelai and Rory share an unusually close bond, often coming off like best friends as much as mother and daughter; they have a shared interest in movies, books, music -- all of which they reference constantly -- and are fueled by a steady stream of junk food, takeout, and regular outings to the local diner owned by Luke Danes (Scott Patterson). Luke serves as the main "will they or won't they" love interest for Lorelai during several of the show's seasons, but he's only one of many potential matches alongside Rory's teacher Max Medina (Scott Cohen), Jason Scooper "Digger" Stiles (Chris Eigeman), and of course Rory's father Christopher Hayden (David Sutcliffe), who's still very much a part of their lives. Lorelai's career undergoes a potential shift partway through the series, as her dreams of finally running her very own inn with the help of Sookie and Michel (for some reason) could actually become reality once its former owner passes away. But since the stress of work, parenting, and dating aren't enough, Lorelai often also has to deal with overbearing parents -- especially her mother -- whose hefty school loan for Rory is sometimes used as a bargaining chip.

I understand that this is all an awful lot to keep track of already... but we've barely touched upon the dozens upon dozens of quirky, colorful Stars Hollow citizens that give Gilmore Girls its unique flavor while increasing the fun factor during yet another annual rewatch. Conservative grocery store owner Taylor Doose (Michael Winters) doubles as Town Selectman and duly leads regular town meetings in a dance studio owned by Patricia "Miss Patty" LaCosta (Liz Torres). Lorelai's eccentric but good-hearted neighbor Babette Dell (Sally Struthers) has a real ear for gossip, a mellow husband in Mory (Ted Rooney), and at least two cats. The borderline creepy jack-of-all-trades Kirk Gleason (Sean Gunn) seems to have a new job every episode. Mrs. Kim (Emily Kuroda) is Lane's ultra-religious mother and the intimidating owner of an antique shop with a strict policy of "you break it, you bought it". Jackson Belleville (Jackson Douglas) is a produce supplier who's just as passionate about food quality as Sookie, which draws them together as one of the show's most dependable (and level-headed) relationships. Countless other normal folks and weirdos dot the landscape of Stars Hollow and beyond, numerous enough that you'll likely need a spreadsheet to keep track of them all.

Those who love "spot the celebrity" will enjoy doing that the first time through and on future rewatches, as Gilmore Girls featured no shortage of current and future notable figures in supporting and one-off roles during its run. These include Twin Peaks actors Mädchen Amick and Sherilyn Fenn, Family Guy's Alex Borstein as well as Seth MacFarlane himself, Jon Hamm, Parks and Recreation's Nick Offerman (without a mustache!), Melora Hardin AKA The Office's Jan Levison Gould, former Superman Brandon Routh, Rami Malek, singer Paul Anka, Skid Row's Sebastian Bach, Grant-Lee Phillips, Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon, The Shins, Yo La Tengo, Carole King, Christiane Amanpour, Madeleine Albright, and of course Norman Mailer, who even gets a Season 5 episode named after him.

Throughout its seven seasons, Gilmore Girls skillfully balanced humor and drama while exploring themes of ambition, identity, friendship, romance, and loads of generational conflict. As mentioned before, it also continued in 2016 with the Netflix mini-revival Gilmore Girls: A Year In the Life, whose four movie-length installments each represented a season in Stars Hollow. Set nearly a decade after the original series (which ran for another year after Amy Sherman-Palladino and her husband Daniel left in 2006 due to creative differences, which were resolved for the revival), this limited series catches up with Lorelai, Rory, Emily, and many of the show's original characters as they navigate new challenges and life events. The revival explores grief, personal reinvention, and the passage of time -- heavily underlined by Edward Hermann's passing -- but, in my opinion, only reinforces the old adage that "you can't go home again". Shot digitally and mostly lacking the spark of the original series (though not without its highlights, including the Palladinos' original ending), it falls well below expectations and, for some fans, is better left out of the marathon cycle entirely. Martin Liebman reviewed A Year In the Life's stand-alone Blu-ray edition back in 2017 (linked above, for those seeking more information) and that two-disc set is included as part of Warner Bros.' massive 30-disc collection.

