S02.01 Youth is the Season of Hope

[OtterMommy]

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The Cuthberts' boarders stir excitement with a question: Could there be gold in Avonlea? Elsewhere, Gilbert makes a new friend at sea.

 

[DoubleUTeeEff]

Did anyone hate this as much as I did? If so, did you continue watching? I'm not sure if I can or if it would be worth it. I liked enough of Season 1 to watch to the end but I didn't like where it was headed so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. It seems that they've really doubled down on all of the stuff I disliked in Season 1 and are going far afield from the spirit of the original Anne. There is plenty of drama to be mined from the original work or even in choosing new stories; it doesn't have to be so over the top.

Things I hated: the grifters and their unsophisticated gold scam that the townspeople fell for; Marilla getting all hot and bothered by the grifter; the 8 million flashbacks to Anne's past and Gilbert's whole storyline. I didn't like that the townspeople were painted as such rubes that they'd be taken in by a speech from one of the grifters, a stranger to them. Why would they trust him? I don't mind if Marilla has a sexual or romantic life in this series but the age difference was creepy as hell to me. As it would be to me if the genders were reversed. Imagine Matthew walking in on a half dressed young woman and liking it. Gross. Plus it's not like they had some rapport or something. She's just all nonplussed every time he touches her or sees him shirtless. The 8 million flashbacks became tedious and they felt so abrupt. I would prefer if Gilbert's story was in Avonlea. How old is he anyway to get a job on a ship and leave home? I assume Anne will figure out the grifter's plan and save the day (ETA: like she did with the fire).

Also, a nitpick. Am I supposed to believe that they have money to buy sugar to make all those pies, scones and other baked goods that they can't even eat and have to give away but they don't have a single scrap of paper in the entire house that Anne could use for a letter?

EDIT: I took out a couple of questions I had for the upcoming season 2. I don't want to lead people to answer them and have their posts removed since it's against the site policy. Sorry about that.

Edited July 9, 2018 by DoubleUTeeEff

[iMonrey]

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Did anyone hate this as much as I did? If so, did you continue watching?

I certainly didn't care for it although I continued watching (I'm through the first three now). I just don't understand why they've added in all these dumb subplots that weren't in the books like the stupid grifters and Gilbert's adventures on the high seas. WTF? It's not as if there aren't enough books in the series to fill several seasons of this show so why are they coming up with original (and inferior) material?

Also, I hate to say it but I've decided that part of my problem with this show is that Anne just isn't particularly appealing. I know that's a harsh thing to say about a child but between the way the part is played and the way it's written she just comes off as off-putting and strange. That's not so in the book but what reads as charming and quirky in a book reads as downright strange and annoying on the screen. I don't think I'd be able to put up with her, I'd constantly be yelling at her to talk normally. Then they double down on her weirdness with all these flashbacks to her former traumas and the end result is a child that probably belongs in a mental institution somewhere.

If they have another season my hope would be a recast and a serious re-write of Anne as slightly older and more sane.

[OtterMommy]

Please remember to keep the conversation in the episode threads to the episode at hand.  Posts that talk about what happens in future episodes, including discussion and hints about the fates of specific storylines, will be removed.

[SeanC]

23 hours ago, iMonrey said:

It's not as if there aren't enough books in the series to fill several seasons of this show so why are they coming up with original (and inferior) material?

There isn’t really, though.  The later books are about Anne in college/teaching/starting a family.  Not really relevant to what is an extended portrayal of Anne’s childhood/adolescence.

[iMonrey]

I

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The later books are about Anne in college/teaching/starting a family.  Not really relevant to what is an extended portrayal of Anne’s childhood/adolescence.

Well that's what I mean . . . they could easily move onto Anne of Avonlea, then to Anne of the Island, etc. There's only so much you can do with Green Gables, she's not going to be a child forever. That way they could recast with a young woman who can play the part for several seasons as she matures. 

There's just something about Amybeth McNulty that's too over the top and affected. Her dialogue is so flowery to begin with you have to play it very carefully and she over-emotes and makes it seem even more ridiculous. I find myself cringing half the time I'm watching her.

