Little House on the Prairie is a television series based on the Little House on the Prairie books written by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The series was developed by Rebecca Sonnenshine and it premiered on Netflix on 9 July 2026. The series stars Alice Halsey (Laura Ingalls), Luke Bracey (Charles Ingalls), Crosby Fitzgerald (Caroline Ingalls) and Skywalker Hughes as Mary Ingalls.
In the first episode, the Ingalls family leave the Big Woods as it is becoming too crowded for Charles Ingalls and they settle in Independence, Kansas, where they struggle with poverty and being away from their extended family. While promising to be more true to the books, the show makes some big changes as the real Ingalls family lived miles away from any town and Charles would travel to Independence to pick up some supples. The town of Independence is a lot closer to the family in this series but it is a developing town with no school or church. Nevertheless, the Ingalls family soon find themselves at the heart of a new community which gives them a lot more scope for storytelling.
The characters of Laura and Mary Ingalls have also been aged up to give them more to do in the series and their relationship is an interesting one as they fight more than expected. Alice Halsey captures Laura’s tomboyishness perfectly but is just as adept at showing her vulnerability, while Skywalker Hughes is more distant as the older Mary and already seems weighed down by familial expectation. The series also doesn’t shy away from showing Charles Ingalls as being somewhat reckless by constantly uprooting his family, although it is explained as his way of dealing with the grief of losing his brother. Crosby Fitzgerald also shows us a stronger Caroline who isn’t afraid to voice her opinions about having to leave her previous life behind and she proves to be the real strength holding the family together.
Rounding out the cast are the introduction of John Edwards (Warren Christie) and Dr. George Tann (Jocko Sims), both of whom were characters in the book version. Having lost his wife and daughters to cholera, John Edwards is a brooding alcoholic who soon finds himself drawn into the Ingalls family while forming a strong bond with Laura. Dr. George Tann, a black doctor, is a warm hearted man who faces prejudice from the white residents and is hiding a big secret of his own. The recurring cast of townspeople have more than a few echoes of the characters we became familiar with in the 1970s show, particularly the snobbish Jemma James (Mary Holland), who serves as the town’s busybody.
One of the biggest changes from the novel is the introduction of the Mitchell family who are Native American and Laura soon makes best friends with Good Eagle (Wren Zhawenim Gotts). William Mitchell (Meegwun Fairbrother) is a successful farmer who sounds finds himself caught between the US government and his Osage people. The family are a welcome addition to the show as they are extremely likeable once you get past the initial reserve and they offer a different perspective on what it means to be a settler on stolen land. The real Ingalls family settled on land that belonged to the Osage which they were eventually forced to leave behind after a year of living there so it is nice to see this acknowledged.
While the show is nowhere near as melodramatic as its 1970s counterpart, it does still play it safe as the supposedly impoverished Ingalls girls still get to wear pretty dresses so life on the frontier can’t be all that bad. This Ingalls family bicker more but it is nothing that can’t be resolved with a sing song around the fire with Pa playing the fiddle. However, even the Ingalls family can’t resolve the issues with their land and they prepare to leave Independence to head to Walnut Grove with John Edwards in tow. I have to admit I will miss some of the townspeople that are being left behind, especially the Mitchells who have also lost their land and are heading out to parts unknown. A second series was commissioned before the first one even aired so it will be interesting to see how the Ingalls family get on in Walnut Grove. I imagine the comparisons to the 1970s show will be even more prominent but I’d like to see the series get a little tougher.
