#because yeah anne with an e has josephine and cole. and anne and diana being. like that

[flowersandfashion]

thinking about those little 1890s sapphics again.

[pluviophile-bookworm]

AWAE 2x7 rewatch: thoughts and reactions

This was pretty much my favourite episode of the entire series before season 3 came along, so I’m really excited to watch it again. Let’s dive in:

Ok, that was a really weird (and short) cold open. I don’t really know what to say. Moving on. 

Seriously, what just happened to Marilla? And how often has it been happening?

Yeah, as if Phillips would give extra lessons to anyone but Prissy. Also, Gilbert is right about him not caring much about teaching. People like Phillips have no place being teachers.

Bringing up Gilbert’s father, whose passing I’m pretty sure he’s aware of? How dare he? I hate that dirt-bag excuse of a man.

Oh, you’re going to the ball, dear Cinderella... I mean, you are going to the party, dear DiAnne! And you’ll be bringing someone else, too. 

Speaking of someone else, poor Cole is still struggling with his art after Billy’s horrendous deed. Emotionally, mostly. But burning his drawings is not the answer. Never.

‘Cole is a man!’ Yes he is, that’s what I’ve been saying for I don’t know how long now. I’m glad someone’s finally noticed. I’ve got to say this scene reminded me a tiny bit of HP and the Goblet of Fire where Ron finally realised Hermione was a girl. But it’s different. In a good way, of course.

I love their, well, Anne’s, plan so much. I just do and I don’t really know why. But Marilla’s worsening headaches and her calling Matthew ‘Michael’ are worrying me so much. The Cuthberts do have their own trauma, they do. It seems everyone does in this series. 

Of course Matthew allows it. In Matthew we trust. They’re going! Of course, I knew they were, but that doesn’t make it any less exciting. See, that’s the thing about favourites - they make you feel the same emotions every time that they did the first time you experienced them. And isn’t that the most wonderful thing?

Marilla seems to be reminded of her own childhood and how she didn’t have the chance to experience such wonderful things as Anne gets to. But Anne’s had her share of traumatic experiences. She deserves this. 

Hero is right. Cole is one and he’ll get back to his art soon enough. And he’s just arrived in what will end up being his new home thanks to the amazing Aunt Josephine.

Anne’s finally realised what Josephine had with Gertrude and her reaction is absolutely lovely. I knew it would be. In fact, I knew it the very first time I watched it. Here’s a note I wrote to myself all the way back then: Anne is so open- minded and finds it all but strange that aunt Josephine had a romantic relationship with Gertrude, while Diana’s conservative upper-class upbringing seems to get in her way of accepting it… but she’ll get around to it. What I really would like, however, is that Cole would eventually come out to Anne first, I mean they confide in each other in  a way few others do, and she’s, at least the way I see it, the best person to come out to considering how she views Josephine and Gertrude’s relationship.

The party looks so beautiful, it makes me want to draw it. I probably will - just like I did last week with Diana the magnificent fairy queen. This show is so inspiring. In fact, my first ever drawing that I posted here was based on this episode and this party. Here’s a link: https://pluviophile-bookworm.tumblr.com/post/187379899979/i-dont-really-draw-but-i-was-just-rewatching-my  Hey, this also means I’ve seen this episode more times than any other AWAE episode! It’s clearly my favourite - well, now it’s second to 3x5, but we’ll see what happens when I rewatch that one. 

‘If it were agreeable to my husband’... poor Diana really needs more of her aunt’s influence. How lovely it would be for her to become a pianist... or a scholar, or what she desires. Not necessarily a wife unless it’s to someone she truly loves and who truly loves her. 

The girl with the pixie cut who complimented Anne’s might have just made her day. At least it would have made mine. 

If these people calling Cole ‘farm boy’ did something good, it must have been decorating him with their scarves and pearls. I love this look on him. 

If not pixie-cut girl, Sunflower-man made Anne’s day and I’m so glad something finally did. If someone could only tell her how beautiful she looks...

I feel like I would have loved Gertrude if I had known her... and that woman who said she and Jo were her romantic ideal... there should be more like her in the world. 

Josephine and Cole dancing together warms my heart so much! And what warms it even more is knowing they’ll be a family, a loving, beautiful found family as they both deserve. I’m not crying, you are.

Poor Marilla is still struggling with her past and her headaches, and Matthew is trying to do the best he can to help, but there’s not much to be done when one refuses to be helped. And dear Matthew seems to have trauma of his own. ‘Doesn’t she love us too?’ Heartbreaking. 

Marilla’s thinking of Anne like a true mother, and though it breaks my heart when she says ‘I won’t be a burden to Anne.’, it also warms it to think she feels so responsible for her new daughter. 

I wish dear Diana would be more accepting of her aunt...s. I suppose they were both her aunts in a way. In their own way they were married after all. 

The artist who reassures Cole means so much to me for it. And the way she seems to know Anne after only having met her for a while... also, ‘Cole the artist’ - yes, he is that. I love that woman although I don’t even know her. She made Cole smile for the first time this evening. 

