Emily of New Moon

I just finished reading the series for about the zillionth time and decided to take a chance on the television series. I read reviews here and thought i should be alright until the second season. I was wrong. I am halfway thru the first episode and have already asked my husband not to bother getting the rest of the dvds on netflix. I am so disappointed. i'm going to try to finish the disk but the massive alterations. So far the only similarities i've found between the book and the series is a girl named Emily and a father named Douglas both with the last name Star. Scenes, characters, location, plot line etc are all changed. Oh wait they did get the names of the aunts and cousin correct but... the cat is wrong.

Sigh. Perhaps if i had never read the books i'd be OK with just watching this as a stand-alone piece. Even Emily's essential personality has been changed from the character i adored in the trilogy.

after the relatively lighthearted tales of life around the turn of the century in rural Prince Edward Island, brought to the viewer in Anne of Green Gables, and Road to Avonlea, it was almost hard to watch, to have to endure the dark depressing episodes in the life of young Emily Murray and her misbegotten family in this new and (thankfully) short-lived series from the works of E M Montgomery... a series filled with incidents covering madness, murder, treachery, ghosts, religious intolerance, betrayal, disease, lost unrequited love, such as hasn't been seen since the novels of Charles Dickens... The mood of most of the episodes being so intense, it seems to have been reflected in the performances themselves, with the result that it was so rare that any of their characters were allowed even a brief moment of happiness and when it came, you were left waiting, watching for the moment when that moment would be shattered by even more doom and gloom... Viewers obviously did not take to this series as happily as they did Avonlea and Green Gables...it may have reflected a much more realistic portrayal of a way of life in bygone rural Canada, but unrelenting misery is not a promising premise for family viewing...

this series is really great. i loved it. the best thing that makes me say that, is that i was really excited to see what would happen in the next episode. it was a normal story about a little girl wanting to make her wished come true. who cares about her friends and family.

sometimes her curiosity drives her to some danger, but she always uses her brain and gets out of it.

she goes to school, tries new ways in life.

she does all she can to help her family.

i think that MANY people can relate to her in a way.

she is smart, she is funny, she is nice and kind, she is everything young :) and full of life

it;s really fun for the family and children, but a great thing to watch for the adults too :) enjoy

i give 4.5 out of 5 =D cheers ,,,

after the relatively lighthearted tales of life around the turn of the century in rural Prince Edward Island, brought to the viewer in Anne of Green Gables, and Road to Avonlea, it was almost hard to watch, to have to endure the dark depressing episodes in the life of young Emily Murray and her misbegotten family in this new and (thankfully) short-lived series from the works of E M Montgomery...

a series filled with incidents covering madness, murder, treachery, ghosts, religous intolerance, betrayal, disease, lost unrequited love, such as hasn't been seen since the novels of Charles Dickens... The mood of most of the episodes being so intense, it seems to have been reflected in the performances themselves, with the result that it was so rare that any of their characters were allowed even a brief moment of happiness and when it came, you were left waiting, watching for the moment when that moment would be shattered by even more doom and gloom...

Viewers obviously did not take to this series as happily as they did Avonlea and Green Gables...it may have reflected a much more realistic portrayal of a way of life in bygone rural Canada, but unrelenting misery is not a promising premise for family viewing...

After having enjoyed Kevin Sullivan's foray into the works of L.M. Montgomery, I was interested to see what Salter Street Films would do. The Emily series is the darker, more realistic vision of life Rural Prince Edward Island and much closer to the life Montgomery herself lead. While the series captures that darker element, there are moments of light and color that make the series charming and delightful. The performance of the regular actors in the series were all very well done. Stephen McHattie, who plays Cousin Joe, was especially a standout for me because I'm used to seeing him play heavies and bad guys. The actress playing the lead character is certainly well cast. She is almost a little too intense.

It would be interesting if the producers did an update movie with the same cast based on the last book in the Emily series. It would be a great closer for a series that didn't last too long.