Little House on the Prairie
We watched the new Netflix series, Little House on the Prairie this week. Like many of you, I loved the books growing up. I loved the TV series that was on in the 70s and early 80s. I have poured over the annotated Pioneer Girl, the biography Prairie Fires, and a couple of other, older biographies. I have listened to the Wilder podcast (which is going to have a new season talking about the new series!). I read some of the books written about her daughter, Rose, and I loved the story of Little House on the Prairie told from Ma’s point of view, Caroline. So when I heard that Netflix was going to have a new series, I knew I’d be watching.
This Little House is ambitious. It aims to take facts from Laura’s real life and stories from her children’s books, and weave them into a larger story about what life on the Prairie would be like, not just for the Ingalls family, but for the many people who lived there at the time. The Osage, the pioneers, the African Americans. To do this, the Ingalls family settles much closer to town. In the book (and the first episode of the original TV series), they are 40 miles outside of Independence, Kansas. In reality, they were perhaps 10-15 miles outside of town. In this series, they are much closer to town, to neighbors, to the community. This means that we get a friend for Laura, a Native girl named Good Eagle. We get to see more about Dr. Tann, the African American doctor who practiced in the area. In reality (and the book), he saved the Ingalls family when they were sick with malaria, and in reality (but not the book) he delivered their 3rd daughter, Carrie. In Little House, he is a much bigger part of their story, and has his own plot lines as well. In this Little House, they don’t give the ages of Mary and Laura, but I think Mary is a bit older than in the original series, which gives her a young man to fall for in town. (And both Laura and Mary are older than in the books, when they are about 5 and 7, or reality when they were about 3 and 5.)
I like these changes, I think it’s interesting to consider the rest of the community that lived in that time and place. At first, this series felt a little flat to me, like perhaps they are trying to do too much, and while doing so have lost some of the heart and charm of both the books and the original series (at least the excellent first episode, I don’t remember a ton of the rest of the original series). The books are full of so much of Laura’s wonder and awe for the world around her, but it’s internal, so you don’t see it as much on the screen. The scenery of the new season is beautiful though, I think it’s filmed in Manitoba. It reminded me of parts of Alaska, without the mountains. I watched the first episode of the original series on YouTube yesterday, the TV movie that encompasses the same period of time as this series, and it did a much better job of showing how absolutely alone they were, how remote and isolated and poor. In the new series, storylines are subtly different in ways that do not seem necessary to me, like when Jack the dog gets lost crossing the river, or when the family gets malaria. And in this series, there is talk of them being broke, at Christmas, but the gifts they received were pretty darned nice. The girls aren’t thrilled to their bones to get a tin cup and a peppermint stick (AND A PENNY) like in the books. Perhaps they would have been, but the show doesn’t give them a chance.
As the series went on, though, I liked it more and more. I’ll probably rewatch it. I’ll definitely watch season 2, and I’ll enjoy listening to the discussions on the Wilder podcast. It’s not quite as rich and warm as I had hoped, but I still really enjoyed spending more time with Laura and her family.
22 Comments
Anvilcloud
The differences may be hard to take, but it’s on my list. I may have to consider that is a different little housee on a different prairie. I have done that with the LYnley tv series, the second series not really being Lynley at all, and they are both different than the books.
J
I think that’s a good way to look at it. It’s very different, but that’s not a bad thing.
Michelle G.
Thank you for the review! I’ve been curious to know what people think about it, and wondering if I really want to watch it or not. But as you say, spending more time with Laura and her family sounds lovely!
J
I say give it a try! I think you will enjoy it!
Nicole MacPherson
Wait wait WAIT. What did they get for Christmas if not a peppermint stick, tin cup, and penny? I also remember that Caroline makes little heart-shaped cakes WITH WHITE SUGAR for their gift, and I remember the emotion of Mr Edwards swimming across the river with the parcel on his head just so the girls could have a Christmas (in the book). What were their gifts? I must know. I MUST KNOW. This is one of my all-time favourite scenes in the book and I feel sort of devastated that it was not reproduced. I AM NOT GOING TO WATCH THIS SHOW IN PROTEST (I wasn’t going to watch it anyway, not for any real reason except that it takes me forever to get through a show and we are watching The Pitt, a WWII documentary (naturally, given my new personality of a war history buff), and the Gilded Age is coming back so I will have to – HAVE TO – rewatch at least a bit of season 3 so I will be ready. I AM READY FOR GEORGE AND BERTHA!! And the Aunties, I love them so much.
