Entertainment
Netflix’s Reboot of This 9-Part Classic American Series Is Making a Bigger Change Than We Realized
When it comes to adaptations, it’s rare for any movie or television series to follow the source material to a tee. In fact, the more beloved a novel or comic book is, the more likely some filmmaker will put their own unique spin or reimagining of the material, much to the chagrin of those who adored it in the first place. (Believe me, as a Dracula fan, I still maintain that no adaptation has ever gotten the book right.) So when Netflix announced that its new Little House on the Prairie series wouldn’t just be an adaptation of the book but a “reimagining,” needless to say, that was a comment that made many diehards pause in wonder.
Netflix Plans To “Re-imagine” ‘Little House on the Prairie’ Into Something New — and We’re Concerned
Naturally, when Netflix revealed that it was doing Little House on the Prairie, with the books serving as the basis for Rebecca Sonnenshine‘s take on the Laura Ingalls Wilder story, many (including myself) were a bit skeptical. After all, as fun as Netflix’s Anne with an E was, it’s a seriously vast departure from the original Lucy Maud Montgomery books. However, we remained hopeful because of Sonnenshine’s initial comments. “I fell deeply in love with these books when I was 5 years old,” she told Tudum. “They inspired me to become a writer and a filmmaker, and I am honored and thrilled to be adapting these stories for a new audience.” It was with those comments in mind that I felt cautiously optimistic about the made-for-streaming series. After all, although the original Little House TV show was a classic, it deviated considerably from the Wilder novels (with the 2005 miniseries being a bit more faithful). With this Netflix series, longtime lovers of the books might finally be able to watch Wilder’s words come to life on the screen. Right? Well, maybe not.
In the same breath as Sonnenshine’s comments about loving the novels and hoping to adapt them well, Netflix billed this series as a “reimagining” of Little House on the Prairie. If other franchise reimaginings — like Battlestar Galactica, Walker, and Hawaii Five-0, for example — are any indication, this will not be your grandmother’s Little House. There’s a stark difference between a reimagining and a reboot, though there are often similarities between them. A reimagining is typically more than just a simple updated take on the material. Oftentimes, reimaginings shift genres. Battlestar Galactica, for instance, was originally a campy sci-fi adventure series but was quickly turned into a dark, gritty one under Ronald D. Moore‘s guidance. Likewise, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air was a family sitcom that, sure, could deal with real-world issues, but always in a lighthearted way. Peacock’s Bel-Air, however, was reworked into an intense contemporary drama.
The Ingalls family returns to the frontier later this year.
Likewise, reimaginings often update the original or more popular material to feel more culturally relevant to modern-day. So, for Netflix’s Little House, expect contemporary issues to be stuffed into a 19th-century setting — not unlike how the 2002 Twilight Zone revival remade episodes initially about the Cold War into meditations on the fears of post-9/11 terrorism. Lastly, reimaginings typically include overall tonal changes that shift not just the look, but the feel of the program. A recent example of this was The CW’s Walker, a reimagining of the Chuck Norris series Walker, Texas Ranger that got Norris’ permission to go from a family-friendly (and heavily moralistic) action series to an overly soapy neo-Western procedural, changing the entire personality of Cordell Walker in the process. So, when Netflix says that it plans to reimagine Little House on the Prairie into something new, this comes across as a bit worrisome for those just hoping to see some of their favorite historical novels brought to life on the screen.
The New ‘Little House’ Could Still (and Hopefully Will) Surprise Us
Now, just because something reimagines the material doesn’t mean that it’s automatically bad; it only means that it’s not a direct adaptation. From the get-go, Netflix was clear that its Little House wouldn’t just be populated solely by the Ingalls family and good old Mr. Edwards (Warren Christie), but also by brand-new characters who were not part of Wilder’s books. So, perhaps this doesn’t come as a surprise. So long as the new Little House can capture the spirit of the books (as the NBC series did), maybe that’s all we can ask for.
The series has been described as “part family drama, part epic survival tale, and part origin story of the American West,” which is about everything we could expect from anything labeled “Little House on the Prairie.” As series star Luke Bracey noted in his sentiments to Collider:
“I, for one, know that everyone who was a part of making Little House on the Prairie had their heart in the exact right place, and all we want is for people to love it and to fall in love with it again, and to know that we understand the responsibility and the privilege that comes with playing these timeless characters that are a part of so many people’s lives, and a part of so many of their hearts.”
Here’s hoping that their hearts being in the right place is enough to competently bring Wilder’s story to life.
The original Little House on the Prairie series is available for streaming on Peacock and Prime Video.
Little House on the Prairie
- Release Date
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1974 – 1983
- Directors
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Victor French, William F. Claxton, Leo Penn, Alf Kjellin, Joseph Pevney, Lewis Allen, Maury Dexter, Michael Ray Rhodes