If you need me this Thanksgiving weekend, I’ll be parked firmly in front of our television. Well, first I’ll make a feast, fear not, but starting Thanksgiving night, it’s game on with great shows. It’s like Christmas has come early this Thanksgiving weekend with all there is to watch. Here are the shows I’m most excited about snuggling up to watch, in order of when they air.<\/p>\n

Anne of Green Gables on PBS<\/strong><\/p>\n

(I received an advanced copy for review, but these opinions are my own.)<\/em><\/p>\n

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Airing on PBS on Thanksgiving night, this version of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s classic story first published in 1908 is billed as “A new Anne Shirley for a New Generation.”\u00a0I think looking at it that way is a good approach.<\/p>\n

Many are familiar with the tale of\u00a0a precocious orphan girl coming to live with siblings Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert in Avonlea on Prince Edward Island, Canada. A\u00a0large number of those fans are partial, very partial, to the wonderful production done by\u00a0Canadian television in the mid-1980s starring Colleen Dewhurst and Megan Follows.<\/p>\n

I am one of those fans, but I was still \u00a0excited to see this new one. It’s not the same, but it was still a lovely way to spend 90 minutes.\u00a0One of the reasons I was excited was \u00a0that Martin Sheen was playing Matthew. He’s endearing in the role, thought I kept thinking of him as President Bartlet. That’s not a bad thing, and he delights, as always. Marilla tells him to stop his “sentimental drivel” but I enjoyed it a great deal.<\/p>\n

There’s a lot to like about this production. The story is endearing, no doubt. It was filmed in Canada and is simply breathtaking. It makes me want to book a trip to visit our neighbors to the North for next summer.<\/p>\n

It is a bit darker than the original. Anne’s flashbacks to the torment she endured as an orphan is brief but heartbreaking, but it makes Anne’s outbursts as well as her wonder at the pleasures of her new life easier to understand.<\/p>\n

I love some of the lines that Anne has, including\u00a0“Isn’t it just splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about?” and, when discussing puff sleeves as a fad, “I’d rather look ridiculous like everyone else than look plain and simple all by myself.”<\/p>\n

There’s also a lot of conversation starters with children, including appropriate responses to bullying and the line “It’s never too late to do the right thing.”<\/p>\n

You can see the trailer here:
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