Netflix‘s new take on ‘Little House on the Prairie‘ showed up right in the middle of a fight that had been brewing for months, long before anyone even watched an episode.
The show dropped its first eight episodes on Thursday, July 9, and the reaction has been split down the middle. Critics gave it a decent 76% on Rotten Tomatoes, but regular viewers weren’t as convinced, with the score sitting at 62%. That gap is big enough that people are already calling this one of the most divisive reboots of this year.
Megyn Kelly and Melissa Gilbert Clash Over ‘Little House’ Woke Debate
This whole debate never started with reviews. It kicked off back in January when Netflix first announced the project. Megyn Kelly jumped on X early and warned Netflix that if they tried to “woke-ify” the classic, she would “make it my singular mission to absolutely ruin your project.”
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That one post set the internet on fire and pretty much decided how the next few months of coverage would go. Everyone speculated about how showrunner Rebecca Sonnenshine, known for ‘The Boys‘, ‘Archive 81‘, and ‘The Vampire Diaries‘, would handle a story that different people remember in completely different ways.
Melissa Gilbert, who played Laura Ingalls for nine seasons on the original show that ran from 1974 to 1982, wasn’t buying the outrage either. She responded on Threads, pointing out that the original show was never as innocent as people remember it. She wrote that TV “doesn’t get too much more ‘woke’ than we did,” and reminded people that the old series dealt with racism, addiction, antisemitism, misogyny, and even spousal abuse.
What Changed in the ‘New Little House on the Prairie’ Cast and Story
The new cast includes Alice Halsey as Laura, Luke Bracey as Charles, Crosby Fitzgerald as Caroline, and Skywalker Hughes as Mary. The show leans a lot more into material that was always in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s original books but got left out of Michael Landon’s version back in the seventies. That means a much bigger role for the Osage Nation and new characters like Dr. George Tann, played by Jocko Sims, a Black doctor who was actually written into the books decades ago.
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That shift toward the more historically accurate version of the story is exactly what got people yelling “woke” before the show even came out. However, it’s also what several critics are now pointing to as its strongest quality. One review from But Why Tho? said the show works because it faces real history head-on while keeping the same warmth and family feeling the original was loved for. A critic at The Age made a similar point, saying the focus on resilience and inclusivity actually fits the times we’re in now.
But not everyone agrees the show handled it well, though. A review in Slate argued Netflix really did “woke-ify” things, pointing to the added relationships with an Osage couple, a Black doctor, a Black shopkeeper, and a French Canadian woman who wears trousers. The outlet stated it felt like the show was trying to check every box. On the flip side, another reviewer said the show didn’t go far enough. It argues the show barely scratches the surface of the Osage storyline or what Black settlers actually went through on the frontier. So somehow this show is getting called both too woke and not woke enough at the same time.
Showrunner Rebecca Sonnenshine Responds to Woke Backlash
Sonnenshine has spent her entire press tour leaning into the controversy instead of dodging it. She told Variety she isn’t even sure what people mean by “woke” anymore. “I’m not even sure what ‘woke’ means to people anymore, to be honest,” she said, adding that if being woke just means caring about injustice and prejudice, she doesn’t get why that would upset anyone.
She thinks the backlash isn’t really political at its core. In her view, it’s more about people being scared that something from their childhood is going to be changed into something they don’t recognize. She’s said more than once that she thinks people are “worried for no reason,” and she’s noticed that conservative viewers tend to actually enjoy Native American stories once they sit down and give them a chance.
Sonnenshine has also been clear that this isn’t meant to be a remake of Landon’s show. She calls it a brand new adaptation of Wilder’s actual books, which means bringing in a lot of frontier history that never made it into the original series.
‘Little House on the Prairie’ Season 2 Already Confirmed by Netflix
Netflix doesn’t seem bothered by any of the noise. They already greenlit a second season before the first one even dropped, and it’s reportedly already in production. Whether the audience score bounces back or keeps sliding as more people watch is anyone’s guess. But right now, ‘Little House on the Prairie‘ has pulled off something rare. It’s got critics from completely opposite ends of the spectrum both upset, just for totally different reasons.
‘Little House on the Prairie‘ is streaming now on Netflix.
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