Little House on the Prairie ★★★★
Who would have thought a reboot of Little House on the Prairie, based on Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books published almost a century ago, would be one of the most talked-about productions of the year? Since Netflix announced its re-imagining of the TV series, which ran for nine years from the mid-70s, there’s been both buzz and backlash – the latter predictably from conservative Americans concerned that this new iteration will be “too woke”.
While Wilder’s fictionalised accounts of her childhood on the American frontier in the 1870s and ’80s have long attracted criticism for “colonial stereotypes” (yes, racism), the original TV adaptation, produced by star Michael Landon (who also often wrote and directed), pointedly avoided those parts of its source material. Landon might have been a lifelong Republican – and a mate of then-president Ronald Reagan, who reportedly said the series was his favourite TV show – but his adaptation featured many progressive storylines, from racism to child abuse and even mental illness.
The “wokism” that has unsettled some conservatives this time around is, of course, related to the new series’ updated foregrounding of Native Americans. Written by Rebecca Sonnenshine (The Boys and The Vampire Diaries), who is also showrunner and executive producer, this follows the story that comprised the original pilot, before the Ingalls made their home in Walnut Grove.
It opens with the family – patriarch Charles (Australian actor Luke Bracey), Ma/Caroline (Palm Royale’s Crosby Fitzgerald), and daughters Laura (Alice Halsey, a veteran Days of Our Lives actor at just 10) and Mary (Skywalker Hughes) – in their covered wagon, headed from Wisconsin to a settlement called Independence in Kansas. This is a site where “free land” has been promised to settlers as part of the Homestead Act in the aftermath of the Civil War.
After staking a claim and beginning the backbreaking work of building a cabin – eventually with help from a local ne’er-do-well, Mr Edwards (Warren Christie), a man grieving his family and drinking too much for Caroline’s liking – Charles begins to realise that settlers may have been lured to Independence on false pretences. The local First Nations tribe, the Osage, has yet to reach any agreement with the government.
In tandem to the Ingalls’ story, this series follows the Mitchells, an Osage family on whose land the Ingalls have built, and whose daughter Good Eagle (Wren Zhawenim Gotts) Laura has befriended. And while Caroline is initially sceptical about the land belonging to the Osage, Charles is in no doubt.
Netflix’s big-budget depiction of life on the prairie looks gorgeous, and while it adheres more closely to the books, fans who only knew the TV series will still get their nostalgia hit. I say this as a self-confessed mega-fan of the original (even if by the time the Saturday afternoon reruns of the last few series were showing in Australia, I was watching as much for Michael Landon’s billowing shirt-sleeves and braces as for Laura’s misadventures).
Pa still plays his fiddle in front of the fire of an evening, Laura is an adventurous tomboy with a heart of gold, Mary is the sensible one, Ma is surprisingly progressive, and everyone hugs each other. A lot. Yes, it’s unrelentingly wholesome, and there’s a lesson in every episode alongside the harsh realities of homesteading (take note, influencers).
But this slickly produced version retains the family-friendly charm of the original, while offering a more gritty depiction of post-Civil War America – from its nuanced portrayal of First Nations people to the production design, which even features custom-made costumes using historically appropriate reproduction fabrics.
While it might seem an incongruous reboot for 2026, it’s worth noting the original Little House saw a resurgence during the pandemic (alongside social media trends for modern homesteading and “cottagecore” aesthetics), and was reported by Nielsen as the most-streamed legacy show of 2024.
With its themes of resilience during hard times, self-sufficiency and inclusivity, it could be argued that it’s actually an entirely appropriate reboot for our times, melding as it does moments of joy with grim history.
Little House on the Prairie is streaming on Netflix now.
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