Episode Guide
Youth Is the Season of Hope Signs Are Small Measurable Things, But Interpretations Are Illimitable The True Seeing Is Within The Painful Eagerness of Unfed Hope The Determining Acts of Her Life I Protest Against Any Absolute Conclusion Memory Has as Many Moods as the Temper Struggling Against the Perception of Facts What We Have Been Makes Us What We Are The Growing Good of the World Returning for a second season, Anne With An E abandons what made the first season so endearing in favour of an agenda-driven narrative that destabilises the story and offsets the finely tuned balance between comedy and drama. While there are still glimmers of brilliance here, most of this falls to young Anne (Amybeth McNulty) whose whimsical, poetic tangents are every bit as amusing and dreamy as they were in the first season and act as the proverbial glue to hold the rest of the series together. Beyond Anne’s complicated journey through adolescence and wrestling with her own past, the story feels far more contrived than it should, making large portions of the series lacklustre and bogged down unnecessarily. The story picks up where Anne With An E left off last year with the Cuthbert family taking the boarders under their wing and providing them refuge on the farm. It’s not long before excitement stirs in the town as the prospect of gold lying untapped in the soil beneath them promises an end to the town’s woes. As the series progresses, this plot line fizzles out and is replaced by a far more familiar structure as seen last year with Anne continuing her journey to adulthood while lost in her own fantastical thoughts. Continuously haunted by flashbacks of her traumatic time in the orphanage, Anne feels like a far more conflicted character this time around, especially given the potential romance angle with Gilbert which is explored this year. Unlike last year which predominantly focused on Anne, this season switches between her and Gilbert (Lucas Jade Zumann) as he embarks on his globe-trotting adventure with fellow traveller Sebastian (Dalmar Abuzeid). Further switches between the Cuthbert family, the other parents and Anne’s friends at school spread this focus further. Although this constantly shifting focus helps to give far more exposure to the different characters in the show, it also loses some of the intimate focus we got last year. Anne is of course the star here though and her performance easily outshines everyone else with the various supporting characters all playing their part as they try and take some of the limelight for themselves. These charming moments of decent character work are unfortunately overshadowed by an incessant need to throw in anachronistic attitudes and themes that really have no place in this time period. It’s such a pity that this second season is overshadowed by this agenda too as it loses the finely tuned balance between humour and drama that made the first season such an enthralling watch. While there are moments here that echo the charismatic charm the first season oozed so effortlessly, this second season feels far more contrived and mediocre than it has any right to be. It’s a shame too as the drama itself is well written and the pacing is generally okay too but the lack of humour and overall tone of the series just can’t match up to the work done in the first season. Still, there’s just enough here to see you to the end although lingering unanswered questions leave the door open for a possible third season. With a better balance between comedy and drama as well as a tighter script devoid of agenda-driven dialogue, Anne With An E could easily pull itself back from the brink and become the great show it so easily could be.
