Anne with an E

Synopsis

In 1896, elderly unmarried siblings Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert decide to adopt an orphan boy to help out around their ancestral farm of Green Gables, on the outskirts of the fictional Canadian town of Avonlea, Prince Edward Island. When Matthew goes to pick the child up at the railway station, he finds 13-year-old Anne Shirley, an imaginative, bright, high-spirited, and talkative girl, instead. Anne was orphaned when her parents died when she was a few months old, and had lived as a servant in various households before being placed in an orphanage.

While Matthew decides he would like her to stay, Marilla does not trust Anne, given her status as an unknown orphan and the perceived uselessness of a young girl on the farm. Her distrust appears confirmed when Marilla cannot locate a brooch, thus leading her to believe that Anne is a thief. The Cuthberts send her away, thus "returning" her to the orphanage. While she does arrive back at the orphanage, she is terrified to enter, haunted by the bullying she had endured there, and returns to the train station. Meanwhile, Marilla discovers that the brooch had been misplaced rather than stolen and she realizes that Anne is not a thief. Matthew consequently finds Anne and convinces her to return to Green Gables, where she is officially made part of their family. However, Anne continues to face bullying from students in the Avonlea school and class-based discrimination from Diana's parents and others in the community. Anne again returns and attempts to gain acceptance from the rest of Avonlea using her survival mechanisms of intelligence, problem-solving abilities, and imagination.

Cast

Main

Amybeth McNulty as Anne Shirley (later Anne Shirley-Cuthbert)

Geraldine James as Marilla Cuthbert

Dalila Bela as Diana Barry

Lucas Jade Zumann as Gilbert Blythe

Aymeric Jett Montaz as Jerry Baynard

R. H. Thomson as Matthew Cuthbert

Corrine Koslo as Rachel Lynde (seasons 2–3; recurring season 1)

Dalmar Abuzeid as Sebastian "Bash" Lacroix (seasons 2–3)

Cory Grüter-Andrew as Cole Mackenzie (seasons 2–3)

Joanna Douglas as Miss Muriel Stacy (season 3; recurring season 2)

Ashleigh Stewart as Winifred "Winnie" Rose (season 3)

Recurring and guest

Jonathan Holmes as Mr. William Barry

Helen Johns as Mrs. Eliza Barry

Ryan Kiera Armstrong as Minnie May Barry

Deborah Grover as Josephine Barry

Wayne Best as John Blythe

Phillip Williams as Thomas Lynde

David Ingram as Mr. Harmon Andrews

Janet Porter as Mrs. Andrews

Christian Martyn as Billy Andrews

Lia Pappas-Kemps as Jane Andrews

Ella Jonas Farlinger as Priscilla "Prissy" Andrews

Jim Annan as Mr. Gillis

Fiona Byrne as Mrs. Gillis

Kyla Matthews as Ruby Gillis

Jacob Ursomarzo as Moody Spurgeon

Stephen Tracey as Mr. Phillips

Miranda McKeon as Josie Pye

Glenna Walters as Tillie Boulter

Katelyn Wells as Mary Joe

Jacob Horsley as Charlie Sloane

Taras Lavren as Nathaniel "Nate"

Shane Carty as Mr. Dunlop

Episodes

Season 1 (2017)

The first season was first aired on the CBC on March 19, 2017. It premiered on Netflix on May 12, 2017. Titles of the season are quotes from Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre.

Season 2 (2018)

The entire second season premiered on Netflix on July 6, 2018, before premiering on the CBC on September 23, 2018. Titles of the season are quotes from George Eliot, Middlemarch.

Season 3 (2019)

The third season was first aired on the CBC on September 22, 2019. It premiered on Netflix on January 3, 2020. Titles of the season are quotes from Mary Shelley, Frankenstein.

Production

Development

The production companies are listed as Northwood Anne, Northwood Entertainment and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The executive producers are Miranda de Pencier and series creator Moira Walley-Beckett.

