By Sarah Osman

Strong performances and sharper realism redefine Little House on the Prairie for a new generation.

The family in the Little House on the Prairie reboot. Photo: Netflix

When I was growing up, I used to watch my grandmother as she read books. She would sit in her favorite fluffy brown chair and put on a baseball hat from the local pizza place to shade her eyes from the lamp. She read book after book, mostly in the romance genre. She ensured that I, too, developed a love for books by giving me sets of them to read. One of those sets was Little House on the Prairie.

I loved the semi-autobiographical novels by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I reenacted Laura’s adventures on the prairie by creating a covered wagon in our backyard. I wanted to be Laura, and the closest I got to it was dressing as her for Halloween.

I haven’t read the series in years, and I never watched the popular ’70s television series often. But I was ecstatic to hear that Netflix had made a brand new adaptation of Little House on the Prairie.

The new take on the classic novels isn’t an exact adaptation of its source material, but is far closer to the books than what I could glean from the earlier series. Netflix’s version doesn’t shy away from the harsher realities of life on the prairie in the 1800s. In one episode, for example, the entire town falls ill with malaria, and a snotty neighbor refuses to share her medicine. Racism against the Osage is shown. A neighbor suffers from PTSD and alcoholism. Not everything on the Kansas prairie  is hunky-dory.

At the same time, Little House on the Prairie isn’t simply a chronicle of 19th century misery. The Ingalls gather around for sing-alongs and dances while Pa (Luke Bracey) plays the fiddle. Sisters Laura (Alice Halsey) and Mary (Skywalker Hughes) bicker one second and then giggle with each other the next. Mary has an adorable crush on the boy who works at the General Store. Laura and her new friend Good Eagle (Wren Zhawenim Gotts) are ecstatic to learn that their neighbor John Edwards (Warren Christie) has kittens.

A good script is useless without talented actors, and Little House on the Prairie has been cast with some impressive performers. Halsey is the breakout star as Laura. She brings a believable feistiness and sense of wonder to the character. Hughes balances her as Mary, whom she plays with a quiet maturity. Behind Mary’s eyes lurks a girl being thrust into adulthood, whether she wants to be or not. Bracey brings a welcome level of grief to Pa, as he mourns his brother and the life he left behind. So does Ma (Crosby Fitzgerald), who is portrayed as a complex woman who yearns for her family back in Wisconsin.

Little House on the Prairie is also shot beautifully. Sweeping visuals of the prairie and sky transported me into the world I yearned for as a child. Even the sound editing effectively captures all of the noises on the prairie, including the sound of a cackling fire on a cold winter’s night.

What drew me into this version of Little House on the Prairie was it complexity, rather than its pioneering spirit.. Pa learns that he’s settled on Osage land and is torn about how to respond. The Osage aren’t happy about these sudden white settlers, but William (Meegwun Fairbrother), the Ingalls’ neighbor, works toward maintaining the peace. John Edwards is an admirable neighbor who helps Pa build the family’s cabin, but he is obviously struggling to keep his alcoholic demons at bay. The idea of a women’s society sounds positively liberating — until it’s revealed it’s run by a racist, classist tyrant. At the same time, despite the trad oppressions, the series supplies memorable moments of joy, like eating a peppermint stick or cracking a joke with your husband. It’s those small, but moving, moments of realism that reinforce the surprisingly mature beauty in this take on a beloved series of autobiographical children’s novels.

Sarah Mina Osman is based in Los Angeles. In addition to The Arts Fuse, her writing can be found in The Huffington Post, Success Magazine, Matador Network, HelloGiggles, Business Insider, and WatchMojo. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina Wilmington and is working on her first novel. She has a deep appreciation for sloths and tacos. You can keep up with her on Instagram @SarahMinaOsman and at Bluesky @sarahminaosman.bsky.social.