PCPS Light: Netflix’s “Little House on the Prairie” and How We Feel About It

Speaker 1 0:01

You know when it's right. You know when you feel it, baby. You hold it. You hear it. You taste it. It's right. You got the right one, baby. Yeah. Is this irrepressibly lovable? But surpass.

Carolyn Cochrane 0:29

Welcome to another episode of PCPS Lite. Our light, refreshing, and a little bit tangy sometimes episodes with little research, little editing, but a lot of feeling, and today's episode I have no doubt might be full of a lot of feeling. Okay, deep breath and tanginess.

Kristin Nilsen 0:49

Yeah, and a little tank. There'll be a little tank coming from me. A little

Carolyn Cochrane 0:53

sour. Might be a little sour. Our eyes might close a little bit like we're biting into a lemon. Because little house fans out there, I want you to gather around this Ingalls fireplace because the prairie has officially been repopulated, and we, along with many of you, have feelings. In case you didn't know, Netflix has given us a brand new little house on the prairie, and naturally, Carolyn, Kristen, and Michelle have some thoughts because, as you know, we grew up in the big wheel generation, and watching Laura run through that grass in her bonnet, crying her eyes out when Mary went blind, were all parts of our lives. But this is not a television reboot for us. This can be personal, and I think it's personal for a lot of you out there. So here's the interesting part. Okay, Netflix's version isn't technically a remake of the Michael Landon series. Okay, everybody, did you hear me? It's technically not a remake of the Michael Landon series. It's a new adaptation of Laura Ingalls Wilder's books with a much more, and we'll talk about this kind of cinematic modern take on frontier life. And lucky us, in my opinion, it's been renewed for a season too. But the internet, and maybe the three of us, we'll have to see, has been very divided on this reboot. So let's get into this, ladies. Have you watched it? What are your feelings? And don't be afraid. Don't hold back because we've all got our space here, and all opinions are welcome. I might think yours is wrong, but that's

Kristin Nilsen 2:28

okay. So just to be clear, Carolyn has watched the entire thing. I have watched the entire thing. Michelle has watched 15 minutes of one episode, and she has big feelings about her 15 minutes. So I kind of feel like Michelle should go first with her 15-minute take.

Carolyn Cochrane 2:43

Okay.

Michelle Newman 2:43

Okay. So I, from the beginning when they announced it all, I was on board. I was like, there is always space for new things and to refresh and to get more people, new people involved and to become fans. So I was not. I was always, I was always very supportive of the decision. I followed it all along. I thought the casting. I thought the little girl was adorable. I thought you know Paul was hot. It was all playing just like it was supposed to. They they they spoke to me, and then I started seeing trailers for it, and I was like, oh, I, for some reason, that's not okay with me. Like, I'm not feeling this right. So when it came out, I was actually really surprised that I just kept putting off watching it. And we have some friends and friends that through the podcast that loved it, that watched the whole thing at the beginning. Can't say enough. Can't say you know enough great things about it. I still, anytime I'd get an opportunity to watch it, I would put it off. And so when we knew we were doing this episode, I don't really know why. I think I think there was something inside me that knew why.

Carolyn Cochrane 3:51

You're not alone. So the other night I was like,

Michelle Newman 3:53

I'm going to start watching The Little House because you know, or a couple weeks ago. And you guys, I was so bored. I could not. It was so. First of all, it was now. Understand, everyone. Carolyn and Kristen are just going to let me vent because I know that your you listening, your opinions are different than mine. Their opinions may be different than mine, but we all have to remember that not everything is for everyone. That's right. I just felt like it was. I just didn't buy into it. That's what it is. I didn't buy into it, and I knew going in that this was not a remake. That this was based on the books, which were my favorite books as a child. I knew it was based on the third novel, Little House on the Prairie. I knew it was after they leave Wisconsin. I knew, I knew all that stuff. I just didn't buy into it. I thought it was, in my opinion, I thought there were so many of the things I was watching, and I did watch more than I watched the whole first episode. I was just kidding when I said I watched 15 minutes. Yeah, but I just felt like there was so much that I, I just felt very like it was not. It was unrealistic. I just felt like. There were things like some people, you know, with their their one language and then speaking English exactly perfectly, like all this kind of stuff was just not. It was just not okay. And so I thought I got to the end. I even just it's just so terrible to say, but like I didn't even really like the acting. Like I felt like I thought they were all really beautiful and and everything, but I just so I got to the end and I thought you've got to watch another one. You've got to give it more. You can't just you know sort of like how many pages do you give a book, right? You've got to give it at least two or three episodes, and I just was like, I can't. I thought you know what? I can come to this conversation with my hot take, and and maybe I do. I'm I'm hoping that after listening to you all talk about it, I will be like, oh, okay, yeah, I do need to give it more episodes. I thought the little girl was adorable. I thought you know Paul was hot. Like I said, I just wasn't. I was watching it very critically. I think because even though I knew it wasn't a remake, I think I had that in my mind. I don't know. I just felt like it was too new or something. I I felt like they were trying too hard. I felt okay. That's all. That's I just I just felt like it lacked a lot of the depth and the warmth of the series the original series. Even though I know it's not a remake, they I felt like even though they're taking the stories straight from the book, and I recognized even in episode one. Of course, I recognized things from the actual book. To me, it was lacking. I guess I'll just say lacking, and fill in the word after that. Lacking anything you put after that, I would probably agree with. You're just not