[SeanC]

On 7/10/2018 at 2:52 PM, iMonrey said:

Well that's what I mean . . . they could easily move onto Anne of Avonlea, then to Anne of the Island, etc. There's only so much you can do with Green Gables, she's not going to be a child forever. That way they could recast with a young woman who can play the part for several seasons as she matures. 

There's just something about Amybeth McNulty that's too over the top and affected. Her dialogue is so flowery to begin with you have to play it very carefully and she over-emotes and makes it seem even more ridiculous. I find myself cringing half the time I'm watching her.

But that's not the creator's vision of the show.  There's a limited amount of book material available for this period, but that's only a limitation if you aren't prepared to imagine more stuff, and clearly that's not the case here.

Everybody's free to assess acting, of course, but McNulty's portrayal is generally praised, so there's certainly no incentive for the show to be looking to get rid of her, either.

[tennisgurl]

Looks like the good people of Avonlea are getting themselves a new monorail I MEAN GOLD MINE! I guess people had never heard of a scam before, in the snowy lands of Canada? 

I was hoping this would be the end of the flashbacks. I like this show more than a lot of commentators here seem to, but I am over the endless flashbacks. They're so dark and creepy and weird, it takes away from the sweetness of the story that we are supposed to be focusing on. 

[luvmylabs]

On 7/8/2018 at 6:12 PM, DoubleUTeeEff said:

Did anyone hate this as much as I did? If so, did you continue watching? I'm not sure if I can or if it would be worth it. I liked enough of Season 1 to watch to the end but I didn't like where it was headed so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. It seems that they've really doubled down on all of the stuff I disliked in Season 1 and are going far afield from the spirit of the original Anne. There is plenty of drama to be mined from the original work or even in choosing new stories; it doesn't have to be so over the top.

Things I hated: the grifters and their unsophisticated gold scam that the townspeople fell for; Marilla getting all hot and bothered by the grifter; the 8 million flashbacks to Anne's past and Gilbert's whole storyline. I didn't like that the townspeople were painted as such rubes that they'd be taken in by a speech from one of the grifters, a stranger to them. Why would they trust him? I don't mind if Marilla has a sexual or romantic life in this series but the age difference was creepy as hell to me. As it would be to me if the genders were reversed. Imagine Matthew walking in on a half dressed young woman and liking it. Gross. Plus it's not like they had some rapport or something. She's just all nonplussed every time he touches her or sees him shirtless. The 8 million flashbacks became tedious and they felt so abrupt. I would prefer if Gilbert's story was in Avonlea. How old is he anyway to get a job on a ship and leave home? I assume Anne will figure out the grifter's plan and save the day (ETA: like she did with the fire).

Also, a nitpick. Am I supposed to believe that they have money to buy sugar to make all those pies, scones and other baked goods that they can't even eat and have to give away but they don't have a single scrap of paper in the entire house that Anne could use for a letter?

EDIT: I took out a couple of questions I had for the upcoming season 2. I don't want to lead people to answer them and have their posts removed since it's against the site policy. Sorry about that.

Not watching...agree completely.  This episode is so far from the original book that I am just disgusted.  Also agree that this Anne is not very appealing.

[Pearlinbloom]

Didn’t grifters occasionally pop up in the Road to Avonlea program? This episode felt more akin to that show than to AoGG. Not a criticism, just observation. And I feel like they’re setting Jerry up to be the Gus Pike character, but perhaps that’s best left to another thread.

[Faux Pas]

Instead of seeming charming or endearing, Anne just came off as full-on demented in this episode.  For me, it was off-putting.  It wasn’t even the kind of demented that’s fun to watch! 

[Camera One]

I just watched the first episode, and I agree with the thoughts here.  

It's one thing if they are developing stories for Anne that might have occurred, but all the material they've added about the grifters just distract from the story of Anne and her life in Avonlea.  

It's always frustrating to see people duped, and this was an entire episode of that.  I also didn't buy that it would be so easy for an outsider to fool an entire town.  I'm not sure why Mr. Barry kept insisting that Nate was such a moral person.  

Marilla swooning whenever Nate was near was the most insulting aspect of this episode.  

