Anne With An "E"

[grundyscribbling]

My 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.

Comments

[grundyscribbling]

Yeah, it's like the production powers that be missed that BSG-style dark and gritty isn't appropriate for everything. BSG's dark and gritty came about at least in part as a reaction to ST:Voyager, in which despite being on the other side of the galaxy from home and allegedly holding it together with duct tape and hope, the ship never really looked like it was falling apart and the crew were mostly ok. (Except for alternate timeline deaths, which got old fast.) 80's Anne was too saccharine, but the solution to that should be 'dial down the Disney factor' not 'let's make Battlestar Green Gables!"

[sulien]

80's Anne was too saccharine, but the solution to that should be'dial down the Disney factor' not 'let's make Battlestar Green Gables!"

Dude, you win the internets with that comment! *g* 'Battlestar Green Gables' *laughs out loud some more*