Netflix has a new original series: The Baby-sitters Club! The second season and final covers eight books: Kristy and the Snobs, Claudia and the New Girl, Stacey's Emergency, Jessi and the Superbrat, Mary Anne and the Great Romance, Dawn and the Wicked Stepsister (notice the title change?), Claudia and the Sad Goodbye, and Kristy and the Baby Parade.
Again, Richard and Sharon are not married like in the original book: the Spiers are staying with the Schafers for a week while the formers' house is fumigated for termites. But a week is still plenty of time for tension to develop between the would-be step-sister. And here are some other things I noticed:
What stood out as surprisingly (not necessarily good or bad) different to me:
The secret passage was built for alcohol smuggling during the Prohibition, not as part of the Underground Railroad.
It's to drive home the point about the underlying tension, but it's very strange to see Mary Anne being sloppy and scatter-brained.
What I was happy stayed the same:
Like in her very first appearances, Dawn is organized and neat.
The secret passage! Yay!
Mary Anne's aluminum can burglar alarm! Double yay!
There's shades of Poor Mallory! in the subplot.
Okay, maybe not happy that it's the same, but some of the worse Dawn tendencies from the books show up, especially in her steam-rolling and her becoming insensitive to the point of hypocrisy to other people's needs when under stress.
Other interesting touches:
One of the sources of tension between the Schafers and Spiers is food, due to difference in their cultural upbringings (e.g.; what level of "spicy" is enough).
The club is still doing charity donations as established a few episode back.