If they wanted to show economic hardship, they totally glossed over that since it seems like the Cuthberts are living as they've always been.

The Gilbert parts weren't too engaging, though I did find it interesting to catch the transitions to that completely separate story.  From everyone singing in the fields to Gilbert singing on the boat, or Anne looking at the ocean during their trip to the beach.  

I guess they blew through so many of the conflicts in the book in Season 1 (Anne winning over Marilla, Anne forgiving Gilbert, etc.), that now, they have to invent new conflicts for the characters.

I did like Anne teaching Jerry to read, and her interest in geology was amusing.  I also liked the girls writing stories.  The episode was also beautifully filmed.  

The showrunner seems to love "Jane Eyre", what with naming every Season 1 episode using quotes from that book.  She should seriously have adapted Jane with a J instead of Anne.  

The flashbacks to Anne's time on the orphanage were completely unnecessary and pointless (and very Jane Eyre).  It feels like they finally remembered that they forgot to continue doing that from Season 1's first two episodes.  

I suppose I do want to watch the next episode to see whether someone will clue in to Nate's dastardly plan but I feel like I'm watching some other show.

Edited August 25, 2018 by Camera One

[Pepper the Cat]

Did not like this episode at all.

Anne was annoying. 

No paper in the house? Please.

And baking tons of bread, scones, etc that cannot be eaten before it goes bad is just ridiculous. 

Jerry is the best and smartest person on that farm

[Future Cat Lady]

Just finished the first episode on the CBC. 

The first scenes were extremely beautiful. Total scenery porn. However, I was annoyed to find out that the bad guys had been there for months and that story wasn’t resolved in the first ep. Someone mentionned that it ressembles a Road to Avonlea story. I thought so too. However, RtA would’ve given that story a more humourous tone. In this show, it just seems sinister.

And Marilla being all hot and bothered by Nate was just creepy. I would not be suprised if he tries to rape her. I could totally see this show going there.

I don’t hate the show (yet), but it’s pure fanfic. I don’t mind that they go off the book, but I don’t like it when it’s so over the top with the drama. Didn’t they say they wanted to make a more realistic Anne of GG?  I don’t think this is it.

[Miss Dee]

Aw, I'm the only one loving Amybeth McNulty. This is exactly the Anne I pictured in my head when I read the books. As a child she *is* off-putting to most small-town adults; only Mrs. Allan and Miss Stacey (the two more intellectual women) she met were really kindred to her. Mrs. Lynde and Marilla loved her, but they didn't understand her at all.

I don't mind the extraneous material, as depicting Anne's childhood for whole seasons would be impossible based on the book alone.

The grifters are not terribly adroit, but then, this is not a sophisticated town. I can buy that most people are at least thinking about it at this stage.

I don't see Marilla as hot to trot at all. To me she's a lonely, repressed woman who is finding herself responding to this guy's subtle manipulations to make her off balance and less inclined to sniff out his real intentions. He's obviously arranging all these "accidental" sightings. That's what cons do - read your weaknesses at a glance and use them against you.

While I like Gilbert's storyline, I hope he goes back to Avonlea soon.

[Blackie]

On ‎7‎/‎8‎/‎2018 at 6:12 PM, DoubleUTeeEff said:

Did anyone hate this as much as I did?

What I hated about this episode is that is was late summer/fall/harvest season already so they skipped over how many months???? I don't get why they had to skip over all the time of boarders/grifters moving in etc.  I honestly thought I had missed some episodes,

[Camera One]

41 minutes ago, Blackie said:

What I hated about this episode is that is was late summer/fall/harvest season already so they skipped over how many months???? I don't get why they had to skip over all the time of boarders/grifters moving in etc.  I honestly thought I had missed some episodes,

They probably felt the need to do that partly because of the child actors, who would have grown between the filming of the first and second seasons.  Maybe they weren't interested in showing the moving in/adjustment phase.  But I agree that it was weird and unconvincing to jump in and see a supposed happy dinner with the Cuthberts and the boarders.  

[morakot]

The time shift bugged me too. Are we to understand that in eight months or so (from New Year's to harvest time) that Jerry has no memory of these guys as his attackers? And the attackers don't worry that he might actually remember them?