Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My read is that there are many, many versions of this for the kids. This is a version for grown-ups. The 1980's version is for people who identify with Diana--the plucky orphan is a breath of fresh air! This one is for people who identify with Marilla.

You can go with this, sure. And then you can see how many disappointed moms there are who wanted to share this story with their kids 8+. That age, or younger, would have been the expected age. When it was announced, that's what many of my friends thought.

I completely agree with you. They paid zero regard to the story.

--Marilla wasn't some lonely suburban housewife looking for friends through a book club.

--Anne didn't talk about the noises the Hammonds made during sex.

--And for pity sake, she didn't hit Gilbert with the slate b/c she was afraid the other girls wouldn't like her. She wasn't a slave to peer pressure. The writers shouldn't change one of the most iconic actions in the book. It's why Anne refused to become with Gilbert for YEARS. She knew she was being stubborn and she finally came around to be his friend. It's like having Romeo and Juliette live at the end.

She hated her hair and it was her achilles heel--her "lifelong sorrow." Why she mouthed off to Rachel Lynde and why she hit Gilbert with the slate.

+1 DD and I both hated this adaptation and couldn't finish watching it. How completely wrong they got the Gilbert character and relationship was a huge piece of that.

Anyone watch season 2?

My perspective, never having read the books: Anne came across as histrionic, sometimes even mentally ill. She varied between outcast and toast of the town constantly, a mirror of bipolar illness and grandiosity. The incident where she went into the house being consumed by fire was just bizarre -- the rationale that she read or heard that oxygen feeds a fire was ludicrous. Then she was made out to be a heroine, when she had actually made the situation much more dangerous and absorbed peoples' time and attention during an emergency. Just couldn't fathom it.

Nevertheless, I liked the series, especially Geraldine James as Marilla.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was the one who recently posted another thread about this show (I did do a search before to check if there were any existing threads, but didn't find this one because of the misspelling in the show name). I appreciate the earlier insights. It seems many people think it is a good or at least okay show, but not really appropriate for children. This makes me sad as I have always thought of Anne of Green Gables as a story for older (8+) children.

Has anyone watched this show with their older children, and what did they think?

From the reviews here and online, it's seems like more of the extremes--like it or hate it camp. The changes made to the story line don't make any sense if you read and loved the books.

Does anyone who hated it because it deviated so much from the tone of the book think it worth watching? I loved the Anne books but the many changes sound awful. I understand the PTSD aspect, which is warranted but the others just sound gratuitous. I've been thinking of hate-watching it.

I couldn't get through it, even to hate watch it. The creator did stuff like Breaking Bad and Flesh and Bone. I think she's tone deaf when it comes to Anne.

Upon watching interviews, I'm also pretty convinced that she didn't read the book very carefully. She talks about when the book was written vs. when "they" set the story, duh, the story did take place in the late 1800s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjgnAec1hlk

In every interview, Wally-Becket relies the same patter--"timeless and timely:' the story deals with "feminism and gender parity." Apparently, the girl they cast as Anne has done a lot of work on stage, which make sense why she was such an inconsistent (and pretty terrible) on film:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6qoIhkk1r8

Wally-Becket also full of herself, how she sticks so carefully to the iconic moments and changed things with the author's "permission" (2:50)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4xEr7PhICs

LM Montgomery is spinning in her grave.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was the one who recently posted another thread about this show (I did do a search before to check if there were any existing threads, but didn't find this one because of the misspelling in the show name). I appreciate the earlier insights. It seems many people think it is a good or at least okay show, but not really appropriate for children. This makes me sad as I have always thought of Anne of Green Gables as a story for older (8+) children.

Has anyone watched this show with their older children, and what did they think?

From the reviews here and online, it's seems like more of the extremes--like it or hate it camp. The changes made to the story line don't make any sense if you read and loved the books.

Does anyone who hated it because it deviated so much from the tone of the book think it worth watching? I loved the Anne books but the many changes sound awful. I understand the PTSD aspect, which is warranted but the others just sound gratuitous. I've been thinking of hate-watching it.

I ended up disliking the new series mostly because every time you got through a newly introduced dark storyline, you were thrown into yet another one. I wanted to scream "enough" at the end. I did enjoy moments of the show though, which helped me get to the end. I think I just liked being back at Green Gables.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was the one who recently posted another thread about this show (I did do a search before to check if there were any existing threads, but didn't find this one because of the misspelling in the show name). I appreciate the earlier insights. It seems many people think it is a good or at least okay show, but not really appropriate for children. This makes me sad as I have always thought of Anne of Green Gables as a story for older (8+) children.

Has anyone watched this show with their older children, and what did they think?

From the reviews here and online, it's seems like more of the extremes--like it or hate it camp. The changes made to the story line don't make any sense if you read and loved the books.

