Anne With An "E"
May. 22nd, 2017 12:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grundyscribblingMy sister kindly informed me this evening that Netflix's Anne of Green Gables series is available. I just watched the whole thing, although I'm not sure why.
I do not mind dark and gritty. I do not even mind a less sunshiney version of Anne than the Disney version of the 1980s. What I do not like is relentlessly gritty and dark claiming to be Anne of Green Gables. If you love the books, skip this mess.
Highlights:
-Mr. Hammond expires in the middle of beating Anne with a strap.
-The other girls at school, except Diana, don't like Anne. While I will grant that Josie Pye is supposed to be on the spiteful side, Ruby Gillis and Jane Andrews definitely weren't.
-Billy Andrews tries to beat her up after Anne inadvertently spreads a rumor that Prissy is 'intimate' with Mr. Phillips. (Yes, seriously to both halves of that sentence.)
-The majority of Avonlea are horrible snobs who look down on the orphan girl and openly gossip about her at the Sunday School picnic.
-Everybody old has tragic romantic backstory. Except the Lyndes, who appear to be happily married. (Not complaining about the Lyndes.)
-Anne gets her first period, and by her reaction, you'd think she was Sansa Stark.
-While Charlie Sloan and Moody Spurgeon do indeed get an intro, Gilbert Blythe is really the only boy who is not a jerk.
-Above statement should be qualified with "at school". Quite honestly, if I continued with this, I'd be shipping Anne/Jerry. As in Jerry Baynard, who is the Green Gables hired boy. (For some reason, he got a name change from the book's Buote. He's still French but I guess his original last name wasn't French enough?) They actually talk more than Anne and Gilbert, and Jerry has better advice.
-Speaking of Anne and Gilbert, she doesn't so much break her slate over his head as clock him upside the head with it. For a second, I thought she'd killed him, and thought 'that's taking this darker grittier thing a bit far'.
-Gilbert's father dies, and he shuts up the house and takes up working on boats.
-Anne appears to have PTSD
-The dangers of child snatchers, violent muggings, and conmen seems ridiculously high for 1880s PEI. This isn't Boston or New York City.
-Matthew attempts to commit suicide with a revolver
-The same lowlifes who beat the crap out of Jerry and stole the proceeds from the sale of a Green Gables horse are posing as would-be lodgers at the end of the last episode.
And now I want to read the book as a palate cleanser. But it's kind of late for that, and I have to work in the morning.
I do not mind dark and gritty. I do not even mind a less sunshiney version of Anne than the Disney version of the 1980s. What I do not like is relentlessly gritty and dark claiming to be Anne of Green Gables. If you love the books, skip this mess.
Highlights:
-Mr. Hammond expires in the middle of beating Anne with a strap.
-The other girls at school, except Diana, don't like Anne. While I will grant that Josie Pye is supposed to be on the spiteful side, Ruby Gillis and Jane Andrews definitely weren't.
-Billy Andrews tries to beat her up after Anne inadvertently spreads a rumor that Prissy is 'intimate' with Mr. Phillips. (Yes, seriously to both halves of that sentence.)
-The majority of Avonlea are horrible snobs who look down on the orphan girl and openly gossip about her at the Sunday School picnic.
-Everybody old has tragic romantic backstory. Except the Lyndes, who appear to be happily married. (Not complaining about the Lyndes.)
-Anne gets her first period, and by her reaction, you'd think she was Sansa Stark.
-While Charlie Sloan and Moody Spurgeon do indeed get an intro, Gilbert Blythe is really the only boy who is not a jerk.
-Above statement should be qualified with "at school". Quite honestly, if I continued with this, I'd be shipping Anne/Jerry. As in Jerry Baynard, who is the Green Gables hired boy. (For some reason, he got a name change from the book's Buote. He's still French but I guess his original last name wasn't French enough?) They actually talk more than Anne and Gilbert, and Jerry has better advice.
-Speaking of Anne and Gilbert, she doesn't so much break her slate over his head as clock him upside the head with it. For a second, I thought she'd killed him, and thought 'that's taking this darker grittier thing a bit far'.
-Gilbert's father dies, and he shuts up the house and takes up working on boats.
-Anne appears to have PTSD
-The dangers of child snatchers, violent muggings, and conmen seems ridiculously high for 1880s PEI. This isn't Boston or New York City.
-Matthew attempts to commit suicide with a revolver
-The same lowlifes who beat the crap out of Jerry and stole the proceeds from the sale of a Green Gables horse are posing as would-be lodgers at the end of the last episode.
And now I want to read the book as a palate cleanser. But it's kind of late for that, and I have to work in the morning.
