I certainly did. I’ve seen every episode of “Gilmore Girls” multiple times. It debuted when I was 14, one year younger than Rory Gilmore’s character then, and I marveled over the similarities between us: We were both voracious readers who preferred books over parties, and we were both required to attend weekly Friday-night dinners with our grandmothers. Our romantic interests (at least for one season of the show) had the same name, and we owned the same American Eagle sweater. She was just like me — only a little more beautiful, intelligent and watchable.

When the show was on the air, I spent every week renewing my fascination with a fictional character. I fixated on “Gilmore Girls” because I tend to gravitate toward a genre of popular culture I’ve come to think of as emotional speculative fiction. It’s a close cousin of science fiction: The central narrative bears a plausible relation to our lived reality, but everything is heightened, for better or worse. In science fiction, our experiences are filtered through the fantastical — an alien virus arrives from outer space and decimates a marginalized population, perhaps, or there’s a power-hungry dictator hellbent on world domination in a universe far, far away.

Emotional speculative fiction takes place closer to home but is no less fantastical. When done well — as was the case with “Gilmore Girls” — it takes everything recognizable about life but adds the qualities that remain elusively out of reach in reality, like satisfying endings and triumphant character arcs, where loss is ultimately redemptive and learning experiences are peppered with witty repartee.

Porter says he has often thought of how the fairy-tale aspects of the show don’t ever topple into far-fetched dramas or morality lessons. The action is almost secondary to the emotions for him. “In addition to it being hilarious and funny and wonderful and having really gorgeous women being hilarious, what drew me to the show was the emotional resonance of it.” Adejuyigbe, too, finds that “one of the big draws of ‘Gilmore Girls’ is that sort of dreamlike fantasy, where things are so similar to our real life and twisted just a little bit.”

“Gilmore Girls” wasn’t a perfect television show, and some of its flaws are glaringly obvious to regular and first-time viewers alike. The show often makes strange narrative choices with minor characters — turning them into clichés and punch lines — and central conflicts, particularly in later seasons, are a bit of a stretch, as characters discover children they didn’t know they had and enter into marriages they don’t seem to want. Adejuyigbe and Porter are, first and foremost, fans; they love the show not in spite of its flaws but because the flaws are just as crucial to their viewing experience as the strengths. Porter tells me he thinks about the show every single day. “It’s something I live with in a way I’ve never lived with a television show or any piece of art,” he explains. “It’s become a beautiful engine for the podcast and conversation and jokes and insight and shows and songs. It’s a gift that’s given me so much.”

In June, Adejuyigbe and Porter did interviews on the red carpet for a “Gilmore Girls” reunion panel and got to meet the actors who played their favorite characters; a photo posted to their official Facebook page of Porter with Kelly Bishop, the actress who played his favorite character (Emily Gilmore, Lorelai’s mother and Rory’s grandmother), depicts her face in the stern character expression familiar to fans, while Porter’s registers sheer joy.

The podcast is about to delve into the fifth season of “Gilmore Girls”; the end is in sight. When pressed about their plans for future episodes of “Gilmore Guys,” and what they will do after there are no more episodes of “Gilmore Girls” to watch, Adejuyigbe and Porter remain coy; they say only that we should expect more Gillys to appear, and that no special guest is really out of reach. For now, they are content to revel in the fact that the podcast has transformed their lives into something slightly better than reality.