Okay, so, I forgot it was Tuesday when Tuesday happened and part of me is convinced it's actually still Wednesday, but apparently it's not!

So let's do a #LainaWatchesAnne thread!

#LainaWatchesAnne Today we are talking about webseries!

Okay, some clarifying first. For the sake of this thread we're referring to independent productions, typically made for youtube.

#LainaWatchesAnne Wikipedia sometimes refers to Netflix shows as webseries, but we'll be treating these as different genres.

I've been watching a lot of video essays lately and I won't apologiz for being wordy here.

(I absolutely will - I'm Canadian.)

#LainaWatchesAnne I'm not sure how familiar y'all are with early 2010s youtube, but for a while there, webseries based on classic literature were really popular. Specifically, vlog style webseries where one character sits in front of a camera and talks about their life.

#LainaWatchesAnne Often there would be cameos fom other characters, but that wouldn't generally be the main focus. This, to some extant, reflected 2010s youtube - sitting in front of a camera and talking about your life was a lot of what vlogging was at the time.

#LainaWatchesAnne "Vlogs" today have become more about a person taking a camera with them as they go about their day, but a lot of early youtube is people sitting and talking about their lives as they were using webcams - often the ones built into their computers/laptops.

#LainaWatchesAnne You didn't really film your going-abouts with your 20 pound laptop that had an hour and a half battery life and the world's grainiest cameras, yanno?

#LainaWatchesAnne The episodes of these series were usually quite short, ranging usually between 2 and 10 minutes, and generally aimed at teens and young adults. They also often used other social media like Twitter and Tumblr to further their world-building.

#LainaWatchesAnne The most well-known of these is probably the Lizzie Bennett Diaries, which ran from 2012-2013. Which honestly I've never seen XD But it definitely launched the genre into the mainstream.

#LainaWatchesAnne I personally really like Carmilla, because, you know, gay and vampires, but I also enjoyed Edgar Allan Poe's Murder Mystery Dinner Party as it's not actually a traditional vlog style series and also there's murder.

#LainaWatchesAnne I also like Gary Cook's Hamlet Monovlogs because it's a really cool way to approach Shakespeare. I think they'd be a cool thing to talk about in an English class.

Murder Dinner party: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLs2T_dNZ-XW6UjWC-qUbZSWJyCLFmsdPP

Hamlet: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCJtXTGa1WTAcQSvMaeXAnUOp46xQYHKI

#LainaWatchesAnne This genre doesn't seem to be as popular anymore, but I am quite curious about Frankenstein, MD https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_ePOdU-b3xfXgHhpBm1Ao8TDawkZJLKi

Would be down for more murder in webseries tbh

#LainaWatchesAnne Now, there are actually TWO Anne of Green webseries, Green Gables Fables and Project Green Gables. We'll be talking about both today!

#LainaWatchesAnne FYI they're both pretty long so I'm only going to watch a few of the first episodes of both. I am human here lol.

First up, Green Gables Fables!

#LainaWatchesAnne Green Gables Fables was created by Alicia Whitson, Mandy Harmon, and Marie Trotter. It has two seasons, running from 2014 to 2016, and it was an American/Canadian production.

#LainaWatchesAnne ...I'm pretty sure.

It's a bit hard finding information on this one as most of the team were actual teenagers and internet stalking teenagers is weird and creepy so I didn't do that! They're probably in their 20s now, but I still want to respect their privacy

#LainaWatchesAnne It is also set in Avonlea, Saskatchewan, instead of PEI, which is cool because I live in Saskatchewan. It was funded through Kickstarter, and it seems like they worked super hard on it, so go them.

#LainaWatchesAnne I watched 10 episodes of this, but there are about 70 total. 10 seemed like plenty for us all to get a good idea of what this series' deal is.

#LainaWatchesAnne The first episode starts with the main character telling us to call her Cordelia. She talks about imagination and stuff for a bit, and complains about not being able to wear pink due to her red hair.

#LainaWatchesAnne We also find out that she's a foster kid who's moved around a lot and had some really crappy homes along the way. She's recently moved in with her new foster parents Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert.

And at the and of the episode, we learn this is Anne (obviously).

#LainaWatchesAnne The second episode reveals Matthew and Marilla didn't actually want a girl and they plan to send her back. She decides to keep a positive outlook while she's at Green Gables, though. And we find out some of her backstory.

#LainaWatchesAnne Episode three tells us Anne will be staying at Green Gables! And she says, "It's still a trial run of sorts."

Why do so many adaptations do this??

#LainaWatchesAnne She states that Matthew and Marilla are "extremely religious' and expect her to go to church and pay before meals. Not entirely sure how I feel about that take, honestly. It makes them sound a bit more extreme than I ever saw them as.