Anyway, although I don’t plan to watch it I do plan to listen to the Wilder recaps!
J
Yeah, I was disappointed in that episode in several ways. It kind of made me realize that I need to let the books go and just enjoy these episodes for what they are. If I look at it that way, it’s pretty good.
I need to rewatch Gilded Age season 3 too…I don’t remember much!
Margaret
I intend to watch this new adaption and will try not to compare. Considering how Rose whitewashed the Ingalls’ lives through her own Libertarian lens, it’s a lot of fiction anyway and not always accurate as a memoir.
J
I hope you enjoy it!
Margaret
Also, for some weird reason, I can now only comment using Firefox. Edge stopped working (header fields too large) so I went to Chrome, but now Chrome is giving me the header fields message too. In Chrome your blog came up and I wrote a comment–which wouldn’t post because of the header fields. I’m not even sure what those are! Is anyone else having this issue?
J
I’ve never heard of this, and I didn’t change anything on my blog. Frustrating! Have you tried cleaning out your cache? I feel you though, lately with some blogs (blogger) I sign in, and then it gives me a message ‘comment failed to post’. I have to go to explorer for those.
NGS
Sometimes I feel like Sarah Plain and Tall really ruined me for all historical fiction. Our teacher read it to us in third? fourth? grade and I remember being bored silly by it. And then I had an antipathy for all historical fiction and Little House went completely over my head because there’s nothing interesting about that time period to me. The men told the women what to do and caused a massive genocide of indigenous populations. Why would I want to read about that? AND I STAND BY THIS.
J
I’m glad I never read that! (At least I don’t think I did…) The Little House books have always been magic to me. They’re full of so much quiet beauty in everyday life.
Diane
I have to admit I’m struggling with my own lack of interest in this new series. I loved the Little House Books and the tv show was such a big part of my childhood tv diet – it’s so iconic to me – the opening credits with that French horn theme still fills me with anticipation. And I usually love historical tv. I don’t know why this new series just seems … not it. Or maybe it’s that the trailers are just bad. Okay I just went and re-watched the trailer. The trailer is, to my mind, bad. It makes the series seem full of cliches. Also what is that useless bonnet Ma is wearing? The one that’s all open lace work. That’s the most impractical bonnet I’ve ever seen – definitely not something Ma would wear.
Maybe I’ll just watch one episode.
J
I RAGED about the bonnets! There is no way Ma would wear something like that that would not protect her from the sun! I love you even more for noticing.
Tamara
Oh, I’m not sure about this. Thanks for writing about this, I was very curious. I don’t have Netflix, and sometimes I get FOMO, but I think not this time. I still remember watching the first version, which had many flaws, but was a part of my childhood. I’ll keep that one and the books.
J
I was thinking about people without Netflix. Sometimes I see a show and think, THIS is worth paying for a subscription, if just for a month. I liked this version of Little House, but I wouldn’t sign up for Netflix just to see it.
Elisabeth
I am undecided, but think for now I’ll skip it. I agree with Nicole… that Christmas scene and Mr. Edwards swimming across the river is ICONIC! I want that image to stay in my mind. It’s a good point, though, about separating the books and the series. They ARE different.
Now I’m very curious about Ma’s bonnet 🙂
J
Ma’s bonnet is pretty but not functional. Can you imagine anything LESS Ma?
DB Stewart
Gen X, I was the perfect age to read these books as a kid and then watch the series. Raised on TV, the Ingalls were my family. I have sent the trailer to various Gen X friends and it’s funny how apprehensive we all are about this. Not quite ready yet. 🙂
J
Funny, right? Everyone is aprehensive because the new series isn’t true to the books, but the old series wasn’t either. It had a lot of issues for sure, but I liked it.
Gigi
I loved LIttle House on the Prarie when I was a kid. It’s definitely next on my list once I finish the current show I’m watching.
J
I hope you like it! I found myself doing a lot of comparing, but if you can enjoy it for what it is and not say ‘this is not what happened in the series’ or ‘this is not what happened in the book’, I think you will enjoy it!