The fast-talking serves a purpose.

There are certainly moments when the rapid pace of the dialogue overwhelms the story and character development, but when you're deep into the show, your ear adjusts to it, like its own dialect. The more I watched, the more I could appreciate the way the fastest talkers — particularly Lorelai, Rory, and Paris (Liza Weil) — used their waterfalls of words to overcome insecurities and push through any obstacle in their way. All of the men on the show speak slowly and steadily, so sure that their audience will listen to everything they have to say. The women have learned that in this world, they have to say twice as much for half their message to be heard. That is a rather depressing takeaway, sure, but it's a far cry from my initial impression that they were just doing it to sound like Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday.

Rory and Lorelai are a very different kind of cute.

Lorelai's girlish wardrobe, tastes, and mannerisms have an obvious origin in her rebellion against her prim and proper mother and the hardship of raising a child at 16. Though in one way she had to grow up pretty fast, she decided to give herself the gift of perpetual girlhood, too. The early 2000s fashion trend of dressing like a little kid (bedazzled Henleys!) made this even easier to depict. Rory, meanwhile, treats her girlishness like a burden. She's a nerd with the soul of an older woman, but that sweet face makes everyone assume she's just dreaming about unicorns and kittens. It's fascinating to watch her gain her voice — often due to the encouragement and rivalry of Paris, the one person who knows just how tough Rory can be.

The cartoonish town is, well, a cartoon.

Okay, I had that right. There are some episodes that focus far too much on characters like Kirk (Sean Gunn), Taylor (Michael Winters), Mrs. Kim (Emily Kuroda), or Michel (Yanic Truesdale). Even beloved Sookie (Melissa McCarthy) has a tendency to veer into caricature. We'll just chalk that up to this being a TV show with a lot of airtime to fill, and sometimes the scenery takes over a bit. Could Stars Hollow use some more people of color? Of course. Would it have been better if, say, Michel were allowed to be an out gay man with a little complexity? Yes. Does the ridiculous fact that Skid Row's Sebastian Bach became a regular guest star make me temporarily forget most of my complaints? Also yes. My childhood love of hair metal is my Achilles' heel.