The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Netflix offers fresh take on ‘The Baby-Sitters Club’

- By Hank StueverX

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If you were attempting to tell a story in these dreary days about the rewards of believing in the best of people, you could do no better than the smart, affirmativ­e joy that’s found in Netflix’s fresh take on “The BabySitter­s Club,” a 10-episode drama aimed squarely at the tweenage-girl set, but willing to share its goodwill with anyone who needs a lift.

I’m about as far from the show’s intended demographi­c as a person can get, but “The Baby-Sitters Club” is yet another reminder of the lucky life of a critic, who gets to watch everything and discover the unexpected trove of kindness and spirit seen here. The women in my life — especially those friends who grew up in the 1980s and ’90s reading the 2oo-plus novels in the original book series conceived by Ann M. Martin — are way, way ahead of me on this: “The Baby-Sitters Club,” which has sold more than 180 million paperbacks and was previously adapted into a short-lived TV series and a 1995 movie, was never only about babysittin­g.

It’s an entire ethic, impressive­ly built on the tenet that we are each of us becoming a better and more responsibl­e person every day. How the books and now this series are able to do this without seeming saccharine, preachy or otherwise Disneyfied is part of why “The Baby-Sitters Club” is such a watchable treat. Not only do things generally work out for these girls, it works out because they work at it.

Within its opening minutes, one cannot help but groove on the show’s welcoming nature, as a seventhgra­der named Kristy Thomas (Sophie Grace) sees how desperate her single mom (Alicia Silverston­e) is to find a last-minute sitter for her little brother. Kristy hatches a plan to start a full-service babysittin­g partnershi­p in idyllic Stoneybroo­k, Conn. She recruits her best friend Mary Anne Spier (Malia Baker), their budding-artist friend, Claudia Kishi (Momona Tanada), and the new girl at school, Stacey McGill (Shay Rudolph). Later they are joined by another new girl, Dawn Schafer (Xochitl Gomez).

Showrunner Rachel Shukert (whose TV work includes “GLOW”) and executive producer Lucia Aniello (“Broad City”) clearly want nothing more than to do right by the books they loved as girls, while carefully steering “Baby-Sitters Club” toward a thoughtful­ly conceived Gen-Z upgrade.

 ?? SCHWERMAN/NETFLIX KAILEY ?? Shay Rudolph (from left), Momona Tamada, Malia Baker and Sophie Grace star on “The Baby-Sitters Club.”
SCHWERMAN/NETFLIX KAILEY Shay Rudolph (from left), Momona Tamada, Malia Baker and Sophie Grace star on “The Baby-Sitters Club.”

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