#LainaWatchesAnne She also met Mrs Rachel in this episode, and episode four is all about her. Apparently Mrs Rachel and Anne are beefing on Twitter.

#LainaWatchesAnne Which is possibly the best sentence I've ever written.

This is hilarious. I want to follow Mrs Rachel on Twitter. However, I hate that Anne calls Rachel "morbidly ob*se". Like, modern fat-shaming, yay! Honestly that's more offensive than just saying she's fat.

#LainaWatchesAnne This episode reminds me I am glad to be an adult. How do teenagers feel this much emotion and not explode?

Also Anne gives Mrs Rachel's twitter handle but they didn't make her an account so the @ is just a random person. Which was probably weird for them XD

#LainaWatchesAnne Episode 5 is Anne's apology to Mrs Rachel for the previous video. It's kind of passive aggressive??? It really doesn't come across as the most sincere thing.

Oh, and apparently Anne listens to Lumineers.

Episode 6 Anne has really pretty hair.

#LainaWatchesAnne Mrs Rachel has forgiven her, and she's started school. She insults her English teacher a little, Mr. Phillips, and I love it.

Oh, they're reading the Turn of the Screw, lol. You may know that story from a little webseries called The Haunting of Bly Manor.

#LainaWatchesAnne New friends include Jane Andrews, who's really nice but "so serious", and Ruby Gillis, who is "absolutely adorable" and very kind. She has also met Josie.

"She's um. Yeah." Very lol.

#LainaWatchesAnne Still no best friend in Avonlea, but she has a new tumblr friend she's bonding a lot with.

Also, there's a very rude, conceited boy who she hates - Charlie Sloane! Yeah, remember him from the book? He gets written out of like all the adaptations. So props!

#LainaWatchesAnne There is also a dance coming up, and all the other girls are talking about some boy they called Gilbert, who's been visiting family in Toronto. Anne doesn't have high hopes about him.

#LainaWatchesAnne Episode 7 is the brooch episode. Marilla apparently thinks Anne is planning to hock it. That's an interesting choice.

The school dance is functioning as the church picnic in this, also.

#LainaWatchesAnne Also she gets a phone call from a "Diana"!

And in Episode 8, we get to meet this Diana Barry!

#LainaWatchesAnne Diana is Anne's tumblr friend! Who lives in Regina, not Avonlea, "over an hour away". Also, they say Regina the correct way. Americans never do XD

They are really cute, also. They're so excited to be meeting but it's just a hair awkward, as you'd expect.

#LainaWatchesAnne Brooch resolution - Anne gave her false confession, Marilla banned her from the dance, and then found it in the laundry basket. Dance was fun, Anne had fun with Charlie Sloane, etc.

Diana and Anne continue to be cute. Anne almost falls off the bed at one point.

#LainaWatchesAnne Episode 9 is about bad flirting tecniques. They include winking at strange girls, distracting girls in Chemistry, poking girls with pencils, flirting with Ruby instead, cheesy pickup lines, and calling girls "Carrots".

Guess who this video is about??

#LainaWatchesAnne So Anne smashed a locker whiteboard over his head.

"I bent a magenetic lockerboard over Gilbert Blythe's head."

#LainaWatchesAnne He did apologize but Anne think he was faking it. "I shall never speak of Gilbert Blythe again."

So episode 10 is all just Anne complaining about Gilbert and Chemistry class.

#LainaWatchesAnne And that's the 10 episodes I watched!

It's cute! Is it my favourite thing ever? Not really. But it is a whole lot better than the animated series XD I still haven't fully recovered from that.

#LainaWatchesAnne You have to enjoy a very specific style of vlogging, one more from the mid-2010s. If that's not your thing, you may find this a bit boring.

But it's very impressive considering the creators' ages, and budget and location constraints.

#LainaWatchesAnne I believe the lead actress as Anne and what I saw of Diana seemed good, too. I don't know that I'll watch more myself, but it's cool.

Check it out yourself if you thought anything I tweeted sounded interesting! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYlDCkJVqnKxV5J1ZPQdU_UJOxoULmU2b

#LainaWatchesAnne And on to our other web-series!

This one is Project Green Gables!

#LainaWatchesAnne Project Green Gables was created by Laura Ekland Nghaga (who also plays Anne) and Janika Vikman.

This series also apparently adapts Anne of Avonlea and Anne of the Island as well, so we'll be coming back to it after those books!

#LainaWatchesAnne For now, though, I again watched the first 10 episodes.

This series is Finnish, while still being set in PEI, so everyone in Canada just has a Finnish accent now. Suddenly I am much more exciting!

#LainaWatchesAnne Don't worry, PGG, you're in... company... with the English dub of the anime where everyone was British. It's not good company but it's there.

