The Gilmore Girls revival is almost upon us, and thanks to Netflix, it will be available in the UK. The news, I have to admit, has me a bit worried.
See, I'm a die-hard fan. A really, truly obsessed, have-watched-the-whole-thing-multiple-times type fan.
My reservations have waned a little now that I know Melissa McCarthy (Sookie) is definitely involved, and I'm glad creator Amy Sherman-Palladino is back at the helm. But the problem is, it's been such a long time since it ended. It's given all of us Gilmore obsessives ample time to make up our own endings.
Whether you're Team Dean, Team Jess (the right team), or team Logan, you know how you wanted things to end - and of course, everyone wants Luke and Lorelai to be together.
How can a return to Stars Hollow live up to expectations, then? I'm religiously avoiding spoilers as I want to watch it with an unprejudiced eye, but I still have some trepidation. You can't please all the people all the time, so inevitably, some of us die-hards will be disappointed.
So what is it that inspires this kind of deep, enduring love for a show that's been off the air almost ten years?
For me, the obsession started about six years ago. It was November 2010. What started out as a minor inflammation in an ear piercing turned into a skin infection on my face so serious that it freaked out an infectious diseases professor. Long story short, I ended up in hospital for the better part of a week, being pumped full of antibiotics most of the time, and when I wasn't being pumped full of antibiotics, there wasn't much else to do.
Enter Gilmore Girls. This was back when it was still being broadcast on E4 a couple of times a day, so I had ready access to it, and I think I probably got through at least the first season, if not more. It cheered me up. It made me feel better about being stuck in hospital. It was funny and sweet, feather-light, but oddly compelling.
Since then, I haven't looked back. I bought the DVD boxset, then the download from iTunes and was thrilled when I found out it's finally available in the UK on Netflix.
Here's the thing about Gilmore Girls: it's pure fantasy. Of course it is. No town is that picturesque. No one is that quirky or witty. No one could eat the way Lorelai and Rory do and look like Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel. (Incidentally, I have a theory about that - if you watch closely, they almost never finish a meal, so that might just be the explanation).
But that doesn't matter. In fact, it's part of what makes the show so much fun to watch. It's comforting when you've had a bad day, like a hug for the brain. It's a fairy tale.
That said, it is also highly relatable. Like so many other women my age (and men, for that matter - the Gilmore Guys podcast is great), I identified more with sober, studious Rory when I first started watching it, and then gradually moved towards the ever-unlucky-in-love Lorelai (no offence, hubby).
It's also firmly feminist: the female characters are very much the strongest, the coolest and the smartest, and there is never a single joke at the expense of Sookie (McCarthy) about her weight.
Here's hoping the revival manages to be even half as good as all that.