TV networks love rebooting beloved-if-benign shows and giving them edge and grit in the process. Sometimes — “Battlestar Galactica” comes to mind — that’s great! But sometimes, all you want is a comfortingly familiar upgrade of something that made you feel good in the past.
Netflix’s “Little House on the Prairie” redux, which hits the streamer today, is exactly that: a sunlit, heartwarming retelling of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s well-known story, featuring a stellar cast. Further, this new version adds context that both Wilder’s books and the first TV adaptation glossed over, lending the story a more realistic, and therefore deeply resonant, feel.
Season 1’s eight episodes (I’ve watched them all) pull from the third book in Wilder’s series; those involved in the production point out that the show is a “fresh take” on the source material that also provided the basis of NBC’s adaptation from the 1970s and ’80s. Indeed, those of us who were fans of the Michael Landon-led TV show will find plenty of commonality in Netflix’s take, which follows little Laura (played by Alice Halsey, “Lessons in Chemistry”) and her family as they build a life in the frontier town of Independence, Kansas. (“Don’t you mean Walnut Grove, Minnesota?” you say? Nope. The show won’t head there until the already-ordered Season 2.)
The new Little House on the Prairie makes Caroline a better-rounded character
The reboot brings us into the action as the Ingalls clan makes its way to a new start in the American west. In addition to younger daughter Laura, there’s Charles (Luke Bracey, “Point Break”), Caroline (Crosby Fitzgerald, “Palm Royale”), and older daughter Mary (Skywalker Hughes, “Joe Pickett”). Charles is full of hope and excitement for what the country’s untapped potential could mean for his brood, though Caroline’s optimism is colored by the challenges of raising a family in an outpost so far from their friends and loved ones.
Bracey and Fitzgerald play the tension between Charles’ cheerful outlook and Caroline’s understandable worry well. This iteration of Ma Ingalls has a more richly developed POV than did her 1970s predecessor, and it’s in good hands with Fitzgerald. Accordingly, the show does a good job of not turning Ma Ingalls into the 1800s version of a sitcom wife, hand on hip and annoyed expression when unforeseen problems pop up.
And do they pop up! Though we know Charles won’t die during a harrowing river crossing in the series premiere, for instance, the sequence — which finds Bracey diving underwater to free a stuck wheel while his wife and daughters fear for their lives in the wagon above — is gripping stuff. Later, when wolves circle and an injury sidelines one of the Ingalls for quite some time, is it any wonder that Ma thinks this little experiment may have run its course?
That said, you’re never in doubt that Caroline and Charles are deeply in love with (and attracted to) each other. And these days, when the world can feel like it’s on fire, sometimes it’s just nice to have Pa lightly smolder at Ma as he reassures her everything is going to be OK, OK?
Will those who didn’t watch the original series care about the reboot?
My affection for the reboot, admittedly, is steeped in deep love for the first series, which I watched as a child and have revisited over the years. Will younger viewers, who don’t remember the punch of watching Michael Landon’s Charles cry for love of his family, feel the same? I’d like to think so, given that the Ingalls’ holiday dinners, four-way hugs, and cabin-building montages are as much a balm now as they were back then.
Now just because this is a comfort watch isn’t to say that a few intriguing shadows don’t creep in on the periphery of the Ingalls’ sunny adventure. What happened in the family’s past to make them feel that they can’t go home if the frontier gambit doesn’t pay off? Why does Charles’ mind repeatedly drift to troubling memories of his brother? And the biggest friction point of all, albeit one the books and earlier series gave short shrift: The land that the Ingalls and other settlers are claiming already belongs to the Osage, the Native American tribe that has little say as their home is threatened. (Showrunner Rebecca Sonnenshine (“The Boys,” “The Vampire Diaries”) and her team take great care — and give significant screentime to — this last point, in particular.)
The show’s supporting characters fill Independence with a variety of B-plots; the flirtation between general store owner Emily (Barrett Doss, “Station 19”) and town physician Dr. George Tann (Jocko Simms, “New Amsterdam”) is one of the more engrossing. And Mary Holland (“Ghosts”) is satisfyingly annoying as the Nellie Oleson-like town queen bee Jemma James.
But “Little House” is and should be all about Laura and Mary, and Alice Halsey and Skywalker Hughes are an admirably plucky, eminently watchable duo as the Ingalls sisters. They bring an earnestness and sweetness to the affair, grounding the grandiose Manifest Destiny setting in slingshots, flower crowns, and family singalongs out under the stars. If Netflix grants “Little House” a run that rivals the NBC version’s, it will be a privilege to see what these two fine actresses bring to the story in the future.
THE TVLINE BOTTOM LINE: Even those who didn’t watch the original series will find much to be charmed by in Netflix’s delightful reboot of the family-friendly drama.