Netflix has a new original series: The Baby-sitters Club! The first season covers the first eight books plus a sort of adaptation of of the second super special, Baby-sitters Summer Vacation. AND...it's set in the present day (2019/2020), updated accordingly, and much more diverse. The plots are broadly the same as the original books. Here are some things that I noticed:
What stood out as surprisingly (not necessarily good or bad) different to me:
The impetuous that starts the fight is Mrs. Delvecchio (whose family replaces the Prezziosos) asking for Mary Anne specifically, because she knows Mary Anne's dad through work, and she trusts Mary Anne with her transgender daughter, Bailey. When Mary Anne vents to her dad, he calls the other parents, which makes everything worse.
Dawn's parents divorced when her father came out as gay. (She's handling it way better than two friends of mine whose parents split up for the same reason, but it sounds like in the Schafer's case, the reveal wasn't much of a surprise to anyone. With both of my friends, there were affairs involved.) Dawn's experiences with this help Mary Anne understand how Bailey feels. Mary Anne wasn't acting inappropriately, but she was privately confused and unsure if she was handling everything okay, and Dawn reassures her. This later helps Mary Anne tell the medical staff that Bailey's gender isn't what's on the medical chart.
Dawn is an only child.
Morbidda Destiny/Esme Porter is Dawn's mother's aunt, which is why Dawn's mom wanted to come back to Stoneybrook. She's into New Age stuff, which is why Karen thinks she's a pointy-hat green-faced variety of witch.
What I was happy stayed the same:
Dawn's introduction is fun to watch.
Richard Spier and Sharon Schafer meeting each other is pretty great, too. They realize who the other is when Dawn and Sharon (and Aunt Esme) come for Thanksgiving dinner.
Other interesting touches:
Mary Anne's mom was a lawyer.
The actresses playing Mary Anne and Mimi are actually knitting, not just holding the needles and yarn.
Dawn sees a therapist, presumably to help her with the divorce and move, which seems like a great idea to me.
No comments:
Post a Comment