With this season of Gilmore Girls, creative forces Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino finally found a way to make the Stars Hollow-Yale dichotomy work perfectly, as each location still stood alone but had decided repercussions on the other. Gone were freshman-year anxieties for Rory and in their place were more adult romantic concerns as well as a class consciousness that, for the first serious time, found Rory on the side of the haves and not the have-nots. While the Rory-Dean drama played itself out nicely and succinctly, it was the devilish Logan who lit a fire underneath this Gilmore girl; the episode "You Jump, I Jump, Jack" was a lovely twist on the '30s romantic comedies that found rich folk at play with words and deeds. Bledel started to fully blossom as Rory grew from ingenue to leading lady, and she was matched peerlessly by Graham, whose passion, anger, stubbornness, and ravishing beauty all came to a head in "Wedding Bell Blues," which featured her two greatest nemeses: her mother and Rory's dad, Christopher (David Sutcliffe). The show's trademark eccentricities were all in place--including a Pulp Fiction party and an elementary school production of Fiddler on the Roof, among other things--but it mined the best drama of its run with the season's last four episodes, which found Rory's confidence shaken to the core. To give any of the proceedings away would spoil the drama, but suffice it to say you will be glued to the TV for this season's final four hours; it's Gilmore Girls at its phenomenal best. --Mark Englehart

Product Description
A fifth season of drama unfolds as the residents of the small Connecticut town Stars Hollow run the full gamut of human emotions once again. Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham) and her teenage daughter Rory (Alexis Bledel) enjoy mixed fortunes this time out. As the wind is firmly knocked out of Rory's sails due to a seemingly never-ending string of personal crises, Lorelai is enjoying her flourishing romance with the handsome Luke (Scott Patterson). Lorelai tries to fulfill her motherly duties by helping Rory to get her life back on track, then falls into heartbreak herself when Luke breaks up with her. But the two quickly reconcile, and the romance really heats up as the season nears its conclusion--although Rory's penchant for trouble causes her mother further anguish. All 21 episodes from the fifth season are included on this collection.