From Sarah Larson of The New Yorker:
Link: How not to adapt Anne of Green Gables
So we see flashbacks to Anne’s life with an abusive family and in the orphanage—another fine idea in principle. In one flashback, vicious girls, spitting threats and insults, taunt Anne with a dead mouse in a grimy alcove; afterward, she comforts herself by stroking its fur sorrowfully. When we cut back to the present, she says, in a hollow tone, “I’ll be as quiet as a mouse,†as dead-eyed as the twins in “The Shining.†We should empathize here, but we’re too busy seething. Continue reading.
From Joanna Robinson of Vanity Fair:
Link: Anne of Green Gables: Netflix’s bleak adaptation gets it all so terribly wrong
Still, none of the many, many other Anne adaptations stray so disastrously far from the spirit of Montgomery’s original books—and the result is a gloomy series with grim, life-or-death stakes draped over the bones of something beloved, warm-hearted, and familiar. The milestones are still there—currant wine, broken slates, puffed sleeves—but seen through a glass darkly. Brave as the concept may be, it falls flat—and feels particularly unwelcome in an already grim 2017. Continue reading.
From Marissa Martinelli of Slate.com:
Link: Netflix’s dark, gritty reboot of Anne of Green Gables has all the subtlety of a chalkboard smashed over your head
The show’s lack of nuance is especially evident while trying to assert its modern sensibilities. Walley-Beckett’s adaptation of Anne is so worried about announcing itself as feminist that it forgets that its source material already was. Continue reading.
From Sophie Gilbert of The Atlantic:
Link: Anne with an E is the best kind of adaptation
So Anne With an E, created by Moira Walley-Beckett, a longtime writer and producer on Breaking Bad, isn’t exactly inventing darkness for the story so much as reading between the lines. It’s Anne of Green Gables for 21st-century audiences, who are perhaps more sympathetic to the idea that children can suffer. That’s not to say darkness defines the show. Anne With an E captures the winning exuberance of Anne Shirley—who, played by AmyBeth McNulty, is entirely irresistible—while finding some deeper potency in her story. The first two episodes offer a gripping and moving setup for the rest of the season, portraying how Anne, despite improbable odds, persuades the elderly Cuthberts to love her. Continue reading.
From Jen Chaney of The Vulture:
Link: Anne of Green Gables fans, you will love Netflix’s Anne with an E
Lifelong fans of the Anne of Green Gables series should find much to admire here, but the newly initiated will be just as easily drawn into the town of Avonlea, where Anne and the Cuthberts live, and enchanted by the open-hearted wonder with which Anne greets the world and spins her creative yarns. Continue reading.
From Lorraine Ali of the L.A. Times:
Link: Netflix moves to Green Gables with scrappy, irresistible Anne with an EÂ
If only television treated all its teenage girls with the same respect “Anne with an E†affords its whip-smart, scrappy protagonist. Continue reading.
From Allison Keene of Collider:
Link: Netflix’s Green Gables adaptation has grit
Once Anne arrives at Green Gables, it’s a spiritual transformation. She is given hope and new focus on fulfilling her dreams of friendship, education, and both familial and romantic love.  Continue reading.
From Mark Dawidziak of Cleveland.com:
Link: Anne with an E pursues a darker shade of Green Gables
While remaining true to the spirit of Anne and the book, this Netflix series reminds us that Montgomery wrote her novel for all ages. She did not consider it just a children’s book. And it wasn’t designated a children’s book until many decades after its publication. Continue reading.
From Gwen Ihnat of The AV Club:
Link: Anne with an E offers a winning, darker take on a familiar tale
Amybeth McNulty defies her youth with a performance that’s less a portrayal of Anne than an absolute possession. It can’t be easy to make Anne’s fanciful language sing the way she does, and McNulty captures the endearing awkwardness that enables Anne to win over everyone she comes in contact with. Continue reading.