Kristin Nilsen 6:37

compelled. It didn't compel you. Yeah. So, and that's that's an important thing to listen to when you're making decisions about what to watch or read or listen to. Like if you're not compelled after you finish chapter one, time is precious. Great

Carolyn Cochrane 6:53

point, especially at our age. Yeah, my friend Kurt informed me that they're only 52 weeks in a year and we don't have our years are dwindling. So it's

Michelle Newman 7:01

seriously, it makes

Carolyn Cochrane 7:02

me very much more mindful of how I spend my time. And there is nothing wrong with saying this didn't float your boat, you know. And I feel guilty

Michelle Newman 7:11

about it, though. I feel like as a Gen Xer, I feel bad that I didn't like it. You

Carolyn Cochrane 7:16

should, but

Michelle Newman 7:16

I also feel very strongly that I want to keep my. You know, I'm looking right now. I have all of my little house books from you know the mid early 70s, mid 70s when I read them. Right there, I just want to keep all that. I think now in my mind, like I want to just keep those. I picture all those stories happening with Garth Williams's illustrations.

Kristin Nilsen 7:36

Yeah, does that make sense? Like that's how

Michelle Newman 7:38

I want to keep it all in my mind, mr. Edwards. I just I was there was just a lot, guys. Sorry, and sorry, listeners, if you're disappointed in my Edwards, if you're if you're disappointed in my my reaction, but I just wanted to be honest and not come into this going,

Carolyn Cochrane 7:52

I loved it. It was for our age group. You can't help. It's not like we should feel guilty for comparing them. That's our frame of reference. That's okay. No, okay. If you are an eight, 910, year old girl right now, or boy, or whatever, if you're coming to Little House on the Prairie for the very first time, you don't have all that. I don't want to call it that exactly. You don't have those memories, so that's a different audience. It is. And who did who is the audience for this? Yeah,

Michelle Newman 8:19

yeah, and and that's so smart, though, because like yes, I'm not commenting right now on if there are little 789, year old girls and boys that are now going to be enticed to read the books. Of course, I'm all for that. Of course I love it. If they love it, I'm just talking about me. Of course, this is all about me. No, it's just my. So I'm really I'm really excited to hear your reactions, and I'm really excited for to hear because it might make me go, oh, I never, you know, I'm gonna try to go back and watch it with that conversation,

Carolyn Cochrane 8:52

and having what do I want to say, just good deep conversations with people that think differently than you is not impossible to do, and you might come out with your mind changed. I might, you might be like, "Oh, okay, or you might convince me of something. And I think it's important for our listeners who maybe haven't watched it to know that this new adaptation is eight episodes long, compared to a season of Little House that we would watch on TV in the 70s, which could be anywhere from 22 to 24 episodes. Yeah, very different. And I think it's important to note that those episodes were stories in and of themselves. You could pop into you know episode six of Little House. You might not know every little thing that's going on, but the story arc started, you know, it climaxed, and we had a resolution by the within

Kristin Nilsen 9:44

the episode. Within the episode, every episode has its own arc.

Carolyn Cochrane 9:47

Exactly compared to this adaptation, which is kind of one story. I mean, there are little things in between, yes, or one book. So there's a little bit of a different. What do I like pace to this? Then, if we're comparing it to what we watched growing up, and that's 70 storytelling

Kristin Nilsen 10:07

versus modern day storytelling. We're living in the age of the limited series, which has an arc amongst eight episodes. Exactly. Back then, almost every show was an arc within each episode,

Carolyn Cochrane 10:18

right? Unless we had a two parter. Unless you don't care, my God, that's a good point. It

Kristin Nilsen 10:22

to be continued.

Carolyn Cochrane 10:23

Yes, and and these are also this one came out dropped all of the episodes at once. Yeah, yeah, and so that I can go on my soapbox about that watching those kind of shows that are written and produced with that in mind. Like we are dropping all these at once. There's a chance somebody is going to go from zero to eight or one to eight in one sitting versus you know a show like a Ted Lasso or something that does drop weekly. There's a whole. I would think there's a whole different way to write those even than

Kristin Nilsen 10:57

there is, and there's no anticipation. You're lacking the anticipation that we would waiting for to waiting to see the next episode, what will happen in the next episode? It's just it's that's that's not a criticism of this show. That's a criticism of modern day television.

