This is a pretty good adaptation. The casting is great, the acting is brilliant, and the story is very closely based on the diary. It's very sad, emotional, and realistic. But for me there's two main downsides. The first is that I wish they'd shown more about her life before going into hiding. She wrote quite a lot about it in her diary (for example, the hilarious part where she gets in trouble at school). It would have been more interesting. The second is that I find this Anne Frank too unpleasant. I get it, the real Anne was annoying and selfish, but she also had a nice side - she was optimistic, bright and cheerful - and I didn't see enough of that in this series. A little bit, but not enough. They made her even more spiteful than she really was. For example, in her diary she often talks badly of her mother, but she also mentions that she'd wouldn't tell those things to her: "I soothe my conscience with the thought that it's better for unkind words to be down on paper than for Mother to have to carry them around in her heart."
So despite being very outspoken, and often arguing with her mother, she at least had the heart to keep those nastiest thoughts secret. In this series she actually does say them to her mother, which makes her significantly nastier. They also made the mother too pitiful, always very quiet and sad. She's constantly portrayed as the victim whereas in Anne's diary her dislike for her mother is more understandable, because of her occasional insensitive behaviour towards her which is not shown in this series.
Another example is the bit where her mother comes to her with a prayer book. In her diary Anne says she didn't feel like reading the prayers, but she did it to please her. In the series, she just looks surprised: "A prayer book?" And then she goes on saying she isn't interested in religion, and then asks "Why should we worship God? What's He ever done for us?" The real Anne would never have said that. In the book she frequently mentions God, and it's always in a positive way. She also mentions that she prayed every evening with her dad. And things like this: "The best remedy for those who are frightened, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere they can be alone, alone with the sky, nature and God. For then and only then can you feel that everything is as it should be and that God wants people to be happy amid nature's beauty and simplicity."
So while it's true she wasn't very interested in religion, there was absolutely no need to remove her spirituality. I'm sure that if Anne would have watched this, she would have been disappointed.
So despite being very outspoken, and often arguing with her mother, she at least had the heart to keep those nastiest thoughts secret. In this series she actually does say them to her mother, which makes her significantly nastier. They also made the mother too pitiful, always very quiet and sad. She's constantly portrayed as the victim whereas in Anne's diary her dislike for her mother is more understandable, because of her occasional insensitive behaviour towards her which is not shown in this series.
Another example is the bit where her mother comes to her with a prayer book. In her diary Anne says she didn't feel like reading the prayers, but she did it to please her. In the series, she just looks surprised: "A prayer book?" And then she goes on saying she isn't interested in religion, and then asks "Why should we worship God? What's He ever done for us?" The real Anne would never have said that. In the book she frequently mentions God, and it's always in a positive way. She also mentions that she prayed every evening with her dad. And things like this: "The best remedy for those who are frightened, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere they can be alone, alone with the sky, nature and God. For then and only then can you feel that everything is as it should be and that God wants people to be happy amid nature's beauty and simplicity."
So while it's true she wasn't very interested in religion, there was absolutely no need to remove her spirituality. I'm sure that if Anne would have watched this, she would have been disappointed.