Thanks for your replies, I know what you both mean. I also found it tedious when Elizabeth (the teacher) went back to hang out with her family in that big posh house and everyone kept going on about how Elizabeth deserved such a great life as she grew up mega rich which apparently makes her more deserving than poor people! She does come back though and I'm on season 5 now (I know!) and the rest of it is set in Hope Valley which is better.
I also agree with you about the costumes. I thought the costumes in the first season were better, more realistic, much more rustic and less flattering. Everyone looked ok but not exactly glamorous and also, I thought Elizabeth often looked a bit gawky and awkward. I thought this went well with her character since she's a teacher, not a glamour girl. In the first season she also was not liked at all by either the mountie or the townsfolk because she was a bit spoilt and clueless about frontier life.
I've found it a bit annoying that in the later seasons, for some reason they decided to try to present her as some kind of beauty which goes completely against the first season storylines and her entire character of an awkward girl who fancied an attractive Mountie. They have dressed her in lots of pale white and blue outfits despite her living in what must have been a really muddy frontier town (if it was real). All the other women look much more glam now too with lots of curled flowing hair and expensive looking outfits when in reality they are widows of coal miners so can't have been rolling in money. I do really like some of the costumes but agree they are not at all realistic.
I also have found it cringe worthy how for the past few seasons it's all been about Elizabeth and how everyone adores her and think she's amazing, and in turn she is often telling people off and how they should do things instead (like Rosemary, who is now my favourite character and in my view much more likeable than Elizabeth). I think in film critic terms the Elizabeth character is a 'Mary Sue' character.
Basically the show annoys me as much as both of you but for some reason I've watched it all lol, I think I just like the cosy town and was also hoping for some storylines not focused on Elizabeth for a change.
I think I need to find another show to watch that is set in the same era but much less cheesy and historically inaccurate. I started watching Little House on the Prairie as an adult as I'd never seen it as a child and actually really enjoyed it, I wonder if it's on Netflix...