{"id":2498429,"date":"2026-07-12T01:31:51","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T01:31:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2498429"},"modified":"2026-07-12T01:31:51","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T01:31:51","slug":"little-house-on-the-prairie-review-the-reboot-defies-critics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/little-house-on-the-prairie-review-the-reboot-defies-critics\/","title":{"rendered":"Little House On The Prairie Review: The Reboot Defies Critics"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The first episode of Netflix\u2019s adaptation of \u201cLittle House on the Prairie\u201d begins after the Ingalls family has set out in their covered wagon to leave the \u201cBig Woods of Wisconsin\u201d in search of \u201cfree\u201d land and a better future in the West. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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They stop their search in Independence, Kansas, a town so new that it doesn\u2019t even have a post office; they squat and build a log cabin on a plot of land they hope to one day own.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The family drama, created by Rebecca Sonnenshine, is adapted from Laura Ingalls Wilder\u2019s autobiographical book series by the same name. The series was first published in the 1930s before being adapted into a 1970s TV show that ran for nine seasons and has recently become a <\/span>giant streaming hit for Peacock<\/span><\/a>. However, by the 1990s, Wilder\u2019s novels began to receive criticism over the Ingalls family\u2019s unquestioned expansionism and their racist descriptions of people of color. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIndependence is actually a funny name for a town like this,\u201d Laura Ingalls (Alice Halsey) says about the outpost on the Osage land of the Kansas plains that her family has grown to call home.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Yes, \u201cIndependence\u201d does seem perfectly ironic for a place where settlers\u2019 destinies are supposed to manifest at the expense of the freedoms of the Indigenous people who already live there. It\u2019s this tension between the narrow scope of the Ingalls family\u2019s experience as settlers on the Great Plains during the 1860s and \u201970s and the broader perspective historical hindsight affords that makes the latest adaptation of the story both timely and valuable.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"(L<\/picture><\/div>\n
(L to R) Crosby Fitzgerald as Caroline Ingalls, Alice Halsey as Laura Ingalls, Skywalker Hughes as Mary Ingalls, Luke Bracey as Charles Ingalls, Warren Christie as John Edwards in “Little House on the Prairie.”<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
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Eight episodes of the series premiered Thursday, just five days after the 250th anniversary of the country\u2019s founding, which naturally generated conversation about the complicated mythologies upon which this nation was built. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Within this context, it is obvious that a remake like \u201cLittle House on the Prairie\u201d was primed to become fodder for the culture wars. After the show was first announced, conservative podcaster Megyn Kelly tagged Netflix and wrote<\/a>, \u201cif you wokeify \u2018Little House on the Prairie\u2019 I will make it my singular mission to absolutely ruin your project.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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By \u201cwoke-ify,\u201d I\u2019m going to assume Kelly meant giving space to other perspectives besides those of the white settlers who felt entitled to lace up their bootstraps on land that was not theirs. And in that case, this 2026 remake accomplishes it beautifully.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The show\u2019s greatest success is that it balances the dueling perspectives of white squatters like the Ingalls with those of the Osage people. Producer Joy Gormon Wettels told Vulture<\/a> that this was, indeed, the show\u2019s intent: \u201cto face the problematic nature of the historical text head-on.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The primary way the show does this is by mirroring the Ingalls family\u2019s story with that of an Osage family. Laura\u2019s father, Charles (Luke Bracey), and mother, Caroline (Crosby Fitzgerald), become close friends with Mitchell (Meegwun Fairbrother) and White Sun (Alyssa Wapanat\u00e2hk), and Laura becomes best friends with their daughter, Good Eagle (Wren Zhawenim Gotts). Mitchell helps Charles find manpower to build his house to survive winter, and Caroline educates White Sun\u2019s daughter alongside her own girls. Their friendship allows the show to explore, with genuine empathy, the complications of one family seeking a new future while a group of people tries to ensure their own.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The show also highlights the vulnerabilities of both groups and questions who was actually writing the story of westward expansion. Was it individuals like Charles, who were seeking a better future, or was it the titans of capitalism \u2014 in this case, the railroad barons \u2014 who turned both groups into pawns and used the government to line their pockets and promote cultural assimilation? <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The nuanced way the show tackles that question is important, especially if you\u2019re a parent and want your children to develop the ability to understand history from multiple perspectives, not just the way one person, like Wilder, experienced it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Luke<\/picture><\/div>\n
Luke Bracey as Charles Ingalls with Alice Halsey as his daughter Laura Ingalls.<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
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But Wilder\u2019s viewpoint matters, too, and that\u2019s the other reason \u201cLittle House on the Prairie\u201d is a story worth remaking for children today. I watched this season with both of my kids, and they were enthralled by the practicalities of life in the 1860s and \u201970s. Just as the show portrays a nuanced view of politics, it also captures the beauty and risk of the past and the hope found in building something new.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In the opening sequence, Laura and her older sister, Mary (Skywalker Hughes), are almost thrown from the back of their covered wagon after it gets stuck in a fast current while crossing a river. Their dog, Jack, is swept away. For the entire first episode, my kids wanted to know what happened to Jack. Would he survive? Would Laura see her dog again?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The question of survival became their primary interest as they watched the Ingalls family attempt to build a house for the winter, escape from grifters, fall ill to malaria, dig a well that releases poisonous gas, worry about financial debt, and fight off a wildfire. They also became fascinated by the joy produced by a blackberry picked from a bush by the banks of the river, a peppermint stick purchased at the general store, and a bag of popcorn popped over the fire. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Wren<\/picture><\/div>\n
Wren Zhawenim Gotts as Good Eagle and Alice Halsey as Laura Ingalls in “Little House on the Prairie.”<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
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For them, the cultural context was present, but it wasn\u2019t the point or why they wanted to watch \u201cjust one more episode\u201d before bed. Their lens is the same one I had when I was my daughter\u2019s age and began reading Wilder\u2019s books, and it is a great reminder that adults often discount the importance of seeing a story through a child\u2019s eyes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Their perspective matters too, just as it matters to show how the myth of Manifest Destiny impacted different groups of people. I\u2019m grateful that this new remake offers my children those same historical details within a broader context in which Indigenous people are not reduced to \u201csavages.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In one of the later episodes, White Sun tells Laura and Good Eagle that the Osage \u201ctell stories \u2026 to remember that moving and changing brings us closer to understanding Wah\u2019Kon-Tah, the Great Mystery.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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How the country has transformed over the last 250 years is still mysterious in many ways, a combination of forces and events that we will always be deconstructing and questioning. The discourse around a show like \u201cLittle House on the Prairie\u201d is just another reminder of the fact that we do not consume media in a vacuum. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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This remake of \u201cLittle House on the Prairie\u201d is successful not because it gets the story \u201cright,\u201d but because it captures so many pieces of our country\u2019s complex past to create a kaleidoscopic view that will appeal to a multigenerational audience. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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This mass appeal is why the show has already been renewed for a second season. The real win is having a show that I can watch with my kids, and we can both see something new. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cLittle House on the Prairie\u201d is streaming on Netflix.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n