Gilmore Girls: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Each of Gilmore Girls' seven seasons (all with 21-22 episodes apiece) are presented on four 50GB discs -- that's 28 total -- with two more for the four-part A Year In the Life. This is cutting it awfully close for ideal disc compression, but for the most part WB has done a very good job with this material despite a few prevailing signs of mild macro blocking which also competes with noise during some of of its darker scenes. For the record, these HD masters appear to be the very same ones created for streaming on Netflix over a decade ago; largely clean and film-like with no obvious native shortcomings, outside of the fact that the first three seasons are presented in 1.78:1 widescreen rather than 1.33:1 for broadcast and DVD. For the most part, this isn't nearly as problematic as WB/HBO's bone-headed decision to present Curb Your Enthusiasm's earlier seasons in cropped widescreen, which led to some pretty egregious compositions for the native 4x3 material. But it's still at least noticeable here and there, with Gilmore Girls' pilot filmed in native 1.37:1 and most of the rest composed for 1.66:1 but clearly shot with 1.33:1 and 1.78:1 in mind. That said, a growing majority of fans have joined during the post-Netflix era, so many should be used to this wider -- and only occasionally cramped -- presentation during the first three seasons. In short, it's pretty much what you'd expect.

More than usual, these direct-from-disc screenshots -- which, as always, represent a fairly even cross-section of episodes by year -- should provide a decently accurate picture of the 1080p transfers' fine detail and aesthetic, which unsurprisingly is a mostly solid image with warm and inviting colors, occasional depth, and varying levels of film grain that seem faithful to the source. (A Year In the Life was shot digitally, so it's the exception here and, in any case, was already covered in our stand-alone Blu-ray review back in 2017.) It's a fine presentation, all things considered; not perfect (and perhaps even a shade too dark, in my opinion), but at the very least it offers noticeable improvements over the heavily compressed streaming versions that fans have watched ad nauseum since 2014.

Gilmore Girls: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The audio is much more straightforward, as all of the content included here is presented in its native lossless format: DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio Stereo for Seasons 1-5, and DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio Surround for Seasons 6-7 and A Year in the Life. Not surprisingly, Gilmore Girls is not exactly a sonically demanding series as almost all of its nearly non-stop dialogue is anchored squarely up front with minimal directionality, while separation and (later) surround effects are reserved for background activity as well as the series' memorable music and soundtrack cues.

Speaking of which, one music change (likely due to rights issues) was noted in our official forum thread a few weeks ago: during the Season 1 episode "Star-Crossed Lovers and Other Strangers", John Lennon's "Oh My Love" has been replaced by "Love Is Real" by Steve Robinson. My casual familiarity with Gilmore Girls before Blu-ray would've made this change go completely over my head, but no more substitutions have been revealed.

Optional English (SDH) subtitles are included during all episodes and applicable bonus features listed below.

Gilmore Girls: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This whopping 30-disc set is unfortunately another recent victim of WB's recent switch to "Epic" keepcases for series sets, a space-saving but notoriously difficult type of packaging with overlapping hubs. At least this time there are two separate cases bundled inside a slipcase, and the artwork is attractive with disc-by-disc breakdowns printed inside, but individual hinged keepcases for each season would've been truly ideal and worth a higher retail price.

The bonus features are spread across several seasons and all are ported over from the old DVD sets, but there are a few minor omissions including about three minutes of deleted scenes for Season 1 (perhaps the source materials were subpar or missing?), as well as a player-based trivia game from Season 4. Basic descriptions of everything are below, but most are either self-explanatory or long-time fans should already be familiar with all of this stuff.

SEASON ONE, DISC FOUR

• Welcome to the Gilmore Girls (21:52) - This all-purpose behind-the-scenes promo piece features interviews with key cast and crew members as well as various moments from the first-season shoot.

• Gilmore Goodies and Gossip: "Rory's Dance" On-Screen Factoids (44:22) - In the style of VH1's "Behind the Music", this pop-up trivia feature plays over a standard-def version of the episode.

• Gilmore-isms (2:13) - As coined by series creator Amy Sherman-Palladino.

