YMMV / The Baby-Sitters Club (2020)

• Diagnosed by the Audience: Claudia Kishi shows traits consistent with inattentive ADHD. She has atrocious grades but displays high emotional intelligence and a capacity for knowledge about things she finds interesting, like literature and Buddhist philosophy. In the episode "Claudia and the Phantom Phone Caller," she says that she tends to shift her focus from subjects for which she shows less aptitude (most academic subjects) and toward babysitting and art (at which she excels). She also tries to tap her focus on a specific subject for a test and even when she does, she still fails the test, implying she isn't lazy but there may be something preventing her from achieving academic success.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Though the club members are the main driving force of the series, their family members have also garnered much love in this adaptation.
  • Watson has gained quite a bit of love in the TV show for his fun-loving, corny style, his desperation to reach out to Kristy, and the fact that he's hugely responsible for the club taking off in this version.
  • Richard Spier has become well-liked due to being one of the most developed parents in the series while also being played hilariously by Marc Evan Jackson, the same man behind Kevin and Shawn.
  • Karen Brewer, who was often accused of being a Creator's Pet in the books, become quite beloved in the series thanks largely to her actress's deadpan delivery and the fact that she's more silly than bratty.
  • Mimi is as popular as she was in the books, for being a Cool Old Lady who makes all the girls feel good about themselves.
  • Janine has received much love thanks to her straightforward Spock Speak creating some humorous moments – and for showing that she actually loves her sister and grandmother and understands the latter in a special way.
• Fridge Brilliance:
  • Richard's protectiveness of Mary Anne is given new meaning with her Race Lift to half-black. Not only are children of color more likely to be mistreated by both peers and authority figures, but Richard also might feel pressure to be a perfect parent because he is white and thus under scrutiny for raising a child who clearly isn't.
  • Clearly Kristy's Control Freak tendencies could stem from her Parental Abandonment (along with, like her mother, having trouble dealing with change); she is afraid of being left behind by her friends and gets hurt when they tell her she can be unpleasant.
  • Mary Anne seems to have an affinity for Halle Berry. Halle Berry is also a biracial woman who, like Mary Anne, identifies as black but was raised by a single white parent.
  • Mary Anne is already experienced with menstruation despite a single father who very likely wasn't able to be of much help. But Richard mentions that the Kishi Family (especially Mimi) have been close friends and generous with the Spier family. It's possible that Mrs. Kishi and/or Mimi took Mary Anne under their wing when it came to puberty changing her body.
• Fridge Horror:
  • The "horror" is downplayed, but Mary Anne is clearly already experienced with her period by the time Kristy gets hers – but Mary Anne also grew up with a single father who can barely even talk to her about trivial matters, let alone something serious like her first period. It's likely she had to go through her first period without the help of a parent.
  • Dawn is given a fright when Buddy Barrett goes missing, only for his father Hamilton Barrett to arrive and explain that Buddy was with him and that the mother forgot to mention this. As Dawn points out to Kristy, even if Hamilton had come inside rather than just taking Buddy from the yard, there's no way Dawn could have known whether Hamilton was even allowed to see Buddy or take him somewhere – that confrontation could have been terrifying for her.
• He Really Can Act: Comedian Marc Evan Jackson, who's known for his The Comically Serious roles, has some quietly heartbreaking moments regarding Richard's anguish over his wife's death.
• Improved Second Attempt:
  • The club seems much less cult-like and generally act like better friends to each other. For example, in the book version of "Mary Anne Saves the Day", the Baby-Sitters Club has such a nasty, name-calling fight one has to wonder why they would ever want to hang out again. The conflict in the Netflix version is more tame (some passive-aggressiveness) and mostly comes from a misunderstanding. Claudia and Stacey even tell Mary Anne they "need some space" – it's not a friendship-ending feud. Later after everything has cleared up, Stacey makes a move to apologize to Mary Anne for being cold to her.
  • Multiple characters are far more likable than their book counterparts (whom readers often found insufferable for various reasons), such as Dawn, Kristy, and Karen.
  • "Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls" originally had Kristy and Claudia experiencing scary calls from boys who had crushes on them and wanted to ask them to the dance – and they agree to it. This kind of behaviour would be recognized as inappropriate today. In the episode, Claudia and Trevor actually talk and make proper plans, while the "phantom caller" scare (which only happens once, not across multiple jobs) turns out to be Mary Anne calling from an old phone with a blocked number. There is a real phantom caller/home invader at large, but the sitters don't encounter them.