I’m just imagining Anne in her puff sleeves and a top hat... magnificent. I might try to draw that sometime. 

Oh, Diana, just because something is kept secret doesn’t mean it’s wrong! It might just be that people aren’t ready for it yet, and I’m sad for the people. Not for Jo and Gertrude. Not for Cole. For those who aren’t ready to accept that love is love in all shapes and forms.

‘broken, defective, unnatural...’ is that what Cole thinks about himself? I so hope it’s not. And I so hope he finds a man someday who makes him feel like Jo and Gertie had. He deserves it. 

Here’s a note on this next moment from the time I saw it first:  Oh my, oh my! He came out to Josephine first! I think it’s just as beautiful as had it been Anne, and the way he spoke of it to Anne and Diana first, although he didn’t confess anything, was so beautiful, deep and meaningful. Seriously, the way this series portrays things that are ahead of their time in the chronological context of the plot... that is so beautiful that I can’t even describe it… Anne with an E is my aesthetic… and one of the reasons I rediscovered my fondness of the colour orange which I previously disliked… just… so deep and aesthetically elevating. Ok, that last part had nothing to do with Cole or Josephine or coming out, but it’s truly what I think and it belongs here. 

Matthew finally speaks up and it’s so powerful when a quiet person raises their voice. ‘She had other children. We all lost Michael.’

‘You missed me?’ But of course she did, she’s your mother now. I love the found family trope. And Marilla looks lovely with that flower crown. 

‘[Love] can come in so many forms.’ This series teaches the proper values. I love it for that. #renewannewithane

‘The good doctor’. However demeaningly this was meant to be, it describes Gilbert so perfectly, and his response (‘and I managed to learn that with no extra time from you.’) was so absolutely great. Thanks, I love it.

‘You’ll get there, if you know where your passions lead you.’ That was a beautiful underrated Shirbert moment.

The pen of possibility. How lovely. This episode ended on just the right not and it’s just such a favourite of mine, I don’t even know what more to say. let’s just end here. Roll the recaps.

Let’s sum up: Marilla has headaches and flashbacks; Anne’s pen of duplicity concocts the perfect lie... fib; Cole struggles to get back into art; ‘Cole is a man!’ and so he and Anne and Diana get to go to Aunt Josephine’s party; Josephine and Gertrude are a romantic ideal; the perfect summer soiree in the middle of winter; Cole the farm-boy goes back to being Cole the artist thanks to a mysterious sculptor woman at the party; he comes out to Josephine, then to Anne and Diana; love is beautiful in every shape and form; the good doctor shoots for the stars on his own, thank you very much, Phillips (not!); the pen of possibility.

[dmitri-smerdyakov]

So, here’s the thing – I didn’t grow up reading L.M. Montgomery’s Anne series; one of my granddad’s brothers did, however, buy me a copy of Anne of Green Gables when I was younger, and I read nearly half of it. Unfortunately, I was only very young – about seven or eight – and so my attention span was not really that great. I read enough to be familiar with the beginning of the story and of the general gist of the first part of the book but I never finished it.

Last year, Netflix released the first series of ‘Anne with an E’, an adaptation of ‘Anne of Green Gables’; I realized it was based on the book and thought I might give it a try. I watched the first episode – but then didn’t watch the rest of the series because my family had walked in halfway through the episode and done nothing but complain about it, about how ‘annoying’ Anne was etc., and it kind of put me off of watching the rest.

The second season released last Friday on Netflix, and I decided I would give it another try – this time making sure that none of my family were there to watch it with me – because I had heard people say how amazing it was. Safe to say, I had quite an enjoyable weekend binge-watching the entire series, and now I’m not quite sure what to do with myself until the next season releases!

Review

Alright, so I can’t really judge the series as an adaptation of the books because, as stated above, I didn’t exactly read them all. However, I can judge it as a series with its own merits, since I think people who haven’t read the books can enjoy it just as much.

Anne is an eleven-year-old orphan who is adopted by brother and sister Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert; originally they wanted a boy to help on the farm, but Anne quickly grows on them and they decide to keep her. A lot of the series is Anne’s adventures in growing up; going to school, meeting her first friend (her bosom-friend, at that), and the like. She’s also got an immense imagination, able to pretend herself into almost any circumstance; her bold creativity is viewed as rather out of place in Avonlea, particularly in the time period of the late-1800s that the story is set in, but it’s her best quality.

Honestly, I don’t think enough praise can be given to Amybeth McNulty, the young actress who plays Anne; she’s perfect for the role, her performance endearing and talented in every way possible. The show wouldn’t work if Anne was miscast – but McNulty is absolutely wonderful, and that’s perhaps the show’s best feature. The other roles are just as well-cast, of course, but Anne is arguably the most important one to get right given that the series is about her; McNulty plays every facet of Anne’s personality perfectly, from the creative imagination to the moments where she has to deal with dark topics or situations.

