Something nice about living in Canada - I watched the first episode of Anne with an E last night on CBC. So here's a quick review!
(There are probably spoilers here, for everyone who wants to wait for it on Netflix. And my fellow Canadians who didn't watch it last night - it's available online on CBC HERE.)
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Now, if I'm not mistaken, Anne is going to cover Anne's first year in school.
Here come the SPOILERS (I think)
Without going into too much detail, Your Will Shall Decide Your Destiny covers Anne's arrival at Green Gables (I find it hilarious that every adaptation I've seen so far finds it important that Anne talks about her wonky bag), the failed attempt to return her to orphanage, meeting Diana Barry, and the amethyst brooch incident. There are a number of flashblacks related to Anne's past, which I'm not sure if they come from Before Green Gables or not.
The first episode was excellent. The cinematography was stunning and the acting is spot on. Everyone is the character we expect in their own way; I don't want to be unkind to the L.M. Montgomery's Anne films, but the Anne series has succeeded in the first episode in making the characters and story its own while still staying true to the original material. Anne doesn't shy away from a darker tone or aspects of life, especially for a young orphaned girl like Anne, in that time (unlike the L.M. Montogomery's Anne series, which tries but shies away from it). And the story is cohesive - I really appreciate that - it might not strictly follow the same order of events, but the point is that it flows.
In terms of the characters, Anne is shown to be very emotionally vulnerable - Amybeth McNulty hits all the notes of a girl who has coped physical, emotional, and social abuse with a lively imagination, a love of reading, and trying to make herself as indispensable as possible. She has not had any stability in her life and her arrival at Green Gables is filled with the desperation to stay with what she hopes is a lasting family rather than being shuffled off to become little more than a live-in servant for yet another unfeeling family with far too many children. She still talks a mile a minute, but this Anne does it partly to deal with a very painful past she doesn't want to deal with. And her life experience means that she's level-headed when it counts and points out how impractical and unfair it is that it's assumed she can't do farm work when plenty of women already do, along with housework. But it's also clear that she's hiding a lot of trauma in her life.
I entirely approve of R.H. Thomson as Matthew - he's a bit hard to read at first; my immediate impression was that this Matthew had the saddest eyes I had seen. Matthew seems a bit broken somewhere, he's utterly at a loss when he finds Anne instead of a boy at the station, but as the episode goes on, there's a quiet and kind soul who already wants Anne to stay at Green Gables and even displays a practical side (recognizing that even if they wanted a boy for farm work, Marilla is getting older and will need help in the house too). As for Marilla, I think it says a lot when my brother, who thought the 1985 miniseries was hilarious (we both watched it in elementary school for Language Arts), said that Marilla (Geraldine James) had the "Marilla-tone" to her (which meant that he thought she had the same sort of "Marilla-ishness" that Colleen Dewhurst had - which is praise indeed). Marilla is a strict woman, practical, and while she has moments of kindness herself, she's hardhearted and blunt. She tries to be fair, but she has difficulty trusting others and the episode ends on a devastating note when she realizes this part of herself.
Other appearances - the Barry family (OMG - they all speak with British accents, because they are a very nice and refined family and I think Mr. Barry is played by the actor who did some voice roles for anime dubbed in Vancouver, don't quote me on that though) - it was lovely to see beginning of Anne and Diana's friendship - and Rachel Lynde, who comes across as less friendly, even with Marilla, than Patricia Hamilton until the apology scene. And (maybe?) a new character, Jerry Baynard, the boy hired to help with the harvest at Green Gables. He's introduced as a local Avonlea boy, a French Canadian, whose family has too many kids so he needs to work. Matthew's intention in hiring him is so Anne can stay (so they don't replace her with an orphan boy), but Anne still sees Jerry as competition because if she can't prove that she can do Jerry's work, she'll have to go.
For a first episode - I'm giving it a 5/5. I hoping that I'm not setting the bar too high, but I'm eager to see the next episode. (I have to wait until APRIL 02! What is happening next week? Is it because the first episode was something like 2 hours with commercials so it counts as a double?)
I'd love to hear everyone else's thoughts! =D