Little House on the Prairie Netflix

[LaBelleSauvage123]

Just watched episode 1 and so disappointed. I mean I know it'll take a while to get Michael Landon's bouffant hair and the girls tumbling down the hill out of my mind but these characters seem like cardboard cutouts in comparison. The whole episode moves from being very very slow to very dramatic in a heartbeat - it just seems really disjointed. And dont get me started on the mumbling of the adult characters. Admittedly I did have a fan going full blast, but even so. Just found it completely unengaging.

I think many fans of the books probably think that about the 1970s TV series!

Ok, so I don't know if it is fair to call it a remake of the 1970s version. It is a new adaptation of the books. I have only seen one episode so far but it seems far closer to the books than the previous adaptation.

I can't speak about Anne of Green Gables, book or TV, but you do know Black Beauty was originally a book, right? As a child I enjoyed the 1970s TV adaptation, however I had also read the book many, many times and the TV show had almost nothing in common with the book.

As to the Walton's, AFAIK that isn't based on any source material and is a very different story to the Little House series.

Editing to say that obviously the TV version of Black Beauty had the best theme tune of any series ever. Even if the programme was, in hindsight, a bit shit

@5foot5 The Waltons was based on a book.
The semi autobiographical book by the shows creator Earl Hammer. I think it's called "The Homecoming".
I've never read it. I wonder if it's still in print.

@5foot5 oooh there's two books.
A bit expensive though it seems 🙁

There was a film made of Spencer's Mountain that pre-dates the Walton's TV series, but they changed the setting to Wyoming from Virginia. Henry Fonda stars as the father, Clay Spencer; his eldest son is Clay-Boy.

I saw the actress who played Nellie has a part in the new series as some drifter type woman living in the woods. Apparently the costumes are more authentic too. That is the total sum of my knowledge about the new series 😆

Agree, why do they do it?! Michael Landon is irreplaceable anyway 🥹

I’m pretty sure it was on a Thursday afternoon when I was a kid. And I think Blue Peter was on a Monday and Thursday too…

The bits of the 1970s series I saw made me think how different it was to the books.

I remember seeing one extremely weird episode where Laura’s new ‘best friend’ was a man she met while fishing, and when Pa went to meet him it wasn’t because of concern about this random adult male his young daughter was spending so much time with but because the man had hurt Laura’s feelings somehow and Pa wanted to tell him off.

And later the Olesons degenerating into a comedy fat family.

Carrie was real though, @Chickadee26 , and a 4th little sister called Grace.

But no Albert. Do I mean Albert?

Was really looking forward to this as I’ve been a massive fan of the books all my life.
I love that it’s a girl and woman’s perspective on the settling of the west. The hardships and the domestic aspects of building a life out there.
LIW’s work was recognised as an important work as there was very little else written from women’s perspective.
It’s sad that of the four girls there were no descendants beyond Laura’s daughter Rose - and it was Rose who actually wrote all the books! She was an incredible woman. A journalist and traveller who wrote her mother’s memoirs.
Anyway. It’s a bit silly with the usual manipulation of the stories to create a ‘drama per episode’. They have too many clothes and the clothes are too fancy! Ma and Pa kissing in public. Nope.
Am only on 3rd episode. Interesting to see the native Americans being central to the story as this was totally glossed over in the books.
They all just seem a bit too confident and always talking about their feelings which feels too modern for the stoic and religious people of that time.
And yes. They are FAR too grown up! Ma and Pa were pioneering with three little girls. And lost a baby boy before Carrie came along.

Well I liked it more than I thought based. Not happy about Jack though - in my head he was a terrier not a huge dog!

Agree. Anne with an E was atrocious. Megan Follows is the one true Anne. I named my first child after Laura Ingalls Wilder, as loved the books and tv show so much.

It was on after school. About 4.15 midweek. Loved it as a kid. Always made me cry...🥲

I was a child in the ‘70s and hated the ‘70s TV series, but I loved the books and read them many times. The TV series wasn’t faithful enough to the books for me. This new one is better but still not right. Things that bother me are sometimes quite small - Pa should have a beard, Ma should have her hair tied up, Laura should have a sunbonnet and not that stupid hat, they are all too involved in the town life and community.

It’s sad that of the four girls there were no descendants beyond Laura’s daughter Rose - and it was Rose who actually wrote all the books! She was an incredible woman. A journalist and traveller who wrote her mother’s memoirs.

I recommend the excellent "Prairie Fires" by Caroline Fraser - a very, very good biography of Laura. She casts great doubt on the claim that Rose wrote the books. In fact Rose doesn't really come out of it very well at all, as a journalist and as a person generally

@5foot5 Rose was certainly an interesting woman 😁
Carrie did have 2 step children so although biologically she had no descendants she might have had step grandchildren. I'm not sure.
There were a billion cousins though so the Ingalls/Quinner/Wilder families did carry on.

Must read Prairie Fires. Thanks. My knowledge of Rose is from that biography written by Roger someone who was probably biased. I think it must be true though that Rose made the books happen. She seems to have been a strong character!

Always had a bit of a crush on Almanzo when I read the books as a teenager. And love the provenance of his name. In honor of an Al Mansoor who saved someone in some war.
Literally watching it now. It is so Hallmark. They just talk about their feelings far too much. More pioneering and less emoting please.

@Lumpycat the Wilder brothers had names that would make a fantastic Mumsnet Baby Name thread.
Almanzo, Royal and Perley 😁
(his sisters were more lucky....Eliza, Laura and Alice)

There’s an early novel about prairie settlers from a Norwegian perspective that has some of the same events from the Little House series - the long blizzard and the locusts are two of them - that occurred in reality. It’s called Giants in the Earth. It’s definitely worth a read. Much bleaker and harsher.

I guess it shows that dad's have been getting away with being the fun one forever. They seemed much more financially stable in the big woods, but he kept on having to run off and find a wider sky. He squandered everything while Ma had to hold it together and try and get the girls educated, but he gets all the adulation.

Is anyone else suspicious about the youngest Wilder's parentage? Not impossible that his mother was 48 and with a large age gap to the next sibling, but does give rise to wondering if they were really his grandparents. Happened with a lot of unmarried girls.

@ThaneOfGlamis do you mean the youngest one named Perley?
Yes - very big age gap between the older siblings 🤔

Thinking of unusual names. I liked the name of one of the twin girls of that snobby woman that Laura and Mary spent time with.
She was called Romanzy. I thought to myself "ooh that's a lovely name".
I've never heard it before.

Just watched the Christmas episode. That was just dreadful. I’m so disappointed.

I’ve watched them all (the new ones but also the old ones, plus all the books) and I loved them. Can’t wait for the next season!