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Original poster

My thoughts on 'Anne With An E' (I realise I’m 5 years late to this)

109 replies

Classica · 14/02/2022 11:45

I’m a massive Anne fan and had avoided this series so far as I thought I might not love it. My inner 8 year old is very loyal to Megan Follows' portrayal of Anne.*

Decided to give it a go yesterday.

Er…

Anne certainly looks very Anne-ish, skinny and pale and a bit unloved looking.

But why is she such a whiny bitch? Anne Shirley is not a whiny bitch. I realise Anne’s early childhood would have been traumatic, and it’s interesting they explore that a bit more, but they’ve changed her character too much. Bullying the hired hand (whose name they've changed from Jerry Buote)? That is not Anne!

And they’ve changed her surname to Cuthbert. Marilla would have never entertained such a sentimental gesture, certainly not in the early days. I think Geraldine James is a great actress and she makes a good Marilla, but for God’s sake she’s just joined some progressive mothers' circle. Marilla was in the Ladies’ Aid. They gossiped, and discussed preserves and pies, and made quilts!

And as for Matthew (he's no Richard Farnsworth) charging across the island on horseback to rescue Anne from child molesters and a life earning a living by reciting poems to people in a train station. That was unexpected.

Diana Barry’s parents doing some kind of panto turn as bitchy landed gentry, the other Avonlea residents bullying her at the Sunday school picnic, Anne discussing what’s involved in stroking a man’s mouse. I’m discombobulated.

I haven’t seen Gilbert yet, he’s probably a teenage beatnik. No doubt this version of 1880s PEI was an early adopter of the beatnik movement.

Do you think the producer thought the book is too ‘quiet’ to engage modern audiences, so they’ve had to beef it up a bit with more trauma and conflict?

Does this show get any better or am I likely to facepalm myself into a frenzy?

*tho I’m still shook from the final installment in the Kevin Sullivan series where a Anne dressed up as a nun and hared across to France to rescue Gilbert from a WWI pow camp.

OP posts:
Original poster
Classica · 14/02/2022 19:13

I'm going to take this as everyone being in agreement with me.

OP posts:
TedsTortoise · 14/02/2022 19:15

I agree with you.
I think it probably is to keep viewers entertained, but it will never beat the Megan Follows version.

Icantremembermyusername · 14/02/2022 19:24

Megan was the best!
I enjoyed the Netflix version - and I am a massive fan with ALL the books! Our lovely pet librarian got all the L M Montgomery they had in storage for me, and contacted other libraries in the county for any gaps.
No one would have bought the books at the time had they portrayed Anne is a difficult child with flashbacks of abuse. And I wouldn't have wanted to, either. Now I'm older the Netflix changes make me think more about the realities of the age.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

TV
ISaySteadyOn · 14/02/2022 19:31

I'm with you OP. I turned it off.

If they wanted to go dark and realistic edgy, LM Montgomery wrote books other than the Anne ones

Anne is supposed to be escapist in ideal fiction fantasy world not gritty reality.

It's a pattern I have noticed. Film or TV makers don't have the confidence to make their own so they just take something already done and loved and change it.

Like filming AU fanfic almost.

And yes, Megan Follows forever 🙂

stodgystollen · 14/02/2022 19:32

The discussion of abuse is in the later books if you read it with an adult eye. I don't know what child abuse laws were like, if there were any, but they're all quietly aware. It says that Anne & Gilbert chose not to tell their kids about Anne's early life. They've got a surprisingly healthy relationship for an Edwardian novel and you get the impression they would have talked about it. There's another little boy who was beaten to death by his guardians who haunts all the adults which is why there was action taken to protect Mary.

BuanoKubiamVej · 14/02/2022 19:47

It doesn't get better. It gets so much worse. Way worse.

So you know the lyrics of the theme tune are about "You are ahead by a century" - the driving force of the series seems to be to splat 21st century post-colonial, post-everything thought into the middle of rural 19th Century canada.

So we get a story line of Anne encountering the abusive (and very real) treatment of First Nations people, and she reacts to it exactly as an overly-virtuous 21st century 14 year old would like to imagine that she would have reacted, without taking into account the cultural environment and assumptions that would have actually meant she didn't perceive the situation with 21st century eyes.

Same story when she encounters mistreatment of immigrants, gay people etc.

Each oh-so-virtuous storyline is just so clumsy in demonstrating just how wonderful it is to have the correct responses to the situation. And furthermore ALL the main characters who aren't Anne are fully supportive and accepting of her disagreement with the cultural mores of the time. Only Evil People and occasional bit-part characters are allowed to dissentand exhibit what was actually the prevailing view at the time.

maddiemookins16mum · 14/02/2022 19:50

I really enjoyed it but again it is not the Kevin Sullivan one and Megan Fellowes was superb. I did however prefer the Gilbert in this one. But nobody will beat Colleen Dewhurst either and there will only be one Matthew (the scene in the field when he dies in the 80s version is up there for me with ‘Daddy, my Daddy’…..I openly weep.

Imabitbusyatthemoment · 14/02/2022 19:51

It was awful. Anne was so shouty and annoying. Even DD thought so.

ethelredonagoodday · 14/02/2022 20:00

Totally agree OP. I loved the Megan version. I was obsessed with Gilbert too! 🤣

Original poster
Classica · 14/02/2022 20:42

@BuanoKubiamVej, oh dear. I'm not sure I could cope with watching Anne bringing her 21st century sensibilities to 19th century abuses of indigenous Canadians.

Sounds like the programme veers wildly from the books then.

What was wrong with the most dramatic thing being Josie Pye daring her to walk the ridgepole of a roof? Pah.