  • The book version "Dawn and the Impossible Three" also had Dawn stand up to Mrs. Barrett, but after the latter promised to be more organized and leave important information, Dawn relented and agreed to keep baby-sitting – even though it didn't address how inappropriately the Barretts treated her during and outside of sitting hours. The series fully changed this, replacing it with Sharon telling off Mrs. Barrett for depending on a young girl and saying she could call back when she grew up and apologized to Dawn. Similarly, rather than essentially kidnapping his son and being eager to cause his ex-wife distress, Mr. Barrett was following his routine time with Buddy while taking him to swimming, completely unaware that there was someone involved who wasn't aware of the routine and would think Buddy was missing; the only blame for Dawn's distress falls on Mrs. Barrett.
  • A common complaint for the book series is that the girls act and sound older than they should be (and looked that way too in the original book covers). In the adaptation, even though the girls' traits are true to their book selves, they look and act much more like middle schoolers (helped by their actresses being very close to their age at the time of filming); they still heavily depend on their parents, their social lives mainly consist of hanging out at each other's houses, and they're more prone to the awkwardness that comes from being 12 (for example, in "Boy Crazy Stacey" Stacey has no idea how to flirt with the older lifeguard).
  • The book series was routinely mocked for how it treated Stacey's diabetes like it was a highly stigmatized illness. The series both hangs a lampshade on it – the girls tell Stacey she's not the only person who has it – and at the same time shows very accurately how serious a Type 1 diabetes diagnosis can really be for a 12-year-old. In the books, the lead-up to Stacey's diagnosis culminated in her wetting the bed at a party. In the Netflix series, she has a grand mal seizure at school.
  • Instead of giving Mallory an unfairly rigorous test for the "crime" of being younger than they are and having an accidental injury occur to one of her siblings in her presence (one she couldn't have prevented), the older Baby-sitters Club members have the much more reasonable "you need to accompany one of us on a few jobs for training purposes" rule for Mallory and Jessi. And while Claudia does snap at Mallory, this is only after Mallory has been unintentionally annoying her over several jobs while Claudia is under self-imposed pressure to prove she can be a good temporary president when Kristy is stuck at home with strep throat; Claudia also sincerely apologizes and offers to give Mallory the listening ear she needs.
  • Mary-Anne and Logan have a relationship in the books that was often criticized for being too mature, too intense and too controlling on Logan's part. In the TV series, they not only are far less serious – ditching the boyfriend-girlfriend label after one episode because it's too much pressure – but they also do it out of mutual respect for one another, and recognize that they are perhaps too young to get so serious.
  • In the books, Jessi is treated like the best, most sophisticated ballerina in the world... at 11. Some of the productions and parts she gets in the book are far beyond the years of even the most skilled 11-year-olds. In this adaptation, Jessi's abilities are subtly downgraded to better reflect what's expected from a dancer her age; she is still passionate and skilled, but is also ultimately imperfect, meaning she doesn't always get every role she wants and is sometimes insecure about receiving corrections. She also dances parts that are much more suited to an 11-year-old, like a corps role in a winter recital.
  • Many readers of the books found it irritating how seriously the girls, especially Kristy, took the club. It drifted into Narm territory when the adults of Stoneybrook also seemed to act like the Baby-Sitters Club were low-level celebrities and the most reliable group of pre-teens in town. The show does a better job of lampshading Kristy's self-seriousness about the club, especially in "Hello, Camp Moosehead!" The adults around her aren't as easily impressed by the fact that she babysits or runs a business, and she still has to prove herself. It also offers some reasoning for why the girls take it so seriously: Kristy longs for control, Claudia likes babysitting because it allows her to be good at something, Stacey needs the club because it makes her feel like she belongs, etc.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • While pretty low-key on the Jerkass quotient, by 12-year-old girl standards Kristy can fall into this category, being a Control Freak and so resistant to change that she's downright hostile to people like Watson and Dawn. But she was abandoned by her father, with his absence getting worse and worse to the point where she no longer even knows where he is. Her mother works extremely hard and the family has still struggled. The scene in which Kristy nags Mary Anne about her father, only for Mary Anne to remind Kristy that her own dad doesn't care about her, makes you go from wanting to smack Kristy to wanting to give her a hug.