Carolyn Cochrane 11:11

Even if it's a criticism, it's just it's different. Just be prepared. Go in thinking you know Michael Landon and you know beginning to end, we're going to get a cute half pint storm. We're going to feel good for the most part. Not always with with Michael, but you don't get that with this. This is much more of a drawn out story. And

Kristin Nilsen 11:30

I, much like Michelle, I was very indifferent going into it. I wasn't all excited about the reboot because I know that that's a dicey proposition. the possibility of disappointing old Little House fans is great, and so I was not really on the bandwagon. Did I? I didn't think they shouldn't do it. I'm. I was just like, I'm prepared to be disappointed, and I don't. And they don't need to please me. It's not about me. And how on earth would they ever be able to please all of these people who feel so strongly about something, both the books and the show, that is baggage. That for us, oh, that's how on earth do they please us? I so I watched it kind of reluctantly. I was the I probably wouldn't have watched it actually. It didn't look like something that I would be into, and it was only because we were going to be talking about it that it's like, oh, I better watch it. I think this show is my favorite show on TV that I have watched in the last several years. No lie, God's honest truth. I have not been this emotionally invested in characters in recent memory. You guys, I'd be like, why is water coming out of my eyes? I am

Carolyn Cochrane 12:42

gobsmacked, you guys. I thought she would like it, but I'm about to fall off my chair. I know. I surprised myself.

Michelle Newman 12:49

What do

Kristin Nilsen 12:49

you have to say? I was there. Is you know we talk about alchemy a lot. We talk about magic. Sometimes you just get the the perfect combination of things to elicit an emotional response. So I could I could tick off boxes of all of the things that that I liked about the show. I don't even, but I don't even really know where to begin. I'm just so excited that I was that I was feeling a connection with it, and when it was over, we were not. We're not going to spoil the end for you. There were several times that. Well, I mean, people know. It's little house. No, no, but I'm not. But you're right. But there's a specific way they reveal. You're right. The end that, and it's. It was not nostalgic for me. Let me say that up front. This was not a nostalgic watch. I wasn't crying out of nostalgia until the last scene. The last scene is when the nostalgia tears came, and I was like, "Here we go, here we go, we're doing it, we're doing it, and I was so excited. But I will, I think, number one, let's start with the casting is utter perfection. I cannot wait for Pa to break a rib and take that shirt off. It's going to be did he not take his

Michelle Newman 14:00

shirt off the entire first season. No, but you

Kristin Nilsen 14:03

could, but you can see kind of his chest hair underneath. They were hinting at it. It's coming. He's gonna break a rib eventually. The casting of Ma is she's kind of the perfect combination of Karen Grassley, but they gave her a little more agency. You know, Karen Grassley was always frustrated by the fact that she was not given more to do. You know, part of that is that it's pioneer days, and she didn't have a lot of agency in real life. But they're like, it's okay. We can we can allow her to be a second banana as she would be in pioneer days, but also be like, fuck it, I'm gonna say what I think, and it's and it felt realistic because she did it in a very demure fashion. The casting of Laura and Mary don't tell Melissa Gilbert, but I like them better. I real, I mean the the hair on both of them was perfection in that it was. Kind of messy and haphazard, but also how do I make my hair do that? It was so perfect. Laura's Laura had a serious hat game. She she where we would love Paw's hat, his iconic hat in the original Little House series. We have Laura's hat, and it really identifies her as going against the grain. I I don't have to be pretty like the other girls do. I'm going to wear this hat. I mean, I can't just do a list, Carolyn. This is ridiculous. I could go on all freaking day, but there were but there were places where the first time I cried is where I was like, oh, something's happening. Something's happening to me, and I will say, and I thought the acting was stupendous, particularly by the children, and that is what would what would have killed it for me. Child actors can ruin a show. These girls were incredibly authentic and emotive without being overly sentimental. There was one. There was one episode that didn't. I was like, "Oh, I kind of messed that one up. And I looked, and it was a different director. So I'm going to give that to the director. I'm going to give all props to the director who elicited those very authentic responses from the girls. They are snipey. They are frustrated with each other. They have sibling issues. It's super realistic in that way. It's not just unicorns and rainbows all the time.

Carolyn Cochrane 16:31

No,

Kristin Nilsen 16:31

there's a lot of kissing on the prairie. I think there's more kissing on this prairie than there was on the actual prairie because I just don't think that beautiful pa and beautiful Ma would have a long romantic kiss in the middle of the street in Independence, Kansas, when all the people are walking around. I just don't think that would have happened, but it is sexy as hell.

Carolyn Cochrane 16:51

Yeah, it is very super

Kristin Nilsen 16:53

sexy. Yeah, they're beautiful. Yeah, that's

Michelle Newman 16:55

for sure.

Kristin Nilsen 16:56

They're all beautiful people. Especially, can we talk about Lacy? Lacy is a character who was not in the books, but she was an actual person who lived in Independence, Kansas at that time. Lacy is from France and she wears pants. And I, little Kristen, would definitely have wanted a Lacy costume for Halloween. I would have been Lacy. She rode horses. She did not ride side saddle. She carried a gun, and she hung out with the men. Yeah, she was not married. She wasn't going to get married. She was canoodling with Mister Edwards, and she was unabashedly so. She's like, I don't care if you know that we're canoodling. That's fine. Um, that I have so much more to say, but I want to give someone else a chance to talk. I carry a lot of you there. Yeah.

