The revival of the neo-Western thanks mostly to Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone franchise, has spurred Netflix into fully embracing the world of sweeping romanticized Westerns, and they are adding a new one to the list that includes their moderately successful series Ransom Canyon. This time, the streamer has ordered eight episodes of a Canadian adaptation of Cat Cahill’s “Gilbert Girls” series of novels, under the title of The Granville Girls.
The show has yet to enter production but will be yet another soapy endeavor of melodrama set against some beautiful backdrops. The logline for the show, as per Variety, reads:
“As the great railway sweeps across the Canadian Rockies, Emma Daniels becomes a ‘Granville Girl,’ one of a select few women hired to work at the Granville Hotel. The job offers adventure, friendship, and a chance to support her family—if she can resist the hotel’s strictest rule: never fraternize with the men. But when Emma’s heart is captured by the hotel’s mysterious builder, she faces a choice that could cost her everything.”
The series will enlist Frontier writer Adriana Maggs as showrunner, and is being produced by Shaftesbury, with Shaftesbury president, Christina Jennings, executive producing. She said in a statement:
“Shaftesbury is delighted to partner with Netflix and showrunner Adriana Maggs to bring ‘The Granville Girls’ to the screen. Global audiences will discover the splendour of the Rocky Mountains — a perfect setting for our young women to explore adventure, friendship and romance.”
What Is The Gilbert Girls/Granville Girls About?
The Gilbert Girls novels have spanned six books, with the first, “Forbidden Forever,” being published in 2019, and the most recent, “On the Edge of Forever,” in 2020. Described as “sweet, historical romantic fiction,” these stories are perhaps not filled with the backstabbing, treachery, and violence of Yellowstone, but are something a little more gentle. Netflix Canada’s directors of content, Danielle Woodrow and Tara Woodbury, said of the series:
“’The Granville Girls’ is a big blue sky series that offers the comfort of female friendship and the allure of period romance. Between Adriana’s distinctive voice and Christina’s powerhouse producing, we’re confident that audiences are going to be hooked from the first episode.”
The Granville Girls, and The Gilbert Girls novels are filled with light romance that has a mass appeal on streaming. Author Cat Cahill described her inspiration as “A sunset. Snow on the mountains. A roaring river in the spring. A man and a woman who can’t fight the love that pulls them together. The danger and uncertainty of life in the Old West. This is what inspires me to write. I hope you find an escape in my books!” This should set up expectations of the kind of series The Granville Girls is going to bring to screens, probably sometime in 2026.