SEASON TWO - DISCS ONE AND THREE

• Unaired Scenes - Deleted clips from "Sadie, Sadie" and "There's the Rub".

SEASON TWO, DISC FOUR

• Unaired Scene - A deleted clip from "I Can't Get Started".

• A Film by Kirk (1:51) - Kirk's black-and-white festival entry from "Teach Me Tonight".

• International Success: How Other Countries Welcome the Girls (5:24) - Amy Sherman-Palladino and others host this short montage of foreign-language versions of various scenes.

• Gilmore Goodies and Gossip: "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" On-Screen Factoids (43:01) - In the style of VH1's "Behind the Music", this pop-up trivia feature plays over a standard-def version of the episode.

• Who Wants to Argue? (1:09) - Season Two's best shouting matches. (There weren't that many.)

SEASON THREE, DISC THREE

• Unaired Scene - A deleted clip from "Swan Song".

SEASON THREE, DISC FOUR

• Unaired Scenes - Deleted clips from "Say Goodnight, Gracie" and "Those Are Strings, Pinocchio".

• All Grown Up (15:06) - Key cast members share a few childhood experiences.

• Who Wants to Fall In Love? (1:02) - Season Three's most romantic moments.

• Our Favorite '80s (2:25) - The cast detail (and demonstrate!) their favorite era dance moves.

SEASON FOUR, DISCS ONE AND THREE

• Unaired Scenes - Deleted clips from "Ballrooms & Biscotti" and "The Reigning Lorelai".

SEASON FOUR, DISC FOUR

• Gilmore Goodies and Gossip: "Girls in Bikinis, Boys Doin' the Twist" On-Screen Factoids (43:22) - In the style of VH1's "Behind the Music", this pop-up trivia feature plays over a standard-def version of the episode.

• Who Wants to Get Together? (1:38) - Season Four's most romantic moments.

SEASON FIVE, DISC TWO

• Audio Commentary - The first, last and only commentary recorded for Gilmore Girls (believe it or not), this legacy track features series creator Amy Sherman-Palladino and her husband / creative partner Daniel Palladino speaking about the 94th episode, "You Jump, I Jump, Jack". It's a shame there were never more of these.

SEASON FIVE, DISC FOUR

• Gilmore Girls Turns 100 (15:54) - A celebration of five years and 100 episodes with tons of short cast interviews as well as various episode highlights and behind-the-scenes moments.

• Behind the Scenes of the 100th Episode (5:04) - A short-form-piece assembled during the production of "Wedding Bell Blues".

• Who Wants to Talk Gilmore? (1:54) - The season's wittiest wordplay moments.

SEASON SEVEN, DISC ONE

• Unaired Scene - A deleted clip from "The Great Stink".

SEASON SEVEN, DISC FOUR

• Gilmore Fashionistas (11:20) - A short featurette about the show's evolving roster of costumes.

• A Best Friend's Peek Inside the Gilmore Girls (14:05) - Keiko Agena lets us tag along for a typical day in her life on the set, from a tour of her trailer to a few run-ins with the cast and crew.

• Who Wants to Talk Boys? (1:11) - The season's best moments of gabbing about guys.

• Kirk's Tour of Stars Hollow (25:04) - Sean Gunn hosts this in-character trip around town.

NOTE: Season Six and A Year In the Life do not have -- or have ever had -- any bonus features.

Gilmore Girls: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Amy Sherman-Palladino's mega-popular Gilmore Girls gradually blossomed from a modest, cozy small-town TV show to a full-blown pop culture phenomenon, inviting fans of all ages to revisit the seven-season series as well as its four-part Netfilx continuation A Year In the Life each and every fall... or whenever you feel like yet another marathon. Aside from WB's old DVD sets, streaming has the been the main access point for fans... but since it's leaving Netflix after 12 years, Warner Bros.' long-overdue Blu-ray collection (which serves up everything Gilmore expect for two extras stuck on DVD) has now become more essential. This set will continue to be a big seller and, despite reservations about the packaging and cropped early seasons (which were the same way on streaming), it comes firmly Recommended.