The show deals with a number of issues that are still very relevant today, especially in the current political climate; ‘Anne with an E’ is a feminist show from the very first episode when Anne announces “girls can do everything boys can and more”, all the way to the hiring of a female teacher in the last few episodes. Girls are always treated with respect and understanding by the writers of the show: such gems include Anne announcing, “A skirt is not an invitation” and the very frank conversation regarding menstruation between both Anne and Marilla, and the girls in the classroom (seen below).

To add, Anne getting her first period is just too relatable: rather fantastic moments commemorating that moment include, “Please plant some pink roses on my grave”, “this is a waking nightmare”, “this can’t be happening” and,  “I’m not ready to be a woMAN!”

Unlike most shows that are set in later time periods (*cough* Stranger Things *cough cough*), ‘Anne with an E’ doesn’t shy away from LGBTQ+ representation; Diana’s Aunt Josephine is established to have been a lesbian with a female life partner, and a boy in Anne’s class, Cole, realizes he’s gay. In one episode, Aunt Josephine throws what is quite possibly the pride event of the century, complete with LGBTQ+ individuals celebrating who they are, wearing flower crowns, and just being unapologotetically open about themselves and their identities. In hindsight, shows such as ‘Stranger Things’ don’t have a leg to stand on when it comes to a lack of representation: non-heterosexual people have been around for centuries, and if a period show set in the 1800s can show multiple LGBTQ+ characters, then so can a show set in the seventies or eighties. Sorry, but “it wasn’t as common” and “it wasn’t as accepted back then” are no longer viable excuses – gay people still existed, and their stories deserve to be told.

Season 2 introduces Sebastian – better known as “Bash” – a black character from Trinidad who accompanies Gilbert Blythe when he returns to Avonlea. The show tackles racism and colonization in the time period extremely well, something that shows with much larger fan-bases and popularity have failed at (not mentioning names but I’m sure I’ve given the idea). Even better is the fact that Bash has a genuine Trinidad accent – not a stereotypical Jamaican one, but one that you’d actually hear someone from Trinidad speak with.

Bullying in schools is also a hot topic in the series; not only does Anne suffer near-constant torment because of the fact she’s an orphan and has red-hair, but Cole receives it too because of his passion for drawing – a pastime that the other boys thinks makes him too feminine. The abuse doesn’t just come from the other kids – namely Billy Andrews and Josie Pye, who I would literally love to dropkick into the Sun – but also from the teacher, Mr Phillips. Some rather passionate anger arose from watching Mr Phillips on-screen, to say the least; imagine the cruelest teacher you’ve ever had, one who liked to make kids feel small so they could feel better about themselves…yeah, that’s Mr Phillips. It’s so hard to not want to slap him, especially given his utterly ridiculous curled mustache; even worse, he literally goes out of his way to harass the students – except the one student he wants to marry, but we’re getting to that in a second. For me, the breaking moment was in Season 2 when he saw Anne with her cropped hair (cut off due to an accident involving hair dye) and announced, “Looks like we have a new boy in the class”. It’s not the worst thing he did, but I wanted to scream by this point because I was fed up of this man and his tripe.

(**I’m trying to keep this review PG for everyone but it’s so HARD**)

As I said above, there’s a rather gross plot-line that involves the teacher wanting to marry a student called Prissy Andrews, who’s only two years older than Anne and her friends. Honestly, the whole thing made me sick – and I think it was meant to, but still. At one point in Season 2, they’re engaged and about to be married; a number of things happen to make Prissy back out, most of all being Mr Phillips telling her that he doesn’t want her going to college when they’re married because she should be learning to be a wife – in other words, he wants her to give up her education and future for him. It all ends in a satisfying way though: Prissy runs out of the church with four girls behind her, deciding she’s better than that, and they have a snowball fight. It’s literal poetic television. As a result, Mr Phillips leaves the school and, honestly, that’s even more satisfying to know.

I also just want to say that Anne rocks the shorter hair in the final half of the second series – it goes from a cute pixie to a bob with bangs, and then to two short pigtails. She looks absolutely awesome, and I will fight anyone who disagrees. I know her hair will be long again next series, but I do love the shorter hair – I just think it looks so amazing on her!

This show deserves far more love than it currently receives, to be brutally honest; it’s better-written than most of the more popular shows on Netflix, it has an actual good story to it, and deals with a number of important topics. However, because it’s about a girl in the 1800s, it’s immediately written off as “boring”. I feel like a part of the lack of viewers is down to Netflix’s lack of promotion for the show; when a new season of ‘Stranger Things’ comes out, they can’t shut up about it, but something like ‘Anne with an E’… well, it’s not ‘Stranger Things’, which means that Netflix immediately de-prioritizes it.

(I just want to add, I have seen both seasons of Stranger Things, and I do like the show. However, it’s far from perfect and despite the fact I enjoy it, I do think it receives way too much hype)

If you’re looking for a beautifully made series that has representation, heart and good storylines, you should consider ‘Anne with an E’. Like the Cuthberts find Anne to be growing on them, the show will grow on you too – and you won’t regret it one bit.

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REVIEW: “Anne with an E” (S1 + S2) So, here's the thing - I didn't grow up reading L.M. Montgomery's Anne series; one of my granddad's brothers did, however, buy me a copy of