25 of the most memorable TV teachers

Max Medina – Gilmore Girls

Max Medina will, to me, always be the one that got away from Lorelai. Although teacher/parent relationships are often discouraged, he might be one of the better romantic decisions she ever made. And let’s face it, Lorelai often makes terrible and selfish decisions. The way in which she ends things with Max is evidence of that.

We first meet Mr. Medina (Scott Cohen) as Rory tries to acclimate to the exclusive and high-pressured Chilton school. Coming from Stars Hollow High, she is behind this lot of overachievers, even though she is a super smart cookie and was ahead of most of her classmates there. She has a major culture shock when Mr. Medina gives her a lower grade than she’s used to, and she then proceeds to descend into a stress-spiral when he suggests she might be overextending herself.

As both a teacher and a boyfriend, he really delivers. Rory measures up and constantly seels his approval, but things all go to hell when Lorelai breaks up with him and then gets back together with him. In fact, Lorelai burns him so badly, emotionally speaking, that he flees to the other side of the country to take a swanky job at a California college.

Once he comes back, she still does a little back and forth with him, making both his professional and personal life harder than it should be. Thank goodness Luke is her one, true thing, because I don’t know if I could have taken much more of the back and forth, will they/won’t they. I’m not sure Max could have either.

The original series and its recent reboot are available in full on Netflix.