(For real, though, it's not an issue. Just amusing to me.)

#LainaWatchesAnne So, meet our Anne for this series!

#LainaWatchesAnne Anne is again a foster kid, but it's not actually because her parents have died, it's because they're "crappy".

I really like this actress, also. She's really enjoyable to watch and I like her take on Anne.

#LainaWatchesAnne In this one, Anne is played by a Black actress and her hair situation is changed from red hair to natural hair. Obviously it's not my place to say how this is handled, but I think it's a cool idea!

#LainaWatchesAnne She talks about her interests a bit, especially old books and beautiful things like nature and paintings. Marilla gave her the camera she's vlogging with as a creative outlet and I like that.

Also Anne Shirley being a Disney fan makes SO MUCH SENSE.

#LainaWatchesAnne Episode 2! Right away, we get a different form of video. This is a house tour as Anne's narration plays over the footage. It's really cool and I like the choice here.

#LainaWatchesAnne We see a bit of our Green Gables for this series and honestly I'm impressed considering they're probably working with their literal homes.

I imagine they didn't just randomly creep up to a neighbour's house, yanno?

#LainaWatchesAnne There's lots of nature shots and some great straight from the book material. This whole episode is really, really well made.

We also learn Anne has been living with Matthew and Marilla for a little bit since they decided to foster her.

#LainaWatchesAnne Episode 3 is based on the prayer chaper and I kind of love it. It's handled so well. They definitely understood both the humour of it, and the sincerity.

#LainaWatchesAnne Marilla and Matthew are both still quite religious, but Anne says, "Marilla told me right from the beginning that she doesn't expect me to believe" which is one of many ways I really like how this series depicts Marilla.

#LainaWatchesAnne She does hope Anne will choose to attend church with them, as that's something they do as a family.

Awww, honestly.

#LainaWatchesAnne "The whole 'being part of a family' thing would probably make me perform Satanistic rituals if that's what it would take," Anne says. I both lol and aw at that.

#LainaWatchesAnne So Anne's cool and also is probably going to check out the church youth group.

Basically Anne's faith is very open and questioning and she settles on calling herself agnostic. I really like the handling of this. Very true to book and the character, but modern.

#LainaWatchesAnne Episode 4 changes Mrs Rachel's comments about Anne's hair to saying she should have a weave instead of wearing her hair natural.

Mrs Rachel is also a Black woman in this, for context. I'm not sure about Marilla and Matthew - it didn't come up in these episodes.

#LainaWatchesAnne Obviously Anne is angry and rightfully so! She insulted Mrs Rachel right back (with NO weight comments, nice to see that).

Marilla grounds her to her room until she's ready to apologize and Anne is absolutely fine with that... for a bit.

#LainaWatchesAnne Not long later, she's feeling bad - while she still says what Mrs Rachel said was absolutely wrong, she feels bad for embarassing Marilla.

#LainaWatchesAnne Cut to after her talk with Matthew, and she decides to apologize.

You never see any of the adults in this, but Anne's dialogue about them builds their characters well.

#LainaWatchesAnne Episode 5 surprised me because it adapts the chapter where Anne goes to church for the first time and makes herself a flower crown. This is the first time I've seen this in an adaptation! The anime might do it, but I didn't get to that point.

#LainaWatchesAnne It also introduces the reoccuring thing of Anne using little sketches to act out conversations she had off-camera.

It's very clever and creative.

#LainaWatchesAnne She also randomly makes Mrs Rachel Southern? Like US American Southern? Which in universe she's very much not, and even Anne is not sure why she made that choice. It's utterly hilarious.

#LainaWatchesAnne Also, Marilla got Anne some new clothes but... you know, buying teen girl clothes is hard. Anne would really like a strapless dress, or at least pretty clothes.

Marilla is VERY anti-strapless dresses, of course.

#LainaWatchesAnne Episode 6 introduces one Diana Barry! Who is amusingly a redhead herself.

#LainaWatchesAnne They've already become fast friends. This Diana is a lot of fun - she's got a quick sense of humour, and their interactions are great. And they swear to be friends forever while VERY dramatic music plays. It's funny and cute.

#LainaWatchesAnne Episode 7 is the first one with some bigger changes. One, the church picnic is now a house party at Charlie Sloane's place.

Two, it's not a brooch that goes missing. It's prescription medication - pain medication being the idea I got, though it's not stated.

#LainaWatchesAnne Anne's confession/lie is that she spilled them down the sink by accident (she never touched them) and it even brings up possible drug testings. It's a big change, but I don't mind it at all. It's a little more dramatic, but I don't have an issue.

