Movies and TV shows today are often centered around the high-tech, modern ideas of the future, depicting heroes with superhuman abilities and complicated, advanced technology. Seeing that the ideas of the future connect with our current values is exciting, and it gives hope for what revolutionary events, inventions, or topics will eventually be brought to light.
However, a show doesn’t need to focus solely on the present or future in order to introduce new (or emphasize old) ideas that exist in our society.
The Netflix series “Anne With an ‘E’” is a nostalgic tale of the past: a retelling of the classic 1908 Canadian novel “Anne of Green Gables” by Lucy Maud Montgomery.
The story starts in 1896 on a island off the coast of Canada called Prince Edward Island in a fictional town called “Avonlea”. Avonlea is a small town with residents mostly poor and some wealthy.
In the first episode, Marilla Cuthbert and her brother Matthew Cuthbert live on a small farm, in need of extra help for the coming months of harvesting. The Cuthberts decide to contact a nearby orphanage in search of a young boy to aid them in their farmwork. However, once Mr. Cuthbert arrives at the train station to pick up the young boy, he is greeted with a wide eyed, talkative, red-haired young girl named Anne Shirley.
Despite this mix-up, the Cuthberts eventually end up keeping Anne under the agreement that she should help the family with house work, and that they will hire another child for the farmwork.
The series, which is shot in the less urban parts of Southern Ontario, Canada, contains beautiful scenery and cinematography. Fans quickly grew fond of the series’ deeply complex and unique characters and its interesting plot.
Despite its popularity, Netflix announced on November 24, 2019, that the show was to be cancelled after only three seasons, due to the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Company) cutting its ties with Netflix.
This cancellation outraged many fans, resulting in the hashtag “renewannewithane” to be posted repeatedly on various social media platforms, especially addressing Netflix.
A major argument brought up by fans wanting renewal is that the content of the series is very relevant and important. The show, despite being set over 100 years ago, tackles surprisingly modern issues, including classism, racism, sexual assault, indigenous persecution, and much more.
Some celebrities have also expressed their outrage about the cancellation, including Ryan Reynolds. The star tweeted on January 3, 2020: “You guys might want to renew Anne with an E. Unless ‘final season’ is just a fun way of saying ‘halfway point.’”
Fans continue to relentlessly spread their protests on social media, hoping one day that the series will continue. There have been rumors of Disney+ taking the series in, but for now it remains unclear if the beloved story will ever return.
Information for this article from Express UK News and Twitter.
