Little House On The Prairie has manages to entertain generations of kids for decades as such it wasn't all that surprising when it was announced that there would be a new version of the book coming from Netflix. Well they have now dropped all eight episodes however this review will only be based off of the first episode and so then join me as I give you my SPOILER FILLED review of the episode that if it was released on July 4th would have been very aptly named with the episode in question being called simply just "Independence" enjoy.
The plot of this episode is the Ingalls family leave there home , family and friends in the big wood behind them in search of a new life in the town of Independence. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. The episodes plot was one that whilst it was good it is also one that could have been done alot more better as the plot was really on thin side so much so that it was hard to tell just what the main plot of this episode was even meant to be in the first place. Yet when the episode does get a sort of plot with the family moving out of there old home that is where we see the potential of the series and that is where it very much feels like the original book as and yet the makers of this episode don't really focus on that part of the episode for very long when that is something that they had the time to do and whilst yes the plot of the original pilot film wasn't all that much better it was a damn sight better then the plot in this episode as the pot of that film did very much feel like it was ripping the pages of the book and putting them on screen where as here it does feel like that the makers of this show are trying to fix things that weren't broken when what they should have been doing is focusing on the plot elements that work as those are the things that the people are going to be remembering this episodes plot for and not all of the stuff later on in the episode with the plot of this episode also not really being really rather entertaining and as well as not really being really rather engaging either in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this episode is Luke Bracey as Charles Ingalls , Crosby Fitzgerald as Caroline Ingalls and Alice Halsey as Laura Ingalls. Also starring in this episode is Skywalker Hughes as Mary Ingalls , Warren Christie as John Edwards , Jocko Sims as Dr. George Tann , Meegwun Fairbrother as William Mitchell , Alyssa Wapanatâhk as White Sun , Wren Zhawenim Gotts as Good Eagle , Barrett Doss as Emily Henderson , Mary Holland as Jemma James , Michael Hough as Eli James , Kowen Cadorath as Caleb , Ryan Robbins as Russell Kind , Cliff Sumter as Hahn and Thosh Collins as Louis.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. This episodes acting is kind of hard t judge as while it is really good it is also the first episode f a new show and will therefor only get better as the show continues but as it pertains to this episode tho the acting is about as good as you can expect from a low quality Netflix show as while all of the episodes actors are in deed trying there best this is a case where there best just isn't good enough with it being clear that the episodes director Sarah Adina Smith was the wrong person to direct this episode as she has no clue on how to get a good performance out of her actors. With the best actor in the whole entire episode being Crosby Fitzgerald as Caroline Ingalls as she does bring a certain charm to the role that does make her scenes all the more fun and sweet to watch with her and Luke Bracey having such good chemistry together that you do end up buying them as this married couple with this being something that is key to making the show as a whole work and heck she even does have a certain feistiness to her that does shine through in her performance in this episode. With the acting that's in this very episode not really being helped by the fact that this episodes script is just so bad as it gives none of this episodes actors anything to work with which is something that really does help to harm the overall quality of the acting that's in this very episode.
The characters in this episode are very much a mixed bag off affairs as while alot of them are done well others just aren't. As while the main family are handled about as well as could be expected as they are still the same characters only now they have a bit less charm to them as in the original film all of the family where likable people that you wanted to get know more about whereas here in this episode it does seem to the opposite that's true and as while the family members do have moments where they do show kindness and love to each to each other they mostly act cold and distant which is something that would make sense if this episode was filmed first but given that the whole point of this show is to show that family will always be there it is something that needed working on. However tho none of the episodes others characters get any kind of love given to them as at most alot of them just get two scenes to get across what there character is like which is just not enough for them to leave a lasting impact on us the audience as alot of the townsfolk do end up blending into together whereas with the family yes alot of them are just versions of the same character type your not going to confuse say Laura with Mary for example but with alot of the townsfolk it will be the opposite that's true as there is nothing about any of them that makes them stand out and that makes them feel rea which given the fact that the books were based off of the life of Laura herself is something that the makers of this episode really should have done as the books have worked for all of these decades for a reason and if the makers of this episode want this show to be a hit then they should have taken the time to make all of the characters feel like fully thought out characters.
SPOILERS START HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Unlike with the original pilot film that just adapted the third book this episode seems to be just taking certain things from that book whilst also adapting things from the other books as well. This is something that does make this episode feel like a mashup of all of the books with none of them really working like for example in the scene where Jack gets swept away in the original pilot film we had narration from Laura saying how he was her best friends and we saw Charles go looking for him right after if happened whereas here none of that happens and therefor when Jack does go missing and Laura is still upset about it it doesn't make sense as we hadn't been given the information on if Jack was her friend or not and therefor him hi coming back to her at the end of the episode doesn't have the same surprise like it did when it happend in the movie. There are small changes like this all through the episode that on paper don't mean much but when you put them together it does add up to something that needed to fixed and right away like for example in the scene where Caroline gets tired from overworking herself in the original film she doesn't injure herself she just gets to weak to carry on with Charles telling her to rest and that she did a good job this does show us that he does care about her so much so that he is willing to do the work himself whereas here in this episode she drops a log on her foot with Charles now being forced to get the Doctor to help her out this is something that might not seem like much but it now says that Caroline is overworking herself not for her family but because of the fact that she's worried that the wolves might attack them and it tells us that Charles doesn't care that much about her as he never tells her that she did a good job he just says that he has to get the doctor to look at her.