Carolyn Cochrane 17:43

Well, I um I will echo everything you said um to a degree. I think the way I like to describe this show is it is great to needlepoint by. Okay, so it was I loved it. I felt like um I followed the storyline. I was invested, but I could also look down and count my stitches and that kind of a thing. I could pause it and go to the bathroom. Maybe

Michelle Newman 18:07

that's my problem. I was trying to watch it on the treadmill. You know, I was a little more. I was like, yes,

Carolyn Cochrane 18:14

I think yeah, it's perfect for needle pointing. Maybe that'll be a new like way I'll judge shows. This is I'm

Michelle Newman 18:19

already now motivated to to give episode two a try. Okay, keep going, Carolyn. Keep a

Carolyn Cochrane 18:25

sense of like, let's give it one more than just the first one because we're just establishing a lot. I came away so much more. I felt educated. I felt like I learned things that I never ever knew, particularly. And we'll, I'm sure talk about this, or if you watch the show about the Osage tribe, the Native Americans, and just what was happening in the United States at this time. I mean, Pa was not innocent. Like, there's this a guilt that you learn even when they learn about what's happening. They're not like, oh, we better not do this anymore because we're taking someone's land. It was, you know, there. What do I want to say? Paul wasn't all rosy in that.

Michelle Newman 19:08

Yeah, he wasn't like, oh no, then we shouldn't do this.

Carolyn Cochrane 19:12

And just how that whole process worked was so interesting to me. I had no idea, and I don't want to spoil it for people, and I wouldn't even do it justice trying to articulate it, but just the way this process worked, and that there was a job of a person that was, in this case, Osage, that was kind of the mediator who went between the the government and the tribe and had to like explain to each of those entities why something was important or what this meant or if this was a good deal, and it really, again, gosh, it it shows how capitalism can really just not be a good thing sometimes, and what we're willing to do, and who we're willing to throw under the bus, and whose lives are more valuable than others. I saw this through a different lens, and I feel this is. Factual, not portrayed at all. I mean, in the TV show or the books,

Kristin Nilsen 20:05

I think. And I, I don't mean to interrupt you, but I do want to interject that I think this is one of my favorite parts of the series, and I think what they're doing is giving some redemption to the books because, as you know, that there there is controversy about the Laura Ingalls Wilder books now because of the racism in them and the fact that the-I mean, she was a child, so she didn't know that they were taking the Osage Lance. She had no idea. She can't speak to that. But these books are not canceled by any means. They're not. They're not banned. But they are. They've been, let's say, demoted a little bit because of the racism in them, and I think the show is trying to insert the history in order to redeem the books. What the books couldn't do, the show will do, right?

Carolyn Cochrane 20:50

And what's wrong with like learning more? I mean, I, you know, again to the point of we only have so much time in our lives. The fact that I knew I could watch this be entertained and yet come away learning something to me is like checks a lot of boxes. This was worth my time, and that particularly struck me as I didn't realize just the deal making and the and the whole way that Pa and Ma came out like under they were kind of duped into what brought them out to the prairie, and the people that duped knew they were duping and manipulating because it was free

Kristin Nilsen 21:26

land. They're like free land. Why wasn't free land to talk to somebody else?

Carolyn Cochrane 21:30

Exactly. So I, I really liked that aspect of it. And again, you had said this earlier, Kristen. Just showing Ma in a different light, like we get to see a little bit more of her backstory. I mean, there's a little bit of well, they have a really good way. I guess what what do we call this? A mechanism of showing us the past through some dreams kind of states. But you learn more about malaria. That's just say malaria. Yeah, they're having these delirious dreams because they have malaria, but I love learning those background stories a little bit more. I understand where Ma is coming from. I understand Pa a little bit more. I didn't read the books. I'll be the first to say that I didn't read all the books. So I don't know how much of that those storylines are told in the books, but to understand and how much of them are actually true, but you understand Pa a little bit more because of what he's the relationship he has with his father and with a brother and some things like that. So flawed,

Kristin Nilsen 22:34

right? He's not on land, and he's a flawed character. And so I think that was one thing that I really liked about this series is they showed the difficulties involved. Where in now that we're grown ups, we're like, how is it that Pa dragged his family all over the country against his wife's will, at his own whim, possibly because of his own ego? And you see this in the show where he's like, oh my god, what have I done? I dragged my my family already all the way here, and this land wasn't free, and it doesn't even belong to us. Oh my God! Why am like you get to see a more fleshed out character in everybody, really everybody, including the Osage, which was really important because they weren't just side characters in the books. They're just to say they're side characters is I don't even have to call

Carolyn Cochrane 23:23

it character.

Kristin Nilsen 23:24

Not characters, right? They're stereotypes and they're scary. They're things. They're yeah. Well, things they were. I can picture.

Speaker 2 23:30

I

Michelle Newman 23:30

can picture the illustrations in my head perfectly. Yeah, they were not.