Does anyone who hated it because it deviated so much from the tone of the book think it worth watching? I loved the Anne books but the many changes sound awful. I understand the PTSD aspect, which is warranted but the others just sound gratuitous. I've been thinking of hate-watching it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP again ^^^
Here's the link:
http://anneofgreengables.com/

Did you order from that site? How is the DVD quality? I ordered DVDs from EBay (I know, I know) and the picture quality is terrible, which is probably what I get.

I'd be curious to know this too. I have the original VHS but not VCR.

Anonymous wrote:I was the one who recently posted another thread about this show (I did do a search before to check if there were any existing threads, but didn't find this one because of the misspelling in the show name). I appreciate the earlier insights. It seems many people think it is a good or at least okay show, but not really appropriate for children. This makes me sad as I have always thought of Anne of Green Gables as a story for older (8+) children.

Has anyone watched this show with their older children, and what did they think?

From the reviews here and online, it's seems like more of the extremes--like it or hate it camp. The changes made to the story line don't make any sense if you read and loved the books.

Anonymous wrote:PP again ^^^
Here's the link:
http://anneofgreengables.com/

Did you order from that site? How is the DVD quality? I ordered DVDs from EBay (I know, I know) and the picture quality is terrible, which is probably what I get.

I was the one who recently posted another thread about this show (I did do a search before to check if there were any existing threads, but didn't find this one because of the misspelling in the show name). I appreciate the earlier insights. It seems many people think it is a good or at least okay show, but not really appropriate for children. This makes me sad as I have always thought of Anne of Green Gables as a story for older (8+) children.

Has anyone watched this show with their older children, and what did they think?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:See I think it was always a dark story. It was the story of an abused and neglected orphan who struggled to fit in and a pair of elderly siblings who had set aside all hope of anything but a hard grind through their retirement years finding happiness because they realized that connecting and loving one another helped them overcome their dark past. I think there is added depth when you realize what a contrast there is between the before and the after for all of the characters.

I disagree. In the original stories and adaptation, the characters each had struggles and pain but they were still happy and loving people. This new adaptation removes any and all joy from the story and makes everyone and everything awful.

+1
Nothing can top the original Anne of Green Gables movies (1985), starring Megan Follows, Colleen Dewherst, and Richard Farnsworth (not to mention the books, of course). The story is joyous, sweet, and innocent. These new adaptations, including the 2016 version with Martin Sheen, are terrible. That one is so over-acted and tries so hard to be cutesy and "goofy." Awful. I had to turn it off after about half an hour.

My twelve yr. old daughter and I still watch the 1985 trilogy - VHS tapes and all.

I still have my VHS tapes, but no VCR!

I was okay with the changes they did with the second installment b/c it was in the spirit of Anne. I really hated what this series did when they did the 3rd installment and they send Anne and Gilbert off to fight WWI. They were off their rockers then and trying to make War & Peace. But I digress.

Richard Farnsworth may have technically older than Matthew--no one did this role better.

I also hate that this series keeps putting Anne in dresses above the knee long after she gets to Green Gables to play up the poor orphan bit.


Everyone knows that Marilla had dresses made that were serviceable. Ugly yes, but Marilla had pride.

Also, I nearly did a spit take when they had Anne in a straw hat during the Canadian winter. I think the costume people figured it out at some point and gave her a knit cap.

I mean Evelyn Nesbit!

Anonymous wrote:I don't recall the earlier version that well but I like this version ok. I think the casting was well done and the girl who plays Anne is well cast for looks.

I think it's odd to believe that her life was not dark and scary. It's obvious that Anne did a lot of dissociation to get by. That's why she has such an "imagination". It was born out of trauma.

Edith Nesbit was the inspiration for Anne...




The 80s version got it right.


No ONE thinks that her life wasn't dark b/f she got to Green Gables. However, this version is showing graphically scary images that weren't included or even alluded to in the book. You can't do that to a classic. People all over the world know Anne.

Anne also wasn't an idiot. She would have read enough books to know what the Hammonds were having sex and not be so stupid to be talking about the noises they were making as if she couldn't put 2 and 2 together. Yes, definitely Katie in the Glass was a coping mechanism. She would have had her imagination regardless though.

I liked it a lot. It's been 20 years since I read the books though. I thought the town and all the people looked a little too prosperous though. I wish it was more true to the book.

I think the only thing this version does really well is the casting. I think every character is really a good fit. I loved the 80s miniseries despite the fact that Megan Fellows was too pretty to be Anne and I think Richard Farnsworth was too old. The recent PBS Anne was ridiculous in casting.

I do think the sadness/trauma of Anne's early life is fine to bring in -- it comes up more in the later novels -- so that didn't bother me. But I hate it for completely changing the foundation of her relationship with Gilbert, adding a romantic history for Matthew, killing off all of Gilbert's family, turning the Avonlea kids into a bunch of bullies. My DD (12) was so mad that they ruined the story.