There are some things about this episode that do work like for example the town itself does look really good. Even tho we don't spend alot of time in it in this episode we do get a good enough look at it with the town itself looking a typical western town only given the fact that "Independence" is a partially new town everything is nice and clean with the only thing that could have made the own feel more better being if we got to spend more time in it in this episode but given the fact that this episode also had to set up the whole family as well as the plot of the show it does make sense that the episode didn't spend alot of time in the town in this episode as that would have taken attention from where it should have been in this episode that being the family themselves. Speaking of the family we do actually get alot of scenes with them that weren't in the original film like we get a scene with Mary getting a crush on a local boy which was a sweet scene to see and we do get a scene where the sister talk about the things that they miss about there old home with Mary saying that she left her friends behind and Laura saying that she misses the rest of her family which again was a nice scene as it does show show us that this move not only effected them in a positive way as thy do get to see more of the world now but that it also effected them in a negative way as they did have to leave behind people that they miss dearly which is something that does make you wonder if this version of Charles took that into consideration as it is something that the Charles in the original film would have done if there was a similar scene both of these are things that whilst yes they are small things but they also show us that the makers of this episode yes did know would help to make the episode better and while they don't make the episode perfect by any means they up making it look like the episode was more well thought out with the makers of this episode going out of there way it seems to have scenes like these be in the episode itself when they really didn't have to do it at all.
One of the things that was always going to tricky an was something that you could never get around was how they treated the native Indian characters. With them here not really having much of an impact on the episodes plot as they do just appear in a few scenes and that's it but but the episode does show Laura almost going out of her to befriend the girl of an Indian family with her even giving her her doll that she had found and that Caroline has repaired for her which whilst it does come of nothing in this episode it is somethin that could go on to effect the rest of the episodes of this show as the whole third book was based around the Indians wanting there land back and the lengths that they would go to to get it therefor by having the daughter of the main family befriend one of them early on does make you wonder how alot of the scenes later on in this first season would go. We do even get a a bit of a dark backstory with Caroline as she does reveal that she has seen war before at some point in her past with her not willing to face it again when she finds that certain Indians are planning an attack to take back there land which was somethin that was quite shocking and this is where the episode does get to be quite interesting as it's during those moments where you never really no what to expect and therefore the makers of this episode do have to come up with clever and inventive ways to keep us guessing what's going to happen next and with Caroline having this dark past with the Indians it again does raise the question of that will happen at certain points in the rest of the season as we do know that some Indians at first do attack the families home and burn down there barn and while they do befriend them in the end it doesn't change the fact that they did it in the first place with Caroline having this past with them it does make you wonder she is now going to react when these attacks do start happening as it could go either way with her and it would work either way.
Now then this episode has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly fifty two minuets and fifty four seconds. Which is pretty much the bogstandard running time for this show and to be fair this episode really did need t have that amount of running time in order to fully set up it's plot and characters and while the episode does skip over large portions of the book and film it does feel like there is some kind of an effort to be true to the book as the episode doesn't try to say that it's better then the book that inspired it rather it uses it's running time to help to set up this world and make it feel more real and lived in with this being something that does help the episode with the episode having just about the right amount of plot there to cover that amount of running time in the first place. Yet even with this long amount of running time the episode still doesn't use its running time all that wisely as the episode doesn't take the time to fully develop it's plot which is something that could have been fine if this wasn't the first episode but given the fact that this is the first episode then there should have been scenes that do move either the episodes plot of the plot of this first season forward and make it feel more developed but the makers of this episode seemed to be more focused on making the Ingalls family seem really unlikable alot of the time that they are in giving us a well thought out plot. This is something that does also effect the characters character development as well which is something that is understandable as you could make the point that the character will get there development in later episodes which would be fine if this episode had set any of that up but it doesn't therefor any character development that they will get might not work as the foundations for the characters are rocky in the first place and yet if the makers of this episode had set up what there development will be by how the characters are attacking then it would work but the makers of this episode are more focused on making Laura look like a hunter alot of the time then they are in giving us it's characters character development but I really will admit that this episode really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is a drama that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual drama that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual drama that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good. The fact that this episode does gave some really good drama in it is somethin that isn't all that surprising due to the fact that the book themselves more then likely had some really good drama in it and while yes the drama in this episode doesn't work as well as it did in the original film it is something that does still work well enough that you do kind of forgive the episode for alot of it's past mistakes. With the best piece of drama in this episode actually not being that dramatic of a scene rather its the scene where Caroline tells Charles that she can't do any more work because she's pregnant which does work as these two actors are so likable as these characters with it bein somethin that does make you look back in the past scenes with her when she was doing something hard with a new eye as now we know that during the crossing scene that she might have been pregnant with this being something that does add some small replay value to the episode itself and whilst it is something that doesn't make the episode on the while all that great it is something that does leave you with hope for this family and that was something that the original film was great at giving you and it makes it all the more tragic when all that hope ends up lost in later episodes with the rest of the episodes drama being really good as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
SPOILERS END HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Overall look to be fair the original film and the subsequent TV series will always be the better adaptation this episode does get this new series off to a flawed but still solid start and while yes the episode does have it's fair share of teething issues the same thing can also be said for alot of first episodes and is not something that's exclusive to this episode in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very episode in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very episode really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 7 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very episode that I used in this very post being the really great Google Images really simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this very episode with alot of them really being really better quality then what you'd really think of and all of the images are really of course up and really on Google Images really are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.
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