Anne with an E

Nope. I have been a lover of Anne for over two decades and wrote/studied L.M. Montgomery extensively while pursuing my degrees. This is a gritty interpretation with the intent to appeal to an older audience and be "relevant" or create issues in the claim of causing discussion but really it feels like it's just to get publicity. Dark twists and plot devices that are not only anachronistic but also completely unacceptable for smaller children have been added to give this more of an adult feel. I believe this is because the Anne book series is now recommended to 9-14 year olds- while when I was a child it was considered reading for 7-12 year olds- my 7 year old now reads it easily. This is possibly a symptom of dwindling reading ability- however that still does not explain why the creators of this show decided to make Anne more PTSD/psychotic with their strange adaptation. Moments from the book (Anne yelling at Mrs. Lynde that she has never been more hurt) make absolutely no sense when juxtaposed against a new/edgier history in this series where Anne is beaten by a man who dies of a heart attack- or where girls almost force her to eat a dead mouse (which she then cuddles and pets...a horrific reimagining). In the first 3.5 episodes alone Anne is returned to the orphanage, almost kidnapped by a man with clearly sinister motives (who we then see kidnap another child), lives outside, begs in train station, is bullied horrifically by her classmates and older women from her community, enters a burning building, loses her mind and starts screaming at Marilla multiple times, lies about going to school, is beaten by her foster family, witnesses her foster father's death, begs her foster mother to not leave her, is bullied by the children in the orphanage who attempt to force feed her a dead mouse, snuggles with said dead mouse while sobbing, and discusses sex in a confusing way (amongst other strange moments)- none of this happens in the book. The real, imaginative and positive Anne is lost in this interpretations dark, horrifying, deeply negative and violent Anne who is constantly abused. It all made me go- why? Why was this added, but the charm of the original removed? I can only assume it is as I stated above- to try to appeal to young adults/older teens which is ridiculous as that is not the target audience. I would encourage parents to screen beforehand.

disturbing concepts introduced that weren't a thing in the 1800's.