Kristin Nilsen 23:34

They were not human. They were things to be feared. And in the series, they are fully fleshed out characters who are in this horrible situation that you just mentioned, Carolyn, where their land has been stolen, and now the government wants to negotiate with them, which is kind of like the government knocking on my door and saying, "This house is ours now, and but we'll gladly move you elsewhere. We'll and we'll set you up someplace else. You gotta go, but but but it's my house. You can't. So that's essentially what is happening. And I will tell you one of the times that I were the water was coming out of my eyes is when there's the big negotiation. And I won't reveal anything. I won't give you any spoilers. But there's a big negotiation between the Indian agents and the townspeople and the Osage people, where there is a treaty to be signed. The treaty says, "We will buy your land from you for $1 an acre or something like that, and then we will remove you. We will remove you to a different place. How's that? Does that sound like a good deal? And then they promise them all of these things, and as the as the people are discussing and the Osage are signing the treaty, I am crying bitter tears because we as Americans all know what happened that you didn't keep that treaty, and you're and so I was so overcome with the knowledge that those people were getting screwed and they didn't know it, and they don't tell you that. The show that's not part of the storyline at all, but we as Americans know that, and it was very, very heavy for me. But, but like you said, Carolyn, it was important to see that. It's important not just to read it in a textbook, but to understand it from a human place. Exactly, and

Michelle Newman 25:16

I hope that you know, like I said earlier, I hope that there, and I know I know there are not that I hope that I know there are many little kids watching this now because what this does is it humanizes them. Yes, yes, they've read about it in in textbooks or they've read the lore and you know they've read the Little House books, but even in episode one, one thing I did appreciate was that you saw the family. You saw that's right. You it humanized them to a point that you don't get in the books, and so I think that's really impactful and important and good for especially children to totally,

Carolyn Cochrane 25:51

totally. Yeah, I think it's good for the books. It's good for the books because we want to keep those books. I don't want those books to be canceled again to put it in perspective of when they were written, be one thing if someone was writing that book today, yeah, and you know didn't include some of the things we know now. But yeah, when you wrote that book and you're writing it at a certain time in history, and you have a certain belief system at that point, you know, as you're a child,

Kristin Nilsen 26:20

because you're a child, and you oh yes, or even if you're the

Carolyn Cochrane 26:22

adult writing this and reflecting on being a child, you're still there's still a world you live in, and we can't hold people to standards of today. When we learn, you know, when we know better, we do better, yeah, and we've learned. So that's always something. It's just nothing is black and white, and unfortunately, social media wants us to see that. But what I love is that, like you said, they humanize these characters, and they have relationships with these characters beyond just oh, that's the negotiator. I mean, they become friends, and so moving these people off their land isn't just saying goodbye to this group of people. It is people that you have come to know, yeah, and and you learn too. I think it's important to point out that these, this particular tribe, the it's something about the land. It's not just oh, we want to stay together. It doesn't matter where we are. Which I could say now, oh, as long as I'm with Andy, I don't care if I'm in Pennsylvania or Minnesota. Andy is my people and my family, but the the land is part of who these people are. So when you are moving them, you're not just relocating them to oh you'll be happy here, you'll all be together. You're taking away part of who they are and who makes them who they are and what they are. The land and nature is such a part of them. So I think that we don't we don't know that until we see it kind of play out, and that's another thing that I learned.

Kristin Nilsen 27:45

And that's where art is important because art is allowing us to understand this more fully. And like you said, they to move them to a different land, they're like, well, there are no buffalo there. Where you're moving, this is who we are. Is that we're not? And they're like, but you can farm. They're like, we're not farmers. That's you know the Cherokee. I'm saying I don't think that's true, but I'm just saying yes. That's the Cherokee. They're farmers. We're not farmers. We hunt buffalo. That's

Carolyn Cochrane 28:08

our identity. Like this is not just oh learn a new thing. This is in this is who we are.

Kristin Nilsen 28:14

Yeah, and what also comes out. This is the most again art. Art makes history lessons so much more. You can feel the history lesson instead of just having knowledge about it. And so this also came through in that whole negotiation, and we're seeing it now on our streets in America. Is that okay? So they have this treaty, and they're asking the Osage to sign it. Of course, they could choose not to sign it, but when then they choose, but when they say we're not going to sign it, they say, "Well, we'll we'll get the army to come make you sign it. In other words, we're going to start a war. There will be violence. You will be annihilated. So this is what happens when you speaking of humanization. If you don't view a group of people as human, you can enter brutality and violence into the equation, you can have whatever you want, and that's exactly what we're seeing on our streets right now. Let's use brutality. Let's use violence, and then we don't have to abide by any rules of ethics.

Carolyn Cochrane 29:11

And there were some characters in the show that were townspeople who were of that mindset. Like we'll just take it into our own hands, and we'll you know arm ourselves up, and we'll go out. We'll do this ourselves. Like this is my land, and it's not their land. I mean, you know, this is the town's person saying this is my farm. I've established this. They can't take it from me. I'll and and we know how that.

Kristin Nilsen 29:34

So then, what choice do they have but to sign? There's no negotiation there. So we either we sign and we stay alive, or we don't sign and you kill us. That's not really a choice, right?

