I just came around this page to check for the airing date of episode two and saw there were no reviews yet. So I created an account to write my first review on IMDb, long overdue but definitely worth given the treasure this series is promising to offer.
It is hard to say what exactly makes this series so great. Based on one of the strongest books I read as a child, there certainly is a great base for the story, yet -- as with any adaption of a classic -- just as much a chance to get it all wrong. Luckily, as much as can be said after the first episode, I think we are in for a real treat.
Lets start with the characters. Amybeth McNulty as Anne comes around like an incarnation out of my childhood imagination. Her performance is inspiring, intoxicating and captivating, just as much as the description of Anne in the books of L.M. Montgomery. Geraldine James and R.H. Thomson are performing just as great, both their roles are very minimal in expression but so much on the point. I have not had such an emotional roller coaster in a long time -- and I am ever so glad to see that while almost every other of the great TV series of our time requires war, violence, a terrorist plot, plenty of guns or at least tough bad-asses up to whatever even tougher stuff, a story about a young imaginative and poetic girl searching and fighting for her place in the world, is outperforming everyone else around.
That said, I think this series comes at a very important point in time. It certainly is the story of a strong, intelligent and confident young girl refusing to accept the role a girl supposedly should have in her world, constantly questioning and exploring. We cannot have enough of these kinds of role models. It also is so great to listen to her language, so colorful and descriptive and so much richer than most of what is being aired today. It is the joy about every small wonder that Anne is discovering and describing on her journey, that is contagiously reaching out to me as a viewer, and I celebrate her perspective for its positiveness. More scope for the imagination is what we need!
