While fans of Gossip Girl will soon get a reboot and the Gilmore Girls revival was released on Netflix in 2016, the original shows will always be the perfect binge-watch. They stand out in the world of young adult stories for their distinctive characters, relatable stories about heartbreak and coming of age, and recognizable settings. One might be set in a big city and the other in a tiny town, but fans definitely adore them equally.
If Gossip Girl and Gilmore Girls were to compete for the title of best teen drama, fans would point out that each series has their own strengths.
10 Gossip Girl: It’s A Window Into A Specific Young Adult World
It’s fun and emotional watching Rory during her teenage years, as she has many common experiences and looks to the future. But even though her grandparents are super rich, she’s still living a fairly typical life in her small town, living with her single mom and hanging out with her sweet friend Lane.
Gossip Girl is beloved for being a window into a specific young adult world. These Upper East Side teens are incredibly wealthy and they act like adults. They assume they can do anything they want because no one has ever told them no and they also attend fancy private schools where everyone is scheming and trying to be popular. Rory’s world is nothing like this, even at Chilton.
9 Gilmore Girls: A More Unique, Special Setting
Stars Hollow may not be perfect but it’s hard to think of a more special setting for a teen show.
Lorelai chose this sweet town as the best place to raise her daughter, and with cozy Luke’s diner, residents who treat Rory as if she was their own child, and fun festivals, it was definitely a great choice. While it’s fun to see the teens on Gossip Girl attend a fancy private school in the city, there are many shows set in NYC. Gilmore Girls fans will never stop hoping that they could live in a charm-filled and unique town like Rory and Lorelai do.
8 Gossip Girl: A Great Examination Of Class Differences
While Lorelai’s parents may be rich and Rory has some privilege, Rory never really examines how lucky she is or thinks too much about the role of wealth in her life.
Gossip Girl excels in examining the class differences between the characters. Jenny wants nothing more than to be popular and fit in with Blair, but since she and her dad Rufus and brother Dan don’t come from the same kind of wealthy background, there’s a lot of tension there. Dan and his friend Vanessa also struggle to fit in with their peers. This is definitely an important subject.
7 Gilmore Girls: A Realistic Multi-Generational Family Story
Emily is a class act and knows all about manners, and she struggles to understand the more informal Lorelai as they couldn’t be more different.
Gilmore Girls does a better job than Gossip Girl of showing family dynamics, particularly a multi-generational family story where each member has their own unique wants and needs. There are moments when Emily tries to make Rory more prim and proper, like when she throws her a fancy 16th birthday party, and Lorelai can’t stand it. This feels very realistic because not every family is super close and many have trouble really understanding each other.
6 Gossip Girl: A Mysterious Blogger And Stylish Characters
While there is so much to love about Gilmore Girls, it can’t compete with a few elements that make Gossip Girl so beloved.
For one thing, Gossip Girl has a mysterious blogger who sees everything that goes on in these young adults’ lives. This is what sets this show apart since this spying informs a lot of the plot and makes the characters’ decisions seem even more scandalous. The show also has characters who care about fashion, and there’s no competing with the looks on this show, as Blair and Serena alone dress like it’s a fashion show every day.
5 Gilmore Girls: Fast Talkers And Intelligent Dialogue
While Lorelai has many quotes that move fans to tears, most of the time she’s talking super fast and making pop culture references or talking about junk food. Gilmore Girls is beloved for this quick and smart dialogue, as the characters on this show sound a lot different than they do on other series.
Everyone, from Sookie to Lane to Emily to Richard and Luke, has something interesting to say in every episode. Lorelai alone has so many quotable lines, like when she says, “I stop drinking coffee, I stop doing the standing and the walking and the words-putting-into-sentence doing.”
4 Gossip Girl: A More Intriguing Friendship
While Rory and Lane have a great friendship, they don’t go through as many ups and downs as Blair and Serena do on Gossip Girl. Even Rory’s sometimes-rivalry with Paris can’t compete.
Blair and Serena hurt each other and then pick each other back up. Their friendship is much more powerful and intriguing, as it’s not a given that they’re going to stay in each other’s lives, and viewers are always on the edge of their seats, wondering what will go wrong next. Viewers can also relate more to Blair and Serena because having a long-term friendship in high school and college isn’t easy, and there is often a lot of jealousy and negative feelings.
3 Gilmore Girls: Healthier Romantic Relationships
It’s fair to say that the love stories on Gilmore Girls are much happier and healthier than on Gossip Girl.
While Serena loves Dan, she has no idea that he’s actually Gossip Girl, and Blair and Chuck’s romance is pretty toxic. Lily also has many bad relationships during the show’s run time. While Rory’s love life isn’t perfect, she knows that Dean, Jess, and Logan genuinely care about her, and Luke and Lorelai might fight but they deal with realistic issues that they’re able to solve and work through. There isn’t any scheming or manipulation here.
2 Gossip Girl: Addictive Storylines
Gossip Girl features many storylines that Gilmore Girls would never have done: Chuck’s dad pretending to die, Blair dating royalty, Serena appearing to confess to murder.
These plotlines are addictive and make it impossible to stop after just one episode. While fans love catching up with Lorelai and Rory, that need to keep watching is unique to Gossip Girl, as it’s a young adult drama that truly keeps people guessing. Sometimes it’s over the top, but that’s part of the fun.
1 Gilmore Girls: Two Powerful, Impactful Endings
Season 7 of Gilmore Girls might not be a fan favorite, but the series finale does wrap Rory and Lorelai’s story up well. Rory is starting her journalism career and Lorelai and Luke are finally getting over their problems.
Gilmore Girls technically has two endings, since, after the final season, there’s the Netflix revival, A Year In The Life. The final episode, “Fall,” allowed fans to hear those much-hyped “final four words” Rory reveals to her mom that she’s pregnant, and Lorelai is totally surprised. Both endings are powerful in their own way, as Rory is embarking on a big life change in both. These finales are superior to Gossip Girl‘s as many fans didn’t love that Dan was revealed as Gossip Girl.
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