Carolyn Cochrane 29:45

And again, when we see that play out with people that we have, or characters that we have come to to understand a little bit more, like you know, there this family had a sister that died, and you know, so you see this whole family, this Native American family. In a different light, because of that, and to your point about art, Kristen, I think one of the things I really enjoyed about this series was the cinematography and the music, amazing, beautiful. I mean, there were parts where there's no dialog, but you know what's happening. You have the feeling of whether it's melancholy or joy or sadness or excitement or whatever, and then the prairie-it really becomes a character in this way more

Kristin Nilsen 30:31

than the old show. Oh, I mean the old show had mountains. That was no prairie. Yes, I mean yeah, there are mountains in every show. There's an airplane. Yeah, there's like little things people airplay

Carolyn Cochrane 30:40

out or something that we might not

Michelle Newman 30:42

see. Yes, it was filmed

Carolyn Cochrane 30:43

in Manitoba, in Manitoba, in Manitoba, Canada. So not you know the real, obviously because we populated it in Independence, Kansas doesn't look anything like it would have then. But the cinematography, the color that they use, you know, the shots, everything, it becomes its own character and part of this storytelling of the beauty of the land. They talk about that so much. I mean, honestly, I thought the prairie was ugly. And when I've driven through parts of what we would consider prairie land in current day, I'm like, who would live here? But this was gorgeous, and I think much like what it would have looked like when the Ingalls arrived, and it wasn't just flat. There was, you know, there was terrain and the big sky. You could see the yes, you could see the attraction. I guess, and so I loved that aspect of it. But for some people who are maybe looking for a little more action, looking at you, Michelle, where you thought like it could seem kind of. I just had that on the runway. Yeah, I've seen yeah, but now, but now

Michelle Newman 31:45

I'm I'm very modest and keep watching. Yeah,

Kristin Nilsen 31:48

there's another really important. Here's another really important piece of this puzzle. I have recommended this show to my mom and to my mother in law because there is nothing on TV for them to watch. My mother in law is like, all we watch is PBS because there's nothing for us because they don't want to see. They don't want to see all

Carolyn Cochrane 32:09

hockey players. I want to just say that we're hockey players. God

Kristin Nilsen 32:12

bless you, hockey players. Have all the sex you want, and God bless all the people who love watching for sure. But my 85 year old mother in law does not, and so this is family viewing in a way that we don't have on TV anymore. Like we started watching White Lotus with my 23-year-old. He's an adult, right? Like he can he can handle adult topics. But the first time Steve's on lifts his wiener up, Lee's like, "I'm out. I'm not watching this with you. There's not even anything I can watch with my 23-year-old on TV anymore. This is that show you can watch this with your sixth grader, with your grandchild. Right now, our TV is so siloed that all they have to watch is, you know, Disney shows or things that are made specifically for children that we are not interested in. Don't you want shows that we're all interested in together?

Carolyn Cochrane 33:00

Exactly. I mean, and we talk about that a lot on the podcast about back when there were three major networks. You had to figure out a way to attract all these different demographics. So we talk about the variety show where we had George Burns, and then we maybe had Debbie Boone, and we had Leif Garrett, like our all in one thing. And you are like, what is that about? But you, we each had each generation had somebody that they would want to see, and same with Little House, same with the Waltons. You had a storyline and a character and people that that we could all identify with that brought us together. And in this case, for this show, gave us some give us some talking points that after it's over, we can be like, "Wow, you know, what did you think about this scene? Or, "Oh, I felt bad, or "Laura was sad here, or whatever. So that's an excellent point, Kristen. This is one of the only shows I can think of. You know, you do want the the show or the something pop culture that you can talk to your grandkid about.

Speaker 1 34:00

Yes, that you're

Carolyn Cochrane 34:01

invested in and have a an opinion on, and imagine having

Kristin Nilsen 34:04

the the same favorite show as your grandchild. How great would that be? And I thought of you, Carolyn, several times because much like the original show, there are still lessons and morals. They're not; they don't beat you over the head with it. But what you have are constant examples of people struggling with what is the right thing to do.

Carolyn Cochrane 34:25

Yes, and

Kristin Nilsen 34:26

what are the examples out there on TV? That's just not how we tell stories on TV anymore. We're more TV right now is more about bad people. That's a good. That's entertaining. That's very entertaining, and I'm all there for it too. But when you're watching something with your children, where are the examples that you want where somebody wants to aspire to be like Mary Ingalls, right? Where you want to as some it gives you something to aspire to as opposed to something that just entertains you.

Carolyn Cochrane 34:54

Yes, yeah, and there are some you know bullies in this episode and. You see how Laura and Mary handle situations differently, and so they're not always even them. They're not always maybe making the right choice out of the gate, and so it's it gives you points to ponder and also to realize, like maybe on some level as an adult, I realize you realize this, but this this is human. Like this doesn't matter if it's 1870 something or 2026, like these needs and reactions and whatever are very human. They're and they're playing themselves out now, and you know it's just who we are. And but we can always strive to be better and make good choices. So

Kristin Nilsen 35:38

and we don't have much that's showing us, and there's nothing entertaining us in that except for Ted Lasso. There's another nothing to entertain us that isn't that right. Yeah,

Carolyn Cochrane 35:48

I mean that's just you know you're not going to sit down with a little kid and watch that with you know no

