Anne of Green Gables

A few months ago, I was sitting in my apartment feeling overwhelmed with homesickness. I'd just gotten back from a week-long trip to Chicago for Thanksgiving, and all I wanted to do was sit next to my dog and play board games with my family. In moments like these, I turn to the comfort of a familiar TV show. Oftentimes it's Gilmore Girls, with New Girl, Friends and The Office making their way into the rotation as well. As I clicked through the channels on my TV before I booted up Netflix, I discovered, much to my delight and surprise, that the local PBS station was playing the 1980's Sullivan Entertainment adaptation of Anne of Green Gables. It turned my whole day around; I was filled with a sense of warmth and comfort, as the world of Green Gables surrounded me once again. I first discovered the magical world of Avonlea when I was in elementary school. PBS would often air specials where they would play this Canadian mini-series adaptation of Lucy Maud Montgomery's books over the course of a weekend, interspersed between the station's fundraising drive. I was immediately hooked after my first viewing. A couple things you should know about me to understand why I was so taken with this story. While everyone throughout my entire life has called me Annie, my actual name is Anne. With an "e." As a child, I was an avid reader and would often make up stories and write them down in a collection of notebooks. I was incredibly eager to learn, loved school and always wanted to be at the top of my class. And I was a sucker for a story with some romance mixed in. So when I stumbled across the whip-smart, imaginative, romantic, bookworm Anne Shirley (portrayed by the amazing Megan Follows), I was obsessed. I would sit down for hours to watch and re-watch the series when it aired, I made my parents purchase the films so we could own them on VHS (I know!), and I fell hard for the ever-charming Gilbert Blythe. Anne's world was always fun to visit. She was strong, unapologetically smart and constantly seeking adventure on Prince Edward Island. I loved watching her become "bosom friends" with Diana Barry, meet a "kindred spirit" in Ms. Stacy, reenact The Lady of Shalott, dye her hair green, make Marilla Cuthbert laugh, learn that "tomorrow is always fresh with no mistakes in it," break a slate over Gilbert's head, dance around in her dress with puffed sleeves (courtesy of the lovable Matthew Cuthbert), win over grumpy, but lovable, Rachel Lynde and ultimately find a home at Green Gables. Each cast member truly does amazing work throughout the installments, as they portray their characters growing through the years. While the first movie in the film series is best, I also enjoy Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel (1989) and can tolerate (but don't love) Anne of Green Gables: The Continuing Story (2000). One of my favorite elements woven throughout the series is watching Anne come into her own as a writer (after plenty of encouragement from Gilbert... swoon). She goes from attempting to get a short story published to writing romance novels to eventually publishing a story based on her love of Avonlea.  

I'm sad to admit that I was far too taken with this particular adaptation of Anne to ever read all of the books. I began to read the first one and was upset to discover that it didn't completely follow the movie version I'd come to love and wasn't able to read the rest. This is a sad truth for me to admit, as I'm always a proponent of reading books before seeing their movie counterparts. But I'm comforted in knowing that I'm not alone. Later in life, I realized that this particular Anne adaptation had struck a chord with many. In an episode of New Girl, Jess brings over the film series to watch with her best friend CeCe during her bachelorette party. CeCe declares: "I would throw it all away for Gilbert. I would just ruin my life for that boy." Last year, Vanity Fair gathered testimonials from several female writers to hear about how this movie inspired them. Included in the article? Playing House's Jessica St. Clair and Lennon Parham, The New Yorker's Sarah Larson and one of my other favorite Anne's, Anne T. Donahue, who pens a number of online essays that I love. When Jonathan Crombie, the actor who portrayed Gilbert, passed away suddenly in 2015, Sarah Larson wrote about why she fell in love with his character for The New Yorker. I'm happy to discover that the films and stories brought many kindred spirits together to share their love for one of fiction's greatest characters. 

As Seen on TV

When I first heard that Mae Whitman, Retta and Christina Hendricks would be starring in network show together, I was thrilled. These three women each have a myriad of film and TV credits to their names but haven't been given the opportunity to receive top billing in a series. Pairing them together for Good Girls, an NBC show about three women committing a heist when they're strapped for cash, sounds like a winning plan. Despite the hijinks that take place in the pilot episode, the show itself has a lot to say about what it means to be labeled a "good girl." Show creator Jenna Bans came up with the premise in the midst of the 2016 election, as she grappled with the overt sexism at play and how women were expected to handle respond on a national scale. The leads praise the show for creating three fleshed out, real women, who genuinely care for each other. The pilot episode aired last night, and let me tell you, it's a wild ride that takes a darker turn at the end. I was surprised to realize that the show was an hour long dramedy, instead of a half-hour comedy, and I'm not yet convinced that it wouldn't do better as the latter. But Good Girls has promise, and I'm particularly curious to follow Retta's character's journey along the way. The first episode has several moments that especially shine: Retta, who was mostly ignored by a male doctor earlier in the episode, finds that a female doctor actually hears her concerns, the three women all plan to watch The Bachelorette and drink wine together, the strong sisterly bond between Christina and Mae's characters, and Retta's dynamic with her family (especially a hilarious scene at the top of the episode featuring her daughter's school presentation). I'm not sure what the rest of the series will bring, but I am genuinely curious to find out what will happen next.

Haven't You Heard?

It's Academy Award season once again. To celebrate the 90th birthday of the Oscars, Entertainment Weekly put together a fun series of brackets to determine the true Academy winners -- pitting West Side Story against The Godfather and so on. Vivien Leigh was crowned overall Best Actress for Gone with the Wind and Tom Hanks won Best Actor for Philadelphia, but voting is still going on to name the ultimate best picture winner. Looking ahead to this year's winners -- I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Lady Bird to take home several statues, but I recognize that this will most likely not be the case and am locking in my predictions now for Three Billboards and The Shape of Water to take home the biggest wins of the night. The ceremony airs on Sunday and promises to be filled with jokes about 2017's Best Picture debacle. To get you prepared, The Hollywood Reporter put together a brilliant play-by-play of the entire incident. It features quotes from Jimmy Kimmel (hosting for the second year in a row), Busy Philipps, Chrissy Teigen, Mahershala Ali, Steve Harvey (who famously announced the wrong Miss Universe winner), the telecast director, the Oscar producers and everyone in between. But the real question is... who do you think will win on Sunday? Click the link  below to cast your vote for the biggest categories of the evening! 

Required Reading

Before we get to this week's required reading, I want to touch on two pieces of exciting news about Gina Rodriguez and Lena Waithe -- both previously featured in Seen & Heard's Love Letter section. Gina just signed on to star in and produce a Netflix movie titled Someone Great. The romantic comedy and tells the story of a woman who goes on an adventure with her two best friends in New York City after a break-up. Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, who wrote and directed the film, announced on Twitter that she's "always wanted to watch a romantic comedy where a woman could be her own white knight. A movie that’s central love story revolves around female friendship." Me too. In other entertainment news, TBS announced that they picked up Twenties, a comedy pilot from Lena. The show is based on the YouTube series that she created back in 2009, and it centers on Hattie, a queer black woman, and her two best friends. Fingers crossed it gets picked up for a full series order.

To continue with the Oscars theme, W Magazine asked Jordan Peele, Greta Gerwig and Luca ­Guadagnino to direct magazine photo shoots and went behind-the-scenes with short pieces examining each one, shedding further light onto the creative process of these three talents. Jordan directs a Hitchcock-infused shoot starring Janelle Monáe. Greta and Florence Welch talk about how they became friends while staging a "Safe meets Grey Gardens meets Rosemary's Baby" scene. And Luca created a display inspired by The Shining.