Anne With an E makes me so confused

[chocolatepot]

... about whether I like it or I don't. (The second season is up on Netflix.) I honestly think we do need more adaptations of classic lit, particularly rosy kidlit, that explores characters that are marginalized in the original - like Jerry - and adds characters of other marginalized identities, whether the marginalization is added to an existing character, like Miss Barry being a lesbian, or new characters are added, like Bash and Cole. To that end, new storylines of course have to be added and old ones changed. And in general, I love getting to look at canonical characters from new perspectives, like the more internal looks at Matthew and Marilla.

But I just don't understand why this show is pretty good at dealing with these other marginalizations (the episode with Miss Barry's party was FABULOUS, and just about everything with Bash is great) and so incredibly clunky when it comes to feminism. Like ... there is a black community in Charlottetown, and they are treated poorly by many white locals, but we get to see that they are real people with their own lives despite that. Cole is a sensitive gay artist who's terribly uncomfortable with almost every aspect of his life, and gets bullied for being different, but the show never has to explicitly say what's up. But then when it's time to deal with sexism, it's like "Miss Stacy wears pants and no corset and rides a motorbike!" "Anne complains that trousseaux contain linens instead of only books!" "Various adult women make awkward statements about gender relations that would not have to be explained to anyone born before 1930!" "Mrs. Andrews wants Priscilla to go to college and Prissy runs away from her wedding!" It's like the other issues are in first gear along with the plot, but every time feminism comes into it we suddenly shift into third.

(And also, I'm cool with changes from canon, but Gilbert and Anne's relationship just comes off very oddly.)

When I think about it, they probably would have done better to adapt Emily of New Moon. For one thing, it just is a bit grittier than AoGG - Ilse's backstory? Perry being from Stovepipe Town? Mrs. Kent and her issues? DEAN?? - and then you have Ilse to make any political statements you want. But it's not well-known so you don't get that "this is Canadian Heritage" flavor.

Comments

[mala_14]

I have yet to watch this series. I've never been sold on any Anne adaptations, partly because I used to want things to be super faithful adaptations. It's really interesting to hear your take because I feel like I usually agree with your opinions on tv.

Emily is so much more interesting than Anne. And I think you're right that it would make a better modern adaptation. Although, I wasn't a fan of the Emily show when it was on years ago.

[chocolatepot]

If you like super-faithful adaptations, then you will hate this and should probably skip it! The only thing I can think of that's less faithful is Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle.

I never saw the adaptation of Emily - didn't even know there was one!

[mala_14]

I grew out of wanting faithful adaptations, so I might give this a try!

I think Emily was back in like 1998. And it was a Canadian show. My dislike stemmed from it also not being a faithful adaptation and the actress not looking at all like I thought Emily should look like. I'd probably actually enjoy it now though. I think it got good reviews.

[theladyrebecca]

Ooh, thanks for the heads up about the second season! I've been wanting something 1890s to watch.

[chocolatepot]

You're welcome! Sorry for spoiling it all.

[theladyrebecca]

I finished watching the new season over the weekend, and I actually really liked it. Yes, the feminism-related stuff was clunky, but not so much so that it completely pulled me out of the story. I haven't read the books since I was a kid, and only read them once, so any changes to the story honestly didn't even occur to me. I really like Cole, though, and Bash, so if they weren't in the original, I'm very glad they were added, and I hope that we get to see more of them. I found myself more invested in Cole's story than in Anne's!