According to de Pencier, the adaptation of the novel for this television series was intended to provide a different look and feel compared to past productions; they were aiming for a "documentary level of realism", as reflected in the extraordinary detail which has gone into the design of sets and costumes.

Production on the third season started in March 2019.

Crew

Besides the show itself having a larger number of female characters than male, women serving as executive producer and showrunner, the series has several female directors. Every writer on the series is also female; showrunner Moira Walley-Beckett scripted the entire first season, and was joined by a team of women writers in seasons 2 and 3.

Casting

Approximately 1800 girls on three continents auditioned for the role of Anne Shirley through an open casting call. Amybeth McNulty was chosen for her ability to deliver dialogue which is "incredibly thick and dynamic and beautiful", according to Miranda de Pencier. Walley-Beckett describes her as at once "luminous", transparent, smart, soulful and emotional. According to an interview with McNulty, an Irish Canadian whose career on stage has included roles in Annie, The Sound of Music, and Oliver!, and on screen in Agatha Raisin and Clean Break, her audition for Anne "consisted of talking to trees, chatting with flowers and building thrones out of twigs."

Filming

The series was occasionally filmed on Prince Edward Island but, for budgetary reasons, it was primarily filmed in Southern Ontario, at a Toronto studio, at outdoor locations in or near Toronto including Black Creek Pioneer Village, in Waterloo Region at locations including Doon Pioneer Village, Castle Kilbride, New Hamburg, Cambridge, and in communities such as Millbrook, Pickering, Orono, Hamilton, and Caledon.

Music

The opening theme is the song "Ahead by a Century" performed and originally composed by Canadian band The Tragically Hip. The series underscore is composed by Amin Bhatia and Ari Posner.

Themes

While "many classic moments [of the novel] are dutifully re-created," Walley-Beckett constructed Anne with an E with "a darker undercurrent" than previous adaptations of Anne of Green Gables. She envisioned Anne as an antihero, adding original backstories to her adaptation that emphasized the impact of bullying, class-based discrimination, social isolation, and consequent PTSD on the construction of Anne's character (themes hinted at, but never elaborated upon, in the original novel). Walley-Beckett further states: "In this day and age, themes of identity, prejudice, bullying, being an outsider, searching for a way to be accepted and how to belong are entirely topical and super relevant, and those are themes that are built into the story of Anne". She went on to call Anne Shirley an "accidental feminist", and how she "really wanted to tell this story now". Amybeth McNulty (who portrays Anne) also stated that, "people might think [the new scenes] are quite graphic ... but I think it was time to be honest."

Season 2

For the second season, according to what she called her "master plan", Walley-Beckett introduced an entirely new character of her own, Bash, to reflect the racial diversity present in and around Charlottetown at the time of the novel, with a view to representing a community absent from previous adaptations, achieving this by having Gilbert travel on a steamship and meet with the new character in Trinidad: "Bash is the vehicle to explore intolerance and inequality, even more when he goes to The Bog, when he learns that other black people live there." Walley-Beckett explained: "The Bog is the community that's just outside of Charlottetown, where people of color were marginalized and had their own community there."

Season 3

In the third season, topics such as identity, feminism, bullying and gender parity were explored. The third season also focused on residential schools and treatment of Indigenous people in Canada's history.

Release

The series initially premiered on March 19, 2017, on the CBC and aired on a weekly basis, the season finale airing on April 30, 2017. The series debuted on Netflix on May 12, 2017, under the title Anne with an E.

On August 3, 2017, the CBC and Netflix renewed the series for a 10-episode second season, which premiered on Netflix on July 6, 2018, and on the CBC on September 23, 2018. CBC adopted the Anne with an E name beginning in the second season.

In August 2018, the CBC and Netflix renewed the series for a 10-episode third season, which premiered on September 22, 2019, on CBC and was released on Netflix on January 3, 2020.

