Gilmore Girls *SPOILERS*

They both become mothers at a young age, fell hard for guys and had strained relationships with their parents, but other than that, the characters felt incredibly different to me. Lorelai left home at 16, but she had the inner strength and ability to make it on her own (with some good influences to help her get on her feet initially), and she was fully able to support her child herself. Her obvious faults aside, Lorelai was the picture of self sufficiency and a true extrovert, whereas Sarah just always seemed incredibly weak/immature. She wanted to be independent from her parents but had no means to do so, and did she even really have any friends? I think it's a testament to Lauren Graham that she was able to pull off two very different personalities.

I find it interesting that you think Luke and Hank are alike. Other than a very general base of social awkwardness, I can't think of two guys who are more different. Luke had his moments where he struggled to get along with people, but he also built strong friendships along the way and was highly respected. Hank was much more of a closed-off kind of guy, and while I was rooting for him in the end, there was really no reason to believe that he and Sarah would have a successful marriage.

You're right sums up my thoughts too

I too found it hard to see a difference between Sarah and Lorelei. I initially came just for Lauren graham because Gilmore girls was so good, but I ended up staying for Mae Whitman. She's such a phenomenal actor, you could just feel the emotion through the screen. Also, Dax Shepard completely stole the show in season 1.

I was the exact same way, I'm a 21 yr old straight male and the only way I even found out about Gilmore was my older sister used to watch it all the time; I got so addicted to it based on it's phenomenal writing and the refrences. I watched most of Parenthood with its original run, but I felt close to the same way with Graham. I kept expecting the writing to be close because it was her in a similar role. I prefer the Lorelei character, but as Sarah she was amazing getting to add the extra layers of depth. Her and Meg Whitman and Miles Heizer were amazing throughout. I hope down the road Whitman, Graham and Bledel could collaborate in something together!

Totally agree. The Sarah-Lorelai parallels were pretty distracting at times.

Fortunately, the show had many other characters, so I didn't dwell on the idea that Sarah should have been played by someone else.