Lauren Graham returns to TV in another generational comedy of wits (watch the trailer!)

You know what TV has been sorely missing these days? If you guess Lauren Graham, then ding, ding, ding, you are correct! The beloved Gilmore Girls star has been away from the small screen since her Disney+ series The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers was canceled after two seasons in 2022. But she's back with a new series, and it has one particular theme in common with Gilmore Girls.

Graham headlines the upcoming Tubi original series The Z-Suite, a comedy premiering Thursday, Feb. 6 that marks a new era for the free, ad-supported streaming service. And what a better star to start a new era with than Lauren Graham? The Santa Clauses and Teachers writer Katie O'Brien created the series, which also counts Graham and Tristram Shapeero as executive producers. Translation: It's going to be funny!

In the series, Graham stars as Monica Marks, a successful New York advertising executive who finds herself and her partner canned and superseded by a new team of much, much younger Gen Z workers. The unceremonious takeover inspires Monica to strike back with a new campaign to fight back and wage a generational war. She's going to go out swinging.

Take a closer look at The Z-Suite's full synopsis via Tubi and watch the official trailer:

"Advertising maven Monica Marks (Lauren Graham, "Gilmore Girls") and her loyal right hand executive Doug Garcia (Nico Santos, “Superstore”)  have long been at the top of the Madison Avenue world. But after a record scratch blunder, they are suddenly canceled, pushed out and replaced by the agency’s rising Gen Z employees led by social media manager, Kriska Thompson (Madison Shamoun, “The Lake”). Refusing to go quietly, Monica launches her biggest campaign yet – getting their careers back and taking down the eager team of Gen-Zers who are just getting comfortable in their new roles. May the best generation win."

Lauren Graham wants Gilmore Girls fans to watch The Z-Suite

If you read the synopsis and watched the trailer, then it's obvious that The Z-Suite and Gilmore Girls couldn't be more different. Monica Marks and Lorelai Gilmore are two completely different people in completely different fields with completely different lives. There isn't a Luke or a Rory to be found in The Z-Suite trailer (though let's hope there's a love interest for Monica!).

But thematically, both The Z-Suite and Gilmore Girls tap into a generational element. In the wildly popular 2000 comedy-drama, three generations of women from the same family weathered life's highs and lows together (sometimes apart). Sometimes the generations were even at war like they are in The Z-Suite. Who could forget when Lorelai and Rory stopped speaking in season 6?

While attending the Sundance Film Festival to premiere her new movie Twinless, Graham was asked about the similarities between her new series and her most popular series. She admitted that there aren't any, at least not at face value. But she doesn't want that stop Gilmore Girls fans from checking out her new work and meeting Monica Marks in all her "kooky" glory.

Here's what Graham told The Hollywood Reporter about wanting her fans to follow her to The Z-Suite:

“There are no similarities and I hope they’ll come along for this ride. I can’t do that — I can never replicate the beauty and the magic of that character and that writing and that time, so I might as well not try. This is something very different, but she’s fun and kooky and the show has a spirit to it that I think has a coziness to it, but it’s very different character.”

As the trailer reveals, Monica's much less centered as Lorelai and a bit more of a loose cannon — and that's saying something! The two-minute first look at the series reveals an effervescently charming comedy that's the perfect pick if you loved the modern workplace vibe of The Bold Type and the wildly funny writing of Superstore (two of its stars are in it, btw!). Hopefully, fans will heed Graham's advice and tune in for the two-episode premiere and each weekly airing. I know I'll be there!

Watch The Z-Suite on Tubi beginning on Thursday, Feb. 6.