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AlexaShutUp · 14/02/2022 20:46

I had to give up on it. I don't know why they couldn't have just stuck faithfully to the books or created something completely new instead. I don't like old favourites being butchered like that. They are favourites for a reason!

Original poster
Classica · 14/02/2022 20:46

@stodgystollen

The discussion of abuse is in the later books if you read it with an adult eye. I don't know what child abuse laws were like, if there were any, but they're all quietly aware. It says that Anne & Gilbert chose not to tell their kids about Anne's early life. They've got a surprisingly healthy relationship for an Edwardian novel and you get the impression they would have talked about it. There's another little boy who was beaten to death by his guardians who haunts all the adults which is why there was action taken to protect Mary.
I haven't actually read all the later books. I don't really like Anne being middle aged. I can read AoGG and Anne of the Island repeatedly but I can't cope with her and Gilbert bickering in Anne of Ingleside. Even though it was only a minor bicker that quickly passed.
OP posts:
ISaySteadyOn · 14/02/2022 20:49

@stodgystollen

The discussion of abuse is in the later books if you read it with an adult eye. I don't know what child abuse laws were like, if there were any, but they're all quietly aware. It says that Anne & Gilbert chose not to tell their kids about Anne's early life. They've got a surprisingly healthy relationship for an Edwardian novel and you get the impression they would have talked about it. There's another little boy who was beaten to death by his guardians who haunts all the adults which is why there was action taken to protect Mary.
You're absolutely right. I had forgotten. Anne mentions it briefly to one of her daughters remarking that she doesn't care to talk of those days.
ISaySteadyOn · 14/02/2022 20:50

What about Anne's House of Dreams? If you want tragedy, Leslie Moore has it in spades!

Original poster
Classica · 14/02/2022 20:53

@ISaySteadyOn

What about Anne's House of Dreams? If you want tragedy, Leslie Moore has it in spades!
she had to endure a tragedy or two, or three, but on the bright side it didn't effect her jaw dropping beauty. Haunting the sea shore day in day out looking sizzling.
OP posts:
StartupRepair · 14/02/2022 20:59

The Anne with an E gets wilder and wilder. The writers at points give up on any pretence at
19th century language.
DD and I nearly fell off the couch laughing when Gilbert says 'that's so messed up'.

TooExtraImmatureCheddar · 14/02/2022 21:00

Grin at Leslie looking sizzling. With her burnished rope of golden hair falling to her knees.

I couldn’t watch Anne With An E either. I can’t cope when people deviate from the original text. I also don’t like it when the characters don’t look exactly like they do in my head.

Vallmo47 · 14/02/2022 21:00

Completely agree OP.

LadySlipper · 14/02/2022 21:13

I love the Anne books, I've been reading them over and over for about 45 years. I was pissed off with Anne with and E right from the get go because they don't sound anything like people from PEI. I carried on with it for a bit, because I could totally believe that she probably was abused before she went to Marilla and Matthew, but it just started going too ...not like the books, to enjoy, and I gave up.

Rilla of Ingleside makes me cry like a baby every single time I read it.

ChannellingPoppins · 14/02/2022 21:24

I had looked forward to binge watching this in the long nights whilst breastfeeding my newborn early last year, but I was almost relieved when our tv conked out around that time!

I’m so torn with my childhood adulation of Anne and my immersion into the Kevin Sullivan adaptation VS the realities of what Anne’s childhood would have been during these times (had she been real, I keep having to remind myself of the fact she’s not a real person). But I had to turn off halfway through the series as well (during the tv struggle): it was raw and twee at the same time, in a way the original story inexplicably was neither. It was an old story trying to exist in a new world; and a new story in an old world. It was confusing and frustrating.

LM Montgomery was no stranger to dark times and tough lives-there’s hints of it in Anne and way more in her other novels, Emily for instance, but adding the extreme darkness in this adaptation didn’t bring Anne up to date, it cancelled her out. Realistic or not, I love Anne with all my heart and this is but the Anne I know and love.

Though interestingly, people I know who’ve never read the novels loved this adaptation, which just reinforces that I’m biased.

Thank goodness for It’s A Sin. Now that was worth a binge watch (before the telly packed in).

ISaySteadyOn · 14/02/2022 21:25

I believe some of Rilla is autobiographical to Montgomery's own experiences during WW1.

As for Leslie, well, it's a good thing for Rilla that Owen Ford liked the knee length golden hair Grin. Otherwise there'd be no Kenneth.

StillMedusa · 14/02/2022 21:27

I'm glad this has warned me from watching it!
I love ALL the LM Mongomery books (given to me by my Gran)

If you haven't.. make sure you read the Emily of New Moon books too, and the Story Girl ones.

I think Rilla of Ingleside is still one of my favourites of the Anne series though... the bit where Jem finally makes it back from WW1 and Little Dog Monday is still at the station waiting for him after 4 years... I don't think a line in a book has ever made me sob more!!!

ISaySteadyOn · 14/02/2022 21:28

Also, it is lovely to find so many kindred spirits who have read not only all the Anne books but Montgomery's other works as well.

Newchallenge · 14/02/2022 21:30

Do you know, I actually loved it. Marilla felt very realistic, I loved Matthew, their relationship, and his relationship with Anne.
Agree with pp @BuanoKubiamVej about "we get a story line of Anne encountering the abusive (and very real) treatment of First Nations people, and she reacts to it exactly as an overly-virtuous 21st century 14 year old would like to imagine that she would have reacted, without taking into account the cultural environment and assumptions that would have actually meant she didn't perceive the situation with 21st century eyes."

Ladylornax12 · 14/02/2022 21:37

Love this thread! As an adult I really appreciate the later Anne books where she is a mother with her own children. Also loved the Story Girl and Golden Road books!