I’ll admit, when the trailers dropped for Netflix’s new Little House on the Prairie reboot, my first instinct was a protective cringe. Like many of you, I grew up on the Sunday-school warmth of the 1970s Michael Landon series. In fact, when my wife and I recently revisted the series on Prime Video, I recall being emotionally struck by how pure and wholesome it was. So when the internet immediately exploded into arguments over that this new version was “too woke,” I watched the dust-up with a mix of curiosity and dread.
Then, original Laura Ingalls actress Melissa Gilbert stepped into the chat.
Firing back at conservative critics, she pointed out that the 1970s series was deeply progressive for its time, tackling institutional racism, antisemitism, addiction, and misogyny. Her point? Little House has always been “woke,” folks. Go back and watch Todd Bridges in “The Wisdom of Solomon.”
And you know what? (Her choice in husbands notwithstanding,) Melissa Gilbert isn’t entirely wrong. The 1970s show did have a fierce, deeply compassionate social conscience and tacked a lot of culturally relevant topics which was progressive for its time.
But there is a massive, gaping flaw in the argument that the Netflix reboot is just doing what showrunner and star Michael Landon did with the original series. It’s the elephant in the one-room schoolhouse: The original series fought those social battles through the lens of Christian faith, and the new series has excised the faith entirely.
When the 1970s Little House tackled big, heavy systemic issues, it didn’t use the clinical vocabulary of modern secular academia. It used the Holy Bible. The first season contained it in nearly every episode.
When Charles Ingalls stood up against bigotry or welcomed the outcast, he did it because he believed every human being was made in the image of God. The town’s moral battles were fought in the pews of Reverend Alden’s church, over open Scriptures at the Ingalls’ dinner table, and through evening prayers. The original show’s progressivism wasn’t a replacement for its Christianity; it was a direct product of it.
Even if you look past the TV show to Laura Ingalls Wilder’s actual books, faith was the rhythmic undercurrent of pioneer survival. When the blizzards howled in The Long Winter and starvation was knocking at the door, Pa didn’t just grit his teeth; he pulled out his fiddle and played “Rock of Ages” and “Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow.” Faith was their oxygen.
Showrunner Rebecca Sonnenshine’s version has its merits, notably the historical accuracy of the costuming is incredible, and the deep-dive into the history of the Osage Nation in Kansas is genuinely fascinating. I have no problem with a show exploring the grit, the mistakes, and the complex realities of westward expansion.
What I do have a problem with is the total spiritual sterilization of the Ingalls family.
In this new version, the Bible is mostly a prop on a shelf. The family prayer circles are gone. The hymns and dinner prayers are missing. The theological heart of the family has been completely replaced by a vague, modernized “human spirit” ethos. Luke Bracey’s Pa isn’t a spiritual patriarch wrestling with God’s providence; he’s just a stressed-out modern dad in a historical set of suspenders.
By removing the family’s daily, active reliance on God, the showrunners didn’t just make the show “more modern.” They made it historically inaccurate in the opposite direction. Pioneers didn’t survive the brutal isolation of the prairie on good vibes and community organizing alone; they survived on an unshakeable, sometimes desperate faith in God.
Made this mistake of skimming through some “audience reviews” on RT today, and I’m not surprised to see folks claiming that they’re forcing “diversity” into the series, because these same viewers love to remain ignorant of actual history.
There’s a reason why, in my review, I… https://t.co/QFW84qx3bR
— Maggie Lovitt (@maggieofthetown) July 10, 2026
I don’t believe the people mad about “woke” actually read anything related to what they get mad about…
— Maggie Lovitt (@maggieofthetown) July 10, 2026
So, to my fellow believers and fans of the prairie: if you watch it yourself, feel as I do, and decide to push back on this show, don’t get tripped up by the secularists’ favorite buzzwords. The problem with the Netflix reboot isn’t that it features a diverse cast, or that it faithfully shows a Black doctor, or that it honestly examines the displacement of Indigenous people. (Funnily enough, the real Dr. Tann was Black, and the real Ingalls did illegally settle on Osage land). Simply exploring those truths doesn’t make a show “woke.”
The real tragedy is that Netflix couldn’t conceive of a world where people care about their neighbors because they love Jesus. They may have given us ome of the social ethics of the Kingdom, but they evicted the King. That’s the real problem with this show.
Going back and watching that first season of the original series actually brought a tear to my eyes, more than once. Could television have even been this unabashedly wholesome and Christian-centered? It was a cathartic experience. The Netflix series has none of that.
One big difference between the 70’s series, and Wilder’s books, was that Ma was the strict spiritual enforcer of the household in the books, rather than Pa. Michael Landon completely flipped this dynamic to center on the father figure, rewriting Charles “Pa” Ingalls as a sincere, firm, patriarchal figure of faith, who didn’t just work the fields but actively modeled Christ-like grace, usually delivered the moral of the story, and frequently led the town’s conscience. Landon deliberately took a rugged, secular book series about pioneer survival and transformed it into a deeply religious television phenomenon. Netflix would have been wise to follow that formula.
Melissa Gilbert is certainly right that the original show was radical in its empathy, particularly for its time. But unlike Netflix, Michael Landon knew that the ultimate source of that empathy was grace. Without it, this Netflix prairie just feels a little too cold, and a little too empty. Hopefully it’s already greenlit season two will be infused with a bit more of the salt and light that made the original series so beloved and endearing.
***
English (US) · 