The Babysitter's Club - Netflix Remake

[Carrots]

Anyone else binge watch this yet on Netflix? What do you think ?

[PopRox]

I'm loving it so far (on episode 5 right now). I like how they updated it for the times, and the young actresses really do a great job. I really liked the moment in "Mary Anne saves the Day" when she speaks up to the doctors and nurses about misgendering Bailey. I think Dawn (so far) is most different from her character in the book; but then again most of what I remember about Dawn is from 'California Diaries' (the darker and edgier spinoff). Not saying that's a bad thing, as I like her character in the show (again: so far. I just started her episode). ?

 

[adidas]

I binge watched the entire series over two days. Loved it. The casting was excellent and I appreciated that they cast a trans actress as Bailey. There is a LOT of talent in the cast.

I hope they make many seasons.

[AmericanRose]

I can't believe no one told me about this.

Alicia Silverstone plays Kristy's mom?!

[Carrots]

56 minutes ago, AmericanRose said:

I can't believe no one told me about this.

Alicia Silverstone plays Kristy's mom?!

I loved that casting! I never really thought too much about Kristy's mum when I read the books but I love that they expanded her role for TV and showed how she has raised Kristy to be fierce, independent and intelligent.

Dawn's character was the hardest to get used too. As PopRox said she is quite different from the books. I also didn't really like her story for the last two episodes.

Claudia and her family are spot on and amazing. I also squealed when I saw that Marc Evan Jackson was Richard Spier. He is exactly how I imagined Richard and he does a fantastic job.

[adidas]

The Ofwatson joke had me choking on my apple! Ha! I am absolutely loving Alicia Silverstone. I don’t understand why she is listed as a guest star on the credits because she has been in every episode (from memory).

I’m a white Australian who has been listening and trying to learn as much from BLM as possible. I know very little of Black or Latinx life in the US and I need to learn more, so I don’t feel like I personally can add much to the conversation about Dawn. I’ll read along though. The actress is great and I don’t want to take away from her portrayal or amazing talent with my ignorance. But please indulge me for one question ... How is her name (Xochitl) pronounced? I looked it up but found a few different answers. I like that it means ‘flower’ - it fits perfectly with Dawn’s character.

[PopRox]

3 hours ago, adidas said:

How is her name (Xochitl) pronounced? I looked it up but found a few different answers. I like that it means ‘flower’ - it fits perfectly with Dawn’s character.

I had a student with that name. She pronounced it like "SO-sheel." HTH!

[LacyMay]

I binged it in a day and LOVED it. 

I really enjoyed Stacey's story in the books and enjoyed how they portrayed in the show. Mary-Anne Saves the Say was always one of my favorite books and the episode was *perfect* overall I love how the show has managed to stay true to these 40 year old stories while making them completely relatable for 2020.  

I wasn't as fond of the last two episodes but that's probably because I was just to annoyed at how poorly that summer camp was run.                                                                                       Also I have a bit of a crush on Mark Feuerstein since seeing him as Cliff in The West Wing so seeing him as Watson was amazing. 

[nvmbr02]

I haven't watched it yet (so I haven't read any other posts since I want to avoid spoilers) but I am looking forward to watching with my daughter. From the little that I know I think she is going to really like it. 

[Maggie Mae]

2 hours ago, LacyMay said:

I love how the show has managed to stay true to these 40 year old stories

ahem, 34 year old stories, lol. 

 

 

2 hours ago, LacyMay said:

I wasn't as fond of the last two episodes but that's probably because I was just to annoyed at how poorly that summer camp was run.   

That lady didn't even like kids! It was so irritating! 

 

19 hours ago, adidas said:

How is her name (Xochitl) pronounced? 

So-chee or SO-cheel. The Aztecs thought of it as a water goddess IIRC, and the mexicans think of it as water flower. 

[Carrots]

20 hours ago, adidas said:

The Ofwatson joke had me choking on my apple! Ha! I am absolutely loving Alicia Silverstone. I don’t understand why she is listed as a guest star on the credits because she has been in every episode (from memory).

I’m a white Australian who has been listening and trying to learn as much from BLM as possible. I know very little of Black or Latinx life in the US and I need to learn more, so I don’t feel like I personally can add much to the conversation about Dawn. I’ll read along though. The actress is great and I don’t want to take away from her portrayal or amazing talent with my ignorance. But please indulge me for one question ... How is her name (Xochitl) pronounced? I looked it up but found a few different answers. I like that it means ‘flower’ - it fits perfectly with Dawn’s character.

