Review: 'Little House on the Prairie' stays true to the spirit of the novel, if less so its letter

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Set us as preferred “Little House on the Prairie” is the third television adaptation to bear the name of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s 1935 autobiographical novel of life on the Kansas plains in 1869 to 1870.The first, the Michael Landon television series that debuted in 1974, set in Walnut Grove, Minn., is really based on Wilder’s subsequent volume, “On the Banks of Plum Creek,” while a 2005 miniseries, shown as part of “The Wonderful World of Disney,” was generally faithful to the letter and spirit of the text.

The record shows that I liked it.The new “Little House,” created by Rebecca Sonnenshine and streaming on Netflix, is fairly faithful to its spirit, and less so to its letter.At its center is the Ingalls family: father Charles (Luke Bracey), or Pa; mother Caroline (Crosby Fitzgerald), or Ma; serious older sister Mary (Skywalker Hughes), and adventurous Laura (Alice Halsey), whose story this is.

They are heading out to Kansas to what they imagine is free land, though they will have a thing or two coming on that account.“This will be our new forever,” says Laura, who doesn’t yet know that her future will be in Minnesota.To be sure, the character relations remain essentially the same.

Pa will play his fiddle.Laura and Mary will dance, when not getting in one another’s hair, or sulking.

There will be singing, frequently.Major episodes from the book — when Jack got lost, (Jack is the dog, and he will be found), the incident of Mr.

Scott (Maclean Fish) down the well, Christmas, the one about malaria, and all the business of building the eponymous log house — are accounted for, if in some cases expanded upon or altered.So extensive are its innovations that, although I am going to point out certain departures from or additions to the text, because I am that sort of pedant, it may be best just to r...