Blast from the Past: Netflix and The Babysitters Club

It is no secret that we are all fans of Ann M. Martin around here — each of us gobbled up the BSC as children, and we can still name our alter-egos within the club — and so we were cautiously optimistic about the Netflix’s new series covering this nostalgic fave. Needless to say, we all watched it separately over the past few days, while spending a good portion of the time on the group text talking about how perfect it was. Because it was pretty close to perfect.

Today, we wanted to talk about this nostalgia factor, and do a joint review on the TV series (even though books are definitely our strong suit).

Elizabeth (Mary-Anne with Kristy Rising)

One of my most vivid childhood memories is sitting on the floor of my bedroom, in front of an open cabinet that hid the books I loved the most – that also weren’t fancy enough to go on the open bookcases.* My friend Nancy Drew was there, some of my other paperbacks, but by far, the largest chunk of them were Ann M. Martin’s incredible books. It’s the first series I remember reading, and it’s the first one I remember actively re-reading for comfort; who knew that would be a habit I carried into adulthood?

I devoured the BSC books, and I honestly think that it gave me some of the confidence I took into my real life – seeing these girls, who each of their specific challenges and strengths, succeed by coming together and trusting in themselves is such an unexpected gift from a childhood book series. I learned that it was okay to be bossy with Kristy, but to know when to be quiet and sit back from Mary-Anne. Jessi gave a nuanced view of race within a predominantly white environment; Mallory showed me that it was okay to be an unabashed bookworm; Stacey taught me how to embrace things about myself that I couldn’t change; Claudia encouraged me to lean into my creative side; and Dawn – well, I think the first time I heard about tofu was from Dawn.

So, yes I have very fond memories of the BSC – hell, I even had my own Kid Kit – and so I was both excited and apprehensive when Netflix announced the new series. You see, I hated the 1996 movie. The plot was nonsensical, and so much of what I loved about the books wasn’t represented on the screen. I did not need weird Alan getting so much screen time, no matter how much I loved Larisa Oleynik.

I started watching the show at about 7:03 PM last Friday, and by 7:08, I think I had texted our group chat that it was PERFECT. And after watching the full series in full and a few episodes more than once, I stand by that. I think I had a smile on my face the whole time I watched it – it was just amazing. They brought it up to 2020, but didn’t change the central conceit of the show, and they managed to capture the heart and soul of the books.

I am so incredibly impressed with how the writers were able to update the stories and make them relevant to kids (and millennial women) today. Life is obviously very different today than it was when “Kristy’s Big Idea” was released, but I still felt like I was watching stories that could have been written by Ann. Beyond that, I loved how racially diverse the cast was, and how it was just an accepted reality and not something that anyone felt the need to explicitly discuss. Oh, and the casting was amazing. I know I’m not the only one of us who thought it was so perfect, but it was.

So, uh, I guess I just need Netflix to release Season 2…yesterday? Shouldn’t be hard in the midst of a global pandemic.

*We can talk about the associated trauma of never being able to hang things on the wall or put up a poster another time.

Shannon (Kristy with Stacey Rising)

The BSC books were a huge part of my childhood—I vividly remember being annoyed that I couldn’t check out more than 10 at a time from the public library when I was 7, and the Scholastic Book Fair was my BSC holy grail. I credit the BSC books for my tween/teen interest in babysitting; while I loved the money, I’m not exactly the most kid-friendly person, so needless to say, babysitting was sometimes fraught for me, which took me awhile to actually realize.

My favorite characters growing up were absolutely Claudia and Stacey, and I’m pleased to say that the 2020 version of Claudia Kishi is just as cool as the character was in my mind in the mid-’90s. Stacey McGill was my first exposure to diabetes, and as an impressionable 8-year-old, I experimented with dotting my i’s with hearts just like her. While I didn’t necessarily take Claudia’s outfits as serious inspo as a kid, who could forget when she dressed like Ms. Frizzle “under the sea”?!

I found a bunch of my old BSC books at my parents’ house last year, and reading them is the height of nostalgia. As an adult, I can breeze through a BSC book in no time, and, while I eventually started skipping the often-repetitive second chapters as a kid, I read and appreciated them last year quite a bit. While each character is pretty archetypal, there are nuances that make each of them a bit more realistic—no “perfect size 6, with long blonde hair and perfect family” here. Each family had its own dynamic; each girl was flawed in her own way.

All that said, the 2020 Netflix version was pretty close to perfect. The actresses are age-appropriate; there was some additional diversity woven in that wasn’t present in the original books; and while it’s set in 2020, the references to “analog” fliers and an “old-timey” (landline) phone were spot-on. Additionally, the characters’ problems were also age-appropriate and true to the books—they are figuring out who they are and how to interact with the world, i.e. Kristy figuring out that she doesn’t have to always be in control, and Mary Anne finding her own voice as her super-strict dad begins to loosen his rules.

I texted the group chat on Sunday, when I was deep into the season, “I want one episode for every book—including the Super Specials and Mysteries.” I think that about sums it up.

Moira (Stacey with a functioning pancreas, Kristy rising)

I have two significantly older sisters (they will love that “significantly” part if they read this), and so Babysitters Club makes me think of them a lot. I never really related to the BSC members as peers: when I read the books I was in early elementary school, so I thought of them as my sisters’ peers, if that makes sense. Their lives all seemed pretty sophisticated to me, especially their visits to New York City.

I was a categorically awful babysitter as a teen—I should only have been hired if you were specifically looking for someone to eat your food and put your kids to bed early. Now, I still babysit from time to time (usually infants, because I love them), and I’m much better at it. To be honest, babysitting the BSC way just sounded like so much effort! Also, I couldn’t deal with Kristy breathing down my neck, sorry.

Like Shannon, the second chapters of the books always wore on me, particularly when I was reading many in a row, as I often did. Like, I GET it, Claudia is fashionable and can’t spell and Kristy wears t-shirts and jeans and is bossy.

The tv show is just so good. I saw the 1995 movie when it came out and wasn’t wild about it, honestly. We did have some of the 1990 HBO series on VHS, which I remember really liking. I had just about forgotten it existed until the Netflix version came out!

When I saw that Lucia Aniello was directing, I knew exactly why I loved it. Her work on Broad City, while a great deal more “blue” in content than this, has a similar portrayal of female friendship. It’s just very sweet and wholesome, while not shying away from conflict. The casting is also just perfect.

I really love that the show deals with some hard-hitting issues in a kid-friendly way. The episode where Mary-Ann stands up for a young trans child for whom she’s sitting is lovely without being preachy.

I have an eleven year old niece and asked if she was watching—she said she is loving it, but that her nine year old brother (my nephew), liked it so much that he’s watched ahead of her! So I’d say it has broad appeal.