Search - Little House on the Prairie - Complete Seasons 1 - 5 - Amazon.com Exclusive on DVD

Awesome Show

Commie Eliminator | Middleof, NW | 07/12/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I don't even own a television set, but I have bought all 9 seasons of this show and am currently halfway through season 5. I can actually say that I hate most of what is on TV, but this is one of the few programs that I watch and that is actually worth the time I spend watching it. If you want to watch television that promotes things like honor, family, modesty, faith, honesty, and other values which are trampled daily by most of modern television, then this is the program for you. Watching this show is sometimes mind-boggling, literally, because of how "counter-cultural" it often is in relation to much of our modern thought. The only down side is that the series, especially after season 4, departs drastically from the story line in Laura Ingalls Wilders' books--to name one example out of many, Mary Ingalls actually never got married and lived with Caroline Ingalls until her death. However, what the shows lack in historical attention to detail, they more than make up for in moral depth and the believability of the characters. I consider it to have an artistic value all of it's own, totally separate from the Little House books (which are also excellent.) There are certain things that the show deals with that the books never delve into, probably because of the private nature of Laura Ingalls Wilder--for example, in the books, Laura almost never mentions her own private feelings for Almanzo, which she probably considered to be too private for a children's book. Although the show promotes high morals, the characters all have a frailty of their own that make them believable. And although many people look at the inroduction to the show--three little girls running down a hill of green grass--and assume this is a show whose head is in the clouds and that sugar coats reality. However, this is far from the truth--many of the episodes deal with very deep and painful issues: The deaths of children, stillborn babies, bereavement of one's spouse, guilt, child abuse, drug and alcohol abuse, the trials of entering puberty, illegitamite children, and the trials of illness. Yet somehow, through it all, the show manages to maintain a sort of dignity that is all too uncommon in our age. Most of all, although this is not a "religious" show per se, there is a certain sense of faith that permeates the show. Belief in a personal God is assumed to be a natural part of existence. And I think that it was easier for us to trust in God at the end of the previous century: 100 years ago, there wasn't a family in existence on the prairie who hadn't seen their fair share of serious illness, stillborn deaths, and danger. There were no sterilized hospitals, no penicillin, no internet to Google for home remedies. You were to be considered lucky if there was a doctor within a day's journey from you. God was, in a sense, all they had at times."