Anne with E

[Flopper]

About 40 years ago I watched Ann of Green Gables on PBS with my daughter who loved. It has been reimagined as Anne with E in a new telling of the 1907 novel. My 12 year old granddaughter was here last week and I suggested we watch it thinking her response would be the same as her mothers. Boy was I wrong. Half way through the 1st episode, she said, "Grandad, can I go to my room. This looks like an old time TV program. I just don't like this kind of stuff." I guess I'm out of touch with this generation. Anyway, I watch the first and second episode.

Despite my granddaughter's rejection, Anne with an E is good family watching. It is well written and acted. If you like family movies, you will probably like this series. Amybeth McNulty plays Anne quite well. My only complain is that she is just a bit too chatty. R.H. Thomson and Geraldine James are wonderful as the Cuthberts, the adoptive parents.

 

[Flopper]

Correction:
After further watching, I think it is debatable as to whether this is a true family movie. It would be fine for 12 and over and families with a more liberal view because in the second season, it tackles the issue of homosexuality and racial discrimination. However, it does so in a tasteful manner. Anne, now in her early teens begins questioning the commonly accepted goals in the life of a young woman which at that time is of course marriage and family. Anne thinks marriage is fine if you happen to fall in love with the right person and you can still pursue other paths in your life in addition to marriage.

Anne's great aunt, Josephine holds a party and invites Anne and her friends, Diana and Cole. It become very apparent that the people at the party are very different than people in there home town of Avonlea, artists, musicians, poets, and other free spirits. Josephine reveals that her life long friend is the love of her life. Anne, Diana, and Cole have very different opinions of what they have seen. Diana who dreams of becoming a bride is repulsed. Cole who is clearly gay and is constantly bulled at school by students and the teacher, see a world in which he would fit in. Anne is overjoyed to see that there are alternatives to marriage and family. The screenwriter also introduces a black man into the white community of Avonlea and the resulting racial discrimination. So conservatives concerned about what they call woke will probably not see this story as a good family series.

I doubt serious that Lucy Montgomery who wrote the book in 1907 touched on these subjects. As I remember there are quite a few other difference between Anne With an E and Anne of Green Gables.