Anne WIth an E

Binged my way through both seasons of Anne With an E. That character and that actress are something fresh in the world. The show’s an unapologetic hymn to eloquence, romance, and being an artist. Anyone could be forgiven for thinking—during the opening credits—that it’s just a show for young girls. That sequence is very celebratory and pretty—a little masterpiece of that, I would say. But right from the start of the first episode we see hardness. An orphan girl trapped in a nightmare asylum of fiends. An old religion-possessed couple, almost incapable of talk or self-honesty, living in a bare landscape, austerity carved in their faces. We know we’re in for drabness and maybe something close to insanity. But very soon we meet this tormented orphan—and she’s everything that title sequence promised.  She’s light and warmth in a cold, gray climate. She’s language and honesty in constricted lives. She’s innovative in a petrified culture. She’s altogether fresh and daring when she should be bitter and hopeless. Kids can watch this show and love it because each of its drab, dread shadows is eventually brightened away. Adults can love it because it’s not a super hero doing it: it’s a human with passion and grit. This young Anne is someone we can imaginably become.  ~ Aug. 12  / On Facebook