Anne Shirley lands because it trusts that a girl talking herself into existence is enough. Matthew and Marilla don't rescue her, she rescues herself, one earnest speech and elaborate daydream at a time, and the show watches her do it without flinching. The pacing moves fast enough that you feel her acceleration through girlhood into womanhood, but never so fast that you miss the moment she stops needing Green Gables to be home and starts needing it because it is.

Anne Shirley arrives at Green Gables as an unexpected orphan, landing in the home of two siblings who weren't quite prepared for her arrival. Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert had expected a boy to help on their farm, but they take a chance on the imaginative, dramatic girl anyway, and what begins as a mistake becomes the start of a real family. On Prince Edward Island, Anne throws herself into her new life, going to school for the first time and forming a close bond with Diana Barry while clashing with her rival Gilbert Blythe. Her energy, intelligence and vivid inner world soon win over the Cuthberts. Over the years Anne grows from a girl into a young woman, eventually leaving for college and later coming back home changed. The result is a gentle coming-of-age drama about finding the place where you belong.