What this means in practice is that the cheerful novel has, in Walley-Beckett’s hands, become much darker. Extrapolating from asides in the text, Walley-Beckett has fleshed out minor characters; given major ones back stories; drawn out themes of gender parity, prejudice, isolation and bullying; and emphasized the trauma of Anne’s childhood. On Anne’s first journey to Green Gables in the new TV show, she is still, as in the book, so overcome by the beauty of a drive thick with apple trees in bloom that she renames it “the White Way of Delight.” But in an invention of the show, she is also overcome by memories of being beaten by her former employer. The resulting seven-episode season, the first of a hoped-for five, all based on the first novel, is an amalgam of that which is expected from Anne Shirley (her buoyancy) and that which makes for prestigious television today (her depths).
--
Anyone see it? I'm interested in thoughts.
The original series was the best adaptation of a book ever. It is literally impossible to improve. The casting, locations and acting perfectly matched the stories. It exemplifies wholesome and innocent entertainment.
It sickens me to think what “improvements” they’ll add: feminism rather than strong women of character; explicit sexuality or lesbianism; envy; token racial and gender misrepresentation? It will end up like modern San Francisco: filled with perversion and excrement.