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The Baby Sitter Club: Kinder, Gentler Teenagers

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I never read any ofthe Baby Sitter Club books, because they first appeared in 1986, when I was 25 years old, and because...well, I'm a boy.   But I wanted something light and easy, teenagers who weren't taking their clothes off every five minutes or developing supernatural powers or stumbling across a secret conspiracy, so I tuned into the new Netflix adaption.

Scene 1: Kristy and Mary Anne are walking home from Stoneybrook Middle School through a ridiculously beautiful suburb, discussing women's empoewrment (girls who speak up in class get detention).  Mary Anne goes into her mansion.  Kristy stops to say hello to a boy-crazy neighbor and to help a little boy (her brother?), who peed his pants, then goes into her working class house.

Scene 2: Mom brings in three large pizzas to feed five people, including Kristy and her three brothers: the pants-wetter, a Girls! Girls! Girls! horndog, and an artistic type (Ethan Farrell, left, Dylan Kingwell)..

The babysitter for tomorrow night cancelled, and the babysitting app costs too much, so Mom asks if Kristy and Mary Anne can do it.  Suddenly Kristy gets an idea -- why can't teenage girls (and boys) babysit? They're just as responsible as adults and they will charge less!

Scene 3: At school, Kristy tells her second-best friend, artistic Claudia, about the idea. Later  they all congregate at Claudia's  house.  We meet the Goth lesbian big sister Janine.  Claudia has brought in a fourth member, the sophisticated New Yorker Stacey. They discuss the logistics of the business, and come up with good reasons why they'll use fliers instead of social media, and get jobs via a landline instead of texts.

Scene 4:  Dinner.  Mom's rich boyfriend Watson (Mark Feuerstein, top photo) loves the idea -- teenager girls (and boys) babysitting, what an innovation!  Then he announces that he and Mom are getting married, and Kristy gets mad and storms off. 

Scene 5: They start distributing the fliers in their ridiculously elegant cafe-and-boutique filled downtown.. Mary Anne goes to the library, and gets gushy over a boy reading to the kids (Ryan McCririck). 

Scene 6: Waiting around, waiting for the phone to ring.  Finally it does: Kristy's future stepfather, Watson, needs someone to babysit his two kids.  Obviously a pity job. Kristy orders the other girls not to take the job   Claudia has art class, Stacey will be in New York, but Mary Anne says she will do it. Kristy is incensed.

Scene 7: The next day, Kristy jogs through the ridicuously ritzy neighborhood where Watson lives t odo some spying on her so-called friend. Good grief, the kids have their own bounce house.  Suddenly the next door neighbor confrontts her, her cover is blown, and she runs away. 

Suddenly she runs into Stacey and her parents.  She lied to get out of a babysitting gig!  Betrayal! (I would have just said I didn't want to do it, but I'm not 13).

Scene 8:  Mom and Kristy have a heart-to-heart.  About her being bitchy to Watson?  No, aout Stacey's betrayal!

Scene 9: Kristy brings pizza to the next Baby Sitter's Club meeting, two large pizzas for four people (smart way to keep them happy, but can they really eat that much?  I don't think  I could).She apologizes for being bossy. 

The phone rings.  A real job!  And another.  All recommended by Watson.  Maybe he's not so bad after all.

Beefcake: Watson is cute.  Maybe the older brother.  There are more "dreamy boys" and hot Dads in the cast.

Gay Characters: Goth lesbian Janine, maybe Kristy's sensitive artistic brother.

Heterosexism:  Claudia is boy-crazy.  Otherwise not a lot.

Class Consciousness: Kristy's family is poor (i.e., middle class) in a nieghborhood populated entirely by the 1%, and she feels bad about it.

Boy Babysitters: They keep saying that boys can be babysitters, but nothing ever comes of it.

Will I Continue Watching: Definitely

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