Wednesday 14 October 2009

Road to Avonlea- Season 2

The second season of Road to Avonlea is just as lively and full of character and spunk as the first one. The first season ended with Sarah deciding to stay in Avonlea with her family instead of returning to Montreal with her father, and the second season takes up where the first left off. This season focuses on allowing the audience to acquaint themselves with the residents of Avonlea, instead of using the people of Avonlea to develop Sarah's character, which is what I felt the first season did more. In many of the episodes Sarah doesn't play an inciting role as she did in the first season, she's just more along for the ride here, which unfortunately foreshadows future seasons. I personally most enjoy the episodes that focus on the king family, and while I value and enjoy the time given to going into the lives of some of the other town members, I wanted the story to focus more on the king children/ adults. I loved Marilla and Rachel in Anne of Green Gables, I already know who they are and have watched the Anne movies enough times over to have familiarized myself with their personalities and dynamic. Seeing them in Road to Avonlea is nice and provides familiarity, but I find that I don't really enjoy the episodes focused on them as I do when they're just side characters as I already know who they are.

The focus on other people provides the viewers with an outside perspective of the King family. This is one of the reasons this show is so rich and intricately woven. The story isn't told from just one perspective, but from many perspectives. So one minute we are seeing from the perspective of one person, and the next from another who shows us a different perspective on the first person. So for example, if we were to see from Hetty King's perspective, we would see her pride and sense of honour and need to do what's right, but from say, Rachel Lynd's perspective, or many of the other town's people, even Sarah sometimes, Hetty is stubborn and heartless and cares only for the King name. so we get two sides of the story.

This is as good, if not better than the first season as the children are a bit older, and therefore a bit better at acting, and the characters and story are fleshed out a bit more. Great continuation.


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