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July 6, 2026 
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A thoughtful new ‘Little House’ adaptation
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| Alice Halsey as Laura Ingalls in the new Netflix adaptation “Little House on the Prairie.” Eric Zachanowich/Netflix |
Dear Watchers,
In the 1930s and ’40s, Laura Ingalls Wilder turned her memories of growing up in a 19th century pioneer family into a series of children’s novels, known as the “Little House” books. Those stories later provided the foundation for the heartwarming TV drama “Little House on the Prairie,” which aired from 1974 to 1983. The novels remain perennial favorites, and the show is still widely available in reruns and on streaming services. But in recent years there has been a reassessment of Wilder’s take on frontier life and an acknowledgment that her work took a too-narrow view of the people who occupied the land long before her parents arrived.
The new Netflix series “Little House on the Prairie” — all eight episodes of which debut on Thursday — keeps the family-friendly approach of the ’70s TV version but is more rooted in the reality of 1870s rural America. The showrunner, Rebecca Sonnenshine, emphasizes the lingering trauma of the Civil War and the differing reasons people felt compelled to leave their old homes for a beautiful but unforgiving country.
The story begins with Charles Ingalls (Luke Bracey) and his wife, Caroline (Crosby Fitzgerald), arriving in Independence, Kan., with their daughters: the sensitive Mary (Skywalker Hughes) and the tomboy Laura (Alice Halsey). Supplies are more expensive on the frontier, and the Ingallses soon realize that the money they set aside to start their new life will not stretch far. They are also threatened by wild animals, harsh weather and disease.
The biggest complication, though, is that the Osage have a prior claim on the Ingallses’ chosen plot of land, and that the U.S. government has not yet decided whether to side with the settlers or the Native people. Meegwun Fairbrother plays William Mitchell, an Osage man who has his own farm and family on the prairie, and whose story Sonnenshine tells in parallel with the one from Wilder’s books.
As was the case in the novels and the older TV series, this new “Little House” is as much about the rewards of building something from nothing as it is about the struggles. It’s about finishing a hard day of work and listening to Pa play his fiddle, and about neighbors overcoming their differences and helping one another. Sonnenshine makes the larger implications of western expansion more complicated, but this is still a show that celebrates kindness, perseverance and the splendor of the great outdoors.
Also this week
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| Jennifer Garner in the Peacock series “The Five-Star Weekend,” based on the novel by Elin Hilderbrand Seacia Pavao/Peacock |
- The anime series “The Ghost in the Shell” is the latest adaptation of the influential manga series, set in a near-future society where cybernetic technology has changed the nature of crime. The new version debuts on Tuesday, on Amazon Prime Video.
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- The British comedy series “Trying” began as the story of a couple (played by Esther Smith and Rafe Spall) going through the grueling bureaucratic process of adopting a child. But over the course of its four seasons, the show has become about a different and much more common process: the ways that people adjust their plans and expectations as they enter middle age. Season 4 arrives on Wednesday, on Apple TV.
- Want to learn more about the history and evolution of Burning Man? The docuseries “The Man Will Burn” takes a close look at the annual gathering in the Nevada desert, exploring what attendees get out of it and whether its founders’ vision is sustainable. The first of four episodes debuts on Thursday, on HBO and HBO Max.
- Based on the Elin Hilderbrand novel, “The Five-Star Weekend” follows a recently widowed food and lifestyle influencer (Jennifer Garner) who invites four friends from different phases of her life (Chloë Sevigny, Regina Hall, D’Arcy Carden and Gemma Chan) to a Nantucket getaway, where the women slowly and grudgingly open up about their personal crises. The entire series debuts on Thursday, on Peacock.
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