Cancellation

CBC president Catherine Tait stated in October 2019 that it would no longer involve itself in co-productions with Netflix, as they constitute deals "that hurt the long-term viability of our domestic industry". A day after the third season concluded its Canadian run and despite statements from the CBC previously expressing "no doubt that Canadians will continue to fall in love with this beautiful and heartwarming series for seasons to come," Netflix and the CBC announced the show's cancellation the morning after the season three finale aired in Canada, marketing the season three release on Netflix as the show's "final season".

Alternate reasons for cancellation were given on November 27 in response to a Twitter campaign to save the show, namely a lack of audience growth in the 25–54 age range, which fans on Twitter and Facebook have challenged by questioning how the CBC tracks viewers' ages, and the fact their CBC Gem app does not ask for personal information. Despite the CBC indicating that Netflix had agreed that the third season would be the show's last, fans started a concerted online and offline campaign, much of it led by Twitter fans through the hashtag #renewannewithane.

There were some fans who attempted to flood and bombard unrelated CBC and Netflix posts with the #renewannewithane hashtag (and general commentary regarding renewal) leading the CBC to block them from commenting on future posts. Netflix has never responded to campaign efforts.

A petition was started by fans to protest the cancellation of the show, and is currently the largest petition ever started by a fanbase for a cancelled television show. Some fans also created an informative website for other fans where they can keep up to date on renewal efforts.

Fans also crowdfunded to erect billboards in an effort to garner attention of current and potential new viewers, but also other television networks and the press. In January 2020 a set of billboards was put on display at the centre of Yonge and Dundas Square in Toronto, and shortly after another large billboard was on display in Times Square, New York City. The fans followed this successful run with another several days of billboards in Toronto, using various art and imagery done by fans of the show from various parts of the world. Many of the cast and crew, including McNulty and Walley-Beckett, visited the billboards in person and posted on their social media pages.

Reception

Critical response

Palak Jayswal gives the entire series five out of five stars and notes that while classic works of literature are often best left intact, Anne with an E offers a useful case study of when "the remake of a classic is done better than the original". She suggests that while "the Netflix adaptation is brutal", its portrayal is one that is "realistic of what life was like during the time period for an orphan girl". She thus states that "the reason this show is so successful is its ability to not only bring the original story to life but to add to it in a truly authentic way". Erin Maxwell concurs, arguing that in contrast to Tiger King, "Anne with an E might be the most wholesome and engaging TV show that no one in America is talking about. But it is definitely a show that needs to be consumed, discussed, and re-watched just as appreciatively". She also notes that "there are occasional changes in the narrative and attempts to be 'woke', but it wisely doesn't derail much from the original story". Chad Jones qualifies the entire series as a "cool" adaptation of the novel, noting that "from the theme song by The Tragically Hip to the assortment of timely issues – racism, feminism, bullying – that may have been hinted at in the book but have definitely been brought to the fore by creator Moira Walley-Beckett, this is not your grandmother's Green Gables". Jon Hersey at The Objective Standard writes, "If you can stand a tearjerker—and if you enjoy art that glorifies imagination, individualism, free inquiry, and the passionate pursuit of values—you may just fall in love with Walley-Beckett's Anne with an E".

On Rotten Tomatoes season 1 has an approval rating of 83% based on 29 critic reviews. The site's critical consensus states: "Anne with an E uses its complex central character to offer a boldly stylish, emotionally resonant spin on classic source material that satisfies in its own right." The series has received a rating of 79 on Metacritic based on fifteen reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Emily Ashby, writing for Common Sense Media, calls the series an "exceptional" and "spectacular" interpretation, giving it four out of five stars. Tasha Cerny, contributor for the Tracking Board, praises the cinematography as lush and colourful, the characters vibrant, and the plot "surprisingly thrilling for a story about a young girl living in a small secluded community in the late nineteenth century. I laughed, I cried, and I didn't expect either from a show about a little girl." Gwen Inhat of The A.V. Club calls the series "at once darker and sweeter than the original" novel, praising the core cast, reserving the highest for the series lead: