Four Netflix shows to watch now that ‘Gilmore Girls’ is gone
So… who gave Netflix permission to take Gilmore Girls away? July 1st came around, and just like that, Stars Hollow was gone after spending 12 years being everybody’s go-to comfort watch. Sure, A Year in the Life is still hanging around, but let’s not pretend that’s the same thing.
That’s the thing about Gilmore Girls. You never really watched it because you couldn’t wait to find out what happened next. You watched because spending time with these characters became part of the routine. Lorelai and Rory felt like people you kept checking in on. Coffee helped too. A lot of coffee.
And here’s what made the goodbye sting even more. The series originally aired between 2000 and 2007, but Netflix introduced it to an entirely new generation when it arrived on the platform in 2014. For plenty of viewers, this wasn’t a show their parents recommended. This was their comfort series, in good times or bad.
So now what? No, nothing is ever going to be Gilmore Girls, and that’s a battle no show is winning. But that doesn’t mean the post–Stars Hollow watchlist has to stay empty. There are a few Netflix series that carry pieces of what made it special, and we have found four that come the closest.
Four Netflix shows to watch now that Gilmore Girls is gone
Ginny & Georgia (2021-)
Let’s just get this out of the way because Ginny & Georgia is probably the first show that comes to mind when you hear Gilmore Girls. A mother and daughter at the centre of the story? Yeah, the Gilmore Girls comparisons were inevitable. But don’t walk in expecting Stars Hollow with better amenities because this series goes in a completely different direction.
Georgia moves her family to the quaint town of Wellsbury, hoping for a fresh start, while teenage Ginny is trying to figure out who she is. We watch Ginny struggling with a sense of belonging and dealing with her mother’s secrets and wondering if they will ever stop following them. However, at its heart, the show is still that messy, complicated mother-daughter bond, except this time it comes with murder investigations.
Anne with an E (2017-2019)
If the biggest thing you’re missing from Gilmore Girls is that feeling of spending time in a town where everybody knows everybody, Anne with an E should be next on your list. The series follows Anne Shirley, an imaginative orphan who is accidentally sent to live with siblings Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert instead of the boy they were expecting to adopt.
Watching Anne find her place in Avonlea is half the fun, as she makes friends and wins people over while building the family she has always wanted. That’s probably why Gilmore Girls fans end up loving it too. The stories are completely different, but both shows turn their small towns into places you’ll want to keep coming back to long after the credits roll.
Virgin River (2019-)
Virgin River takes you into another community where everybody knows everybody else’s business before breakfast, and that’s part of the charm. The story follows nurse practitioner Mel Monroe as she leaves Los Angeles behind for what she hopes will be a quieter life in the tiny town of Virgin River.
Of course, life has other plans. New relationships, old heartbreaks and back-to-back twists keep finding her, but what really keeps people coming back is the feeling that this town becomes home not only for Mel but for anyone watching from the couch.
Sweet Magnolias (2020)
The funny thing about Gilmore Girls is that it convinced everybody that a small town could become a character all by itself. That’s exactly the trick Sweet Magnolias pulls off. It is set in Serenity, South Carolina, and follows lifelong friends Maddie, Dana Sue and Helen through their daily lives while constantly showing up for one another.
The friendships are the main focus here instead of a mother-daughter relationship, but the comforting atmosphere and sense that every corner of town has another story waiting make it a surprisingly easy place to settle into when Glimore Girls is gone.