9 Reasons Gilmore Girls Fans Should Binge-Watch The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Lorelai and Rory managed to get away with a lot during their time on air, but there's no denying that network TV censorship can affect the humour in a show. Where Lorelai Gilmore embarrasses herself by showing up to Chilton in tie-dyed and cutoff jorts (not too embarrassing in the scheme of things), Midge Maisel experiences mortified regret about exposing her breasts for a stand-up bit while she's plastered drunk.

The lack of censorship in the made-for-internet-streaming show suits the subject matter — a woman breaking barriers with edgy stand-up comedy during a time when it simply wasn't done — to a T, and Mrs. Maisel wouldn't be nearly as successful if it were limited by "general audiences" rating standards.

There's a reason Rachel Brosnahan, who plays Midge Maisel, won the Golden Globe for best actress in a TV musical or comedy. You don't want to pull your eyes away from her when she's on screen, and her comedic timing is impeccable — much like Lauren Graham as Lorelai Gilmore.

At first glance, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is the opposite of Gilmore Girls; it's all about a married couple and their strait-laced nuclear family in the '50s. But (spoiler alert!) things very quickly go to sh*t, resulting in the titular character navigating the world as a newly single lady without any marketable skills. She's forced into spending lots of time with her neurotic parents, interacting with her ex, and forging new relationships that are anything but ordinary.

It's not just the generally off-kilter family dynamics in Mrs. Maisel that will remind you of the Gilmores — it's the main character's father! Much like Richard Gilmore, Abe Weissman (played by Tony Shalhoub) is a scholar who regularly retreats to his study. But more than that, he is a solid pillar of the family who offers advice (whether it is solicited or not) and will go to great lengths to look out for the ladies in his family. You'll find yourself loving Abe just like you always loved Richard.

If Lorelai's creative outfits were your favourite part of Gilmore Girls, then you'll love watching Midge's style throughout season one of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. The retro glamour is truly a sight to behold!

While nobody will ever stack up to Jess in my mind, Mrs. Maisel has a couple of dudes who offer the same brand of "cute as hell, but oh so frustrating." In fact, one might even argue that there's a Dean (Joel, Midge's wayward husband) and a Jess (Lenny, a bad-boy comedy jailbird she meets in the New York stand-up scene).

Midge's talent manager and friend, Susie, is played by Alex Borstein — who also appeared in Gilmore Girls in several different roles. Much like the disgruntled harpist, Drella, whom Bortsein plays in season one of Gilmore Girls, Susie doesn't mince words or mess around. But in the scope of Mrs. Maisel, we'd say Borstein carries herself a bit more like Luke Danes; she's perplexed by frippery, doesn't understand feminine social norms, and rocks the hell out of a hat. (Not to mention her affinity for diner food.)

As a bonus casting nod . . . Bailey De Young, who plays Midge's friend Imogene Cleary, also appeared as one of the 30-something gang in Netflix's Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life!

While a 1950s housewife isn't the shining beacon of radical gender subversion you'd expect, Midge's unfolding story is of a woman journeying from submissive sidekick repeatedly nursing her husband's fragile ego to the fierce protagonist of her own life. Midge's whole shtick becomes sticking it to the man — she's a woman breaking into the male-dominated world of comedy, she's learning to provide for herself, she's discovering her own political views, she's telling guys to shove it in various capacities — and the show has been called a "foul-mouthed antidote to the patriarchy" in reviews.

This isn't to say that Gilmore Girls isn't feminist — merely that feminism and shirking patriarchal bullsh*t are more at the forefront of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

The most lovable aspect of Gilmore Girls is how every character — even goody-two-shoes Rory — falls from grace at some point, struggling with their own flaws in a relatable way. Midge and company all possess this same appealing type of imperfection, making bad choices that will make you yell at your screen the same way you did when Rory dropped out of Yale and Lorelai ran back to Christopher.