  • Janine has no idea how to communicate with Claudia and most of the time comes off harsh, critical and uncaring. She also encourages her parents to take away things that Claudia is anticipating – like the school dance – because she's convinced it will make Claudia perform better, not realizing the stress that it's putting Claudia under. However, she clearly is capable of love and wants to connect with people just as badly as Claudia does, even if she expresses things differently. When Claudia shouts at Janine that Mimi loves Claudia more, Janine is clearly heartbroken.
• LGBT Fanbase: The original book series already had a large LGBT fanbase thanks to the main cast being primarily female with generous shades of Les Yay (and with characters likes Kristy often interpreted to be lesbians or bisexual). This has carried over to this adaptation, and it's only increased thanks to the number of openly gay characters (especially with confirmation that Janine is dating a girl and that Dawn is bi/pan) and the existence of Bailey (a transgender girl who's also a Canon Foreigner), both of which have been met with acclaim. It's helped by the author Ann M. Martin herself also being queer.
• Narm Charm: Stacey's line to her mom, "I'm not ashamed of my diabetes anymore," is cheesy and a little silly, but the sincerity with which she says it is adorable.
• Periphery Demographic: The show is about seventh graders and has a pre-teen/young teen audience in mind (like with the books). However it's also attracted a lot of adult viewers — partly because many of the older viewers grew up reading the books, and partly because the plot lines and themes have resonated with young adults.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • Karen was widely disliked by fans in the original series despite Ann M. Martin's fondness for her, due to her coming off as a bratty kid or a know-it-all. She is more likeable in the Netflix series, as her brattiness is downplayed and she's more of a Plucky Comic Relief character than anything.
  • In the original series Dawn was generally disliked for her obsessive soapbox tendencies and many lapses of being mean. She's been received far better in the Netflix adaptation, as she's much kinder and closer to her supposed book personality.
• Squick: In the Season 1 finale, Stacey and Laine get covered head to toe in poison ivy and temporarily become heavily disfigured as a result. The Baby-Sitters Club actually scream and briefly freak out upon seeing them.
• Sweet Dreams Fuel: Both critics and fans regard this as one of the most positive and uplifting series to come to Netflix in spring of 2020 – besides the nostalgia factor and the widely lauded costume and set design, the gentle but no-nonsense addressing of queer and trans rights, racism, relationships, blended families and more have been universally praised. It also boasts a very light and soft colour palette, which many have noted adds to the air of innocence and sweetness.
• The Woobie:
  • Mary Anne Spier. She grew up without the influence of her mother and a father who, while clearly loving, doesn't always know how to ask her what's going on. She feels intimidated by her own friends and seems to question her own abilities often. Her father has also told her very little about her mother because he's too heartbroken to do so.
  • Richard Spier still has moments where he misses Alma deeply even after more than a decade, or when Mary Anne reminds him of her. Some Fridge Brilliance in this; Mimi tells Mary Anne that Alma was very extroverted and a crusader. Richard, who was so introverted in high school he was known as "the turtle," probably gained a lot of confidence in himself because of Alma. After she died, it became more difficult.
  • Stacey. She's a sweet and friendly girl, but dealing with the stress of Type 1 Diabetes has given her a lot more to manage than a healthy pre-teen, always having to monitor her blood sugar and hide her pump. And, her friends circulated a video of her experiencing a traumatic medical event as though it were a joke. The lead-up to her diagnosis also made her parents suspicious, and she was subjected to countless specialists before the solution was finally found. You can still see the remnants of the stress of the early days on her parents; her mother is so protective and projects some of her insecurities onto Stacey in ways that usually end in Stacey feeling worse. Worst of all, Stacey reveals that she's desperate to make and keep friends – because she lost all of her old ones.
  • Of all people, Janine becomes The Woobie with essentially no jerks tendencies in Season 2. She doesn't say a single negative or condescending word to Claudia during the season, and in fact is shown to have developed a life of her own with a new friend (and, eventually, girlfriend). But she takes it incredibly hard when Mimi dies, and because of her parents' grief, has no one to turn to, even her sister. Add in that the only person who knew that she was a lesbian and had a girlfriend has died, and she is struggling to tell her parents.
• Too Good to Last: Despite critical praise, the show was cancelled after two seasons.

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