#LainaWatchesAnne I also never got the impression that Marilla was looking to punish Anne exactly - she is responsible for Anne's health and if she's struggling with addiction, Marilla kinda needs to know that so she can help her.

#LainaWatchesAnne However I will say at the point I still don't know if Marilla is white or not, so it might be a white woman accusing a Black teen of stealing prescription meds which obviously could be triggering for some people.

#LainaWatchesAnne But I am not trying to criticize this, as one of the creators IS a Black woman, so like, we can kind of trust her to talk about racism, lol, just putting that out as a warning.

And moving on before I dig myself into a hole of awkward...

#LainaWatchesAnne Marilla actually spilled the bottle in her good purse and didn't realize until she went to use it. She apologizes and Anne easily forgives her.

#LainaWatchesAnne Party time in episode 8! And it's an on-the-scene vlog which is an interesting choice of words my past self chose. They took the camera to the party, is what I mean.

Anne and Diana are hiding in Charlie Sloane's bathroom.

#LainaWatchesAnne And speak of the devil! Never seen you before, Charlie Sloane.

Anne is thrilled, too, clearly.

#LainaWatchesAnne I saw someone point out that it's really obvious when people are drinking out of empty cups and now I can't unsee it. Everyon in this has suuuper empty cups.

This is Ruby! This scene is edited very quick-paced, which looks great but is hard to screencap!

#LainaWatchesAnne Episode 9 is Anne talking about school! She's a bit behind from all the moving around, but she really likes school. She loves learning.

#LainaWatchesAnne This is possibly my favourite change so far - Anne basically calls Mr. Phillips a perv.

Okay, she says "a bit creepy" at first, but as she describes him creeping on Prissy Andrews, she calls him out hard. I love it XD

#LainaWatchesAnne Almost everyone at school loves Anne, which is really nice to see. Also, they keep in the line about someone saying Anne's nose is pretty which I think is really cool in context.

#LainaWatchesAnne They also keep in Charlie Sloane liking Anne and Anne being SO not into his goggley eyes. And the Pyes are all sisters now which is HILARIOUS.

Very fun episode.

#LainaWatchesAnne Last episode for now has Anne doing a Draw Your Life video. Remember those??

#LainaWatchesAnne This is a creative way to give us Anne's backstory. I really like it. It's fun and changes things up form just desk-vlogs, and videos like this really make Anne's youtube channel look like a real teenager's channel, with video trends and such.

#LainaWatchesAnne Oh, and Diana is apparently helping because she draws better.

So, Anne's life.

#LainaWatchesAnne Like I said, the only real major change is that Anne's parents aren't dead. (Well, her father is also named Jedediah but whatever.)

Her mom wasn't around much as she was in pison and her father had substance abuse and gambling problems.

#LainaWatchesAnne Her parents aren't demonized for any of this or anything, which I think is nice

So, she went into foster care at five. Then the Thomases and the Hammonds and the orphanage. No real changes besides a bit of modernization. I really like this handling of backstory

#LainaWatchesAnne So that's all for the episodes I watched but I do want to mention something else. I was only going to watch 5 of each series, but after the first 5 of these, I did a bit of research on it and realized I needed to watch more BECAUSE ANNE IS QUEER IN THIS.

#LainaWatchesAnne I don't know a lot of details because I don't want to spoil myself too much, but I watched a video from the creators and it's canon. AND! It makes Anne/Diana canon in at least some way. (Again, spoilers.)

#LainaWatchesAnne Like I was sold on this before, but that gets me even more on board. I'm very intrigued by this series in general and I've liked what I've seen a lot.

#LainaWatchesAnne I also read a tumblr post from Laura about how her grandmother read Anne to her as a child and how she grew up with Montgomery's work and how it influenced her and you can absolutely see that love.

#LainaWatchesAnne Both writers also bring their unique lived experiences to the table (Janika is queer) and I think seeing Anne updated in this way is so cool. They fit perfectly, and it really makes it unique amongst this rather large media group.

#LainaWatchesAnne I would absolutely recommend this one and plan to watch more! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3RpwkbU8xqyWJHICW-DJSYWux-Iky5j_

#LainaWatchesAnne Overall, this was fun! The nostalgic look back on lit webseries was fun, and I really liked Project Green Gables. AND WE GOT OUR FIRST EXPLICITLY QUEER ANNE

#LainaWatchesAnne Now I'm just going to leave it here that I had to buy new pants the other day because all mine are getting thigh holes and I almost cried when I bought them because I did not need that expense so if you enjoyed this, the tip jar is open http://ko-fi.com/A0602GN 

#LainaWatchesAnne Is this kind of guilt-trippy? Yes. But it's also true.

Also pls RT the thread if you enjoyed it so other people can find it, too!

@threadreaderapp Unroll please?