Kristin Nilsen 35:53

you're effing

Carolyn Cochrane 35:53

this and effing effing that and as our generation again ages and we are going to have these opportunities again for sitting down with kids and you know little kids and what can bring us together, yeah. And to think like this show could, and then we have great stories to share with our grandkids about. Yeah, and this was a show when I was a little girl, and this is who played that character, and this is the actress that did this. Speaking of, let's just talk a little bit about the some of the fun. There are a couple little Easter eggs that we find ourselves encountering in this series in season one, Kristen. Since you didn't watch enough, Michelle, it's not like I'm leaving you out. You just don't. Oh no, no, no! It's fine. It's fine. And this is pretty public knowledge, so it's not like we're getting spoiled. It's not a spoiler. But who do we see? I knew

Kristin Nilsen 36:43

it immediately. There is an old scraggly woman in the woods who is sort of like the twopence a bag woman in in Mary Poppins. Exactly, and I looked at her face and I was like, "Oh, it's Nellie Olsen! It's Nellie Olsen! And it was she did such a great job. She it was not. Sometimes cameos are are uncomfortable. They're trying to fit into a mold, and they're not as if they're not relevant anymore. And they're I don't know. But this was not that. This was you could see Allison Arngrim's skill as an actress playing this scruffy old woman, but also having a little tinge of Nellie Olsen because she's not a nice old woman. She is not nice, right?

Carolyn Cochrane 37:24

Exactly. And I didn't recognize this cameo because I didn't watch this show. Sorry, I'm trying to look it up. Do you remember that? So the other actress is from Anne of Green Gables.

Kristin Nilsen 37:35

Oh, so I didn't know that, but I did. But there was there were a lot of people who looked familiar to me, and I wondered if somebody should say

Carolyn Cochrane 37:42

that. And it was like from you know that was like more of a Canadian show that came out. Yeah, a lot of the Canadian

Kristin Nilsen 37:47

people on PBS, right?

Carolyn Cochrane 37:50

Yes, yes, yes, yes. So let me hold on. Little House on yeah, I've read that she

Michelle Newman 37:54

was in there too. Did you guys read that? Or I saw in a a social media post. Someone asked Melissa Gilbert why she wasn't in it, and she said she wasn't asked.

Carolyn Cochrane 38:06

Yeah,

Kristin Nilsen 38:07

and you could in the you could see in her response that like you could almost hear it. Yeah, I wasn't asked. I wasn't asked. Yeah, I wasn't asked. Yeah,

Carolyn Cochrane 38:14

and that's it's

Kristin Nilsen 38:16

not what this is about, really. Like I think Alice and Arngram they could they could hide a little bit more. Yeah, there would be no hiding Melissa Gilbert, and then it would become a. It would become something different. And I don't. And I really, it really is apples and oranges. I didn't need it to be connected to the earlier show. That wasn't what I was looking for. Right. And so at first, in the beginning, I wasn't like I said. I wasn't watching it nostalgically, and I wasn't crying from nostalgia. And I really viewed it as something completely and utterly separate. And that helped my watching. If I was comparing the whole time, it would have. Nobody would come out ahead. Nobody would come out ahead if I did that. But when when I saw Allison Arngroom, that did make me really really happy. But I don't think it would work if you populated the whole town with people from the original show. Oh,

Carolyn Cochrane 39:05

right. I mean, that would dumb it down. That's not what it's

Kristin Nilsen 39:08

exactly right.

Carolyn Cochrane 39:09

And I'll just chime in now with the other cameo because I found it. Megan follows, and Megan was the star of the 1985 Anne of Green Gables miniseries, and her cameo is as Charles Ingalls' mother, Laura Colby Ingles, during a fever dream sequence.

Michelle Newman 39:25

Oh, oh, oh! So I

Carolyn Cochrane 39:27

wouldn't necessarily recognize her because I didn't watch it, but a lot of people did. And this was kind of another nod to a show that, much like Little House on the Prairie, it it had that same kind of feeling and vibe, and the you know the beautiful scenery and all of that, so a lot of people saw that and just you know our age. So I again the showrunner. What was her name again?

Kristin Nilsen 39:49

Rebecca Sun and Shine.

Carolyn Cochrane 39:50

Okay, Rebecca acknowledged the fact that there were going to be a lot of people like us watching it. Yeah, we were not. We're not the demographic. I don't think. I don't know that she has a specific demographic. I don't think so. The audience is exactly what you said, Kristen. She created a show where different groups could come together and get something out of it and enjoy it, and then maybe have conversation after the fact. So the Easter eggs were super fun. So she acknowledges, "I see you, Gen Xers. I see you, Little House fans from the 1970s, and here you go. But it's not. This show is not for you. We didn't like just have you know Grandma Nellie or anything like that. I mean, she's completely different character.

Kristin Nilsen 40:29

It's sort of like the way the pit is to ER is this little house to the original little house. A

Carolyn Cochrane 40:35

great comparison, right? Where they are not the

Kristin Nilsen 40:37

same. They are not descended from one another. They are not even honoring it. It is something of its own making, with a with a stronger connection to the book than it is to the show, which I I appreciate. I I appreciate that.

