Change Your Image
chezcabaret
Reviews
Little House on the Prairie: May We Make Them Proud: Part I (1980)
Some serious problems with the plot
Just discovered LHOTP more than 30 years after the series originally ran. It is like manna from heaven. Like a good book I can't put down. The directing, varied story lines, cinematography, score,set, acting, all of it with Michael Landon's sure hand on it. Unapologetic religious and family values, patriotism, the core of what it is to be human. No one would dare create a series like this today for network TV. My understanding is that the plots reflect the Ingall Wilder books. Hence all the terrible tragedy.
I've savored most all the episodes until May We Make Them Proud, part one. It's not the high drama and tragedy that bother me. It's the glaring holes within the plot that strain credulity. Two big problems, the first of which has already been mentioned: It makes no sense for Mary to have run out of the room leaving her baby in the middle of this threat. Not believable. And not acceptable for a series so well written. Or if that's what actually happened in the Wilder books, then her neglect has to be mentioned as part of her grief. Second: How is it that Hester Sue found the two boys in the basement smoking without ever smelling the smoke? Not believable. Not acceptable. Not real. The tragedy could have been averted right there. The writers obviously needed her down there to identify Albert and his friend. But they left the question of Hester Sue's role in this off the table. Considering the graphic depiction of the fire's reach and destruction, this lapse in plot is very disappointing and eventually detached me from the dramatic line.