Sorry if it sounded like I was objecting to the change in race of Dawn (or Mary-Anne). As Mum of two Mexican-Aussie kids (Ausicans), I love the addition of a Latinx character ?

I meant more that while the other characters were very similar to their personalities in the books, even doing direct quotes, Dawn was taken in a different direction. She is a lot more fiesty and in your face than the chilled out Dawn of the books. Not bad, just different.

Love the actress's name, so beautiful. I asked my husband how he pronounces it and he said SO-cheel but he said it can be regional.

[anachronistic]

Loved it, and love talking about it. I was a *huge* BSC fan in elementary school, to the point where my mom tried to ban them because they were junk. Mary-Anne was always my favorite. 
 

I haven’t read them or thought much about it for 20 years, but one funny thing is that I definitely remember thinking of 12/13 as basically grown up. Now they’ve cast these wonderful girls who are those ages, and they look like little kids to me. Especially Mallory, who I always thought of as old for her age, seeing her as an actual 10/11 year old was a bit jolting.

I loved how realistic the struggles the girls had were, how modernized the story arcs. Kristy not realizing what feminine products were was funny. I don’t know that age group well enough now to know how realistic some stuff is - do 12 year olds really babysit, alone, now? Do they wear turtlenecks? 

Quibbles: I don’t understand why if Mimi was born in the US, or was here from before the age of 5, she still had a slight Japanese accent. There is also no way that Stacey and Claudia would be in the same math class in 7th/8th grade because kids today are leveled, they’re in different classes according to their abilities. And the majority of the camp episodes were just terrible. That camp should be shut down for being terrible and poorly supervising the kids. And they obviously filmed the scenes in fall - I’d have a much easier time believing they were at camp in NJ if it was sunny, they wore shorts, the woods looked like, well, NJ woods, etc.

I remember hating how the books never diagnosed Claudia with a learning disability when she so obviously had one. One book even sent her back to the 7th grade instead of having her spend a few periods in special ed. For goodness sakes. 
 

I thought that the actors were very well cast and did their jobs phenomenally, despite their young ages. It makes me a bit sad though that due to the pandemic they probably can’t film a second season while the actors are the right ages, because they’d have to be filming it now. I personally never liked the thing where they stayed in 8th grade forever and had a dozen Christmases and endless very fancy, ridiculous school trips and all that, but whatever. I loved the Super Specials, not so much into the Mysteries, was amused by the Karen books, never read the California books. A bunch of the BSC books are now on my library app, Libby, and they’re a fun, nostalgic read.

[kiwi]

I loved it. I had every single book growing up and have managed to source the full series (old books) for my daughters. We binge watched in two days (school holidays).

Last two episodes were a disappointment.

The period convo/tangent caught me off guard with my 9yr old! [emoji51][emoji23]

[adidas]

On 7/10/2020 at 2:59 PM, Carrots said:

Sorry if it sounded like I was objecting to the change in race of Dawn (or Mary-Anne). As Mum of two Mexican-Aussie kids (Ausicans), I love the addition of a Latinx character ?

I meant more that while the other characters were very similar to their personalities in the books, even doing direct quotes, Dawn was taken in a different direction. She is a lot more fiesty and in your face than the chilled out Dawn of the books. Not bad, just different.

Love the actress's name, so beautiful. I asked my husband how he pronounces it and he said SO-cheel but he said it can be regional.

Oh gosh not at all! Please don’t feel I was trying to say anything along those lines. I was just highlighting my own ignorance - I agree with you completely but really don’t feel qualified to offer my thoughts here. 

[Maggie Mae]

Season 2 is out and they recast Dawn. 
 

• secret passage way reveal was disappointing
• Jesse/Mary Anne friendship was really nice
• no Tigger
• No Emily Michelle but I liked the resolution so much more than the books or the previous film
• No Shannon Kilbourne but I guess the cast was bloated already. 

I doubt we'll get more but I really like this super peppy little nostalgia show. I love that they fleshed out the adults; that Richard and Sharon didn't immediately get married, and Kristy wears makeup and is all business bossy. I also really liked the casting of Mallory, adorably awkward horse girl who doesn't know when to stop talking. 

[adidas]

I meant to post the other day but I fell asleep 🤣

I really liked season 2. I binged it when I was sick so I cried nonstop during the last two episodes. I loved the ending. 

[viii]

I'm so annoyed they cancelled this. The two seasons were so great. It's such a feel good, comfort show.