Carolyn Cochrane 40:51

I'm 100% I agree. Well, let me give you a few little fun little facts, and let you know that I think I said this earlier. We are getting a season two, and then we will start to recognize a little bit more of the characters. We're going to get a Nelly in season two. Oh, that will be interesting. We're going to get some Olsons. Yeah. So we will start to have some recognition. You have to remember too that what we saw in this first season was more of like maybe what the pilot kind of was. It's a prequel.

Kristin Nilsen 41:22

It's a prequel to what we know.

Carolyn Cochrane 41:25

Exactly. Exactly.

Kristin Nilsen 41:26

Okay. We didn't even talk about mr. Edwards. Can I just tell you how much I loved this mr. Edwards? Like we don't, and we don't. We don't have to go into why. But you know, mr. Edwards on the original show is he was well. He's he's an oddball crush. Let's put it that way. But this mr. Edwards is kind of hot. The new mr. Edwards is a tortured soul, a beautiful tortured soul who shacks up with the lady in pants, and and there and there's an arc there where um where people don't like mr. Edwards; they think he's a drunkard, but you know he's got drama. Oh my

Michelle Newman 41:59

God! See, just in episode one, yes,

Kristin Nilsen 42:01

broke my heart. It is heartbreaking, and um, and he becomes pivotal in that last scene that made me cry nostalgia tears.

Michelle Newman 42:10

All right, well, you guys, I'm on board now. Oh,

Kristin Nilsen 42:12

good. Oh, I can't wait to hear what you think now. Well, don't

Michelle Newman 42:16

worry, we'll have we'll have part two listeners.

Kristin Nilsen 42:18

Yeah, Michelle. Yeah, Michelle's girl will have us maybe

Carolyn Cochrane 42:20

next.

Michelle Newman 42:21

You know what

Carolyn Cochrane 42:21

PCPS. Hey,

Michelle Newman 42:22

you guys who are listening, check out our Substack. I hope you have checked out our Substack. After I watch it, I'm going to write a Substack. Yes, do it. Okay, that's awesome.

Carolyn Cochrane 42:32

Yes, and you could do like the before and after. Like this is how you. I'm very busy

Michelle Newman 42:36

over the next few weeks, though, so it might not be till the end of September. Yes,

Carolyn Cochrane 42:40

yeah. But I would love to know how your opinion might have changed, or what prompted you after our discussion to go back. That's what I would write about it. Yes, I would love to know that because I would

Michelle Newman 42:52

speak to all the points you all are making, and if I am still like nope, or if I'm like I love it, yeah, and there and it's

Kristin Nilsen 42:59

not perfect, people. Nothing is perfect. Like you know, Carrie is born in you know about 10 minutes of labor with no help except for Pa, and then she gets up and she sits in a chair. And I'm like, nope, donut. Yep, right. Well,

Michelle Newman 43:11

and I have to remember that. Like one of my biggest problems with episode one was that the Indians spoke perfect English. Like they were so perfectly bilingual. Were they?

Kristin Nilsen 43:22

Yeah, that is absolutely killer. That's why

Carolyn Cochrane 43:25

that one character was a negotiator because he was a translator. Another thing I didn't realize because he and his wife met at school, which was a America, you know, a United States school that they opened up and then sent all the Native American kids to because they needed to to read English and read you know English literature. I mean, when you find out what books are on their shelves and things in there, quaint little, and they live in a lot. I mean, they live in a house just like the Ingles build. I mean, it's they're not yeah in in a wigwam or something that in our minds as kids we might have thought that's where the tribes were going off to. I mean, there was a specific group of people who kind of straddled that life because when they were kids, they were put into this American culture school and had to grow up learning, and might have been taken

Kristin Nilsen 44:18

from their parents to do so. Right. So there, and there is a diversity of those native characters as well. So there are some native characters who speak broken English, and then there are native characters who speak

Speaker 1 44:29

perfect

Michelle Newman 44:30

English. That's true. And there's some that

Carolyn Cochrane 44:31

speak kind of none, where we have subtitles. There are subtitles. Yeah. Yes. And so yes, there's there's a lot to it. But I think I want to come away from this episode, saying it's not all or nothing. It's not that you don't either love it or hate it. It can be the in between. There can be issues with it that it don't sit well with you. There is nuance. There is in between, and this is a great example of that. So, don't believe everything you read on social media about it, and give it. Shot if you haven't, and develop your own opinion. And if you hate it, that's fine. That's fine too. Just don't. I'm not inviting you to the watch party, obviously. But there you go. So, so listeners, thank you so much for listening to our thoughts and opinions on this new adaptation, not reboot. Let's not use the word reboot adaptation. Yeah, I like that Little House on the Prairie books and the story of Laura Ingalls Wilder. And join us next time for another fun, light, refreshing, sometimes tangy and sour episode of the Pop Culture Preservation Society Light.

Kristin Nilsen 45:38

Thanks, everybody. The information, opinions, and comments expressed on the Pop Culture Preservation Society podcast belong solely to Carolyn, the crushologist, and Hello Newman, and are in no way representative of our employers or affiliates. And though we truly believe we are always right, there is always a first time. The PCPS is written, produced, and recorded in Minneapolis, Minnesota, home of the fictional WJM Studios and our beloved Mary Richards. Nanu nanu, keep on trucking, and may the force be with you.