The Baby-Sitters Club Season 2 Remains a Heartwarming Escape
Photo Courtesy of Netflix
The platform an adaptation lands on determines a lot about what makes it to screen. When The CW adapts a fan-favorite literary franchise, for example, we mostly know what to expect (sexy 20-somethings playing teenagers, likely something supernatural). The same thing can be said about Netflix, which we know by now tends to be a bit more faithful in its attempt to bring stories from the page to the screen. The streaming service has been churning out more and more adaptations with each passing year, and it often does so without sacrificing too much or deviating too often from what’s expected except when it’s absolutely necessary.
When it comes to The Baby-Sitters Club, which debuted last year at the precise time we needed it most, Netflix resisted the temptation to age up the central characters and thus nailed the tone and themes of Ann M. Martin’s beloved book series. With a diverse cast and socially conscious storylines bringing the show into the modern day, the series manages to update its source material for a new generation while keeping its earnest and good-natured approach to coming-of-age stories. That latter part in particular is what has made it appealing to those who grew up reading the novels and who might still have fond memories of both the original 1990 TV series and the 1995 feature film. Thankfully, all of that remains true in the show’s upcoming eight-episode second season.
In the new episodes, the titular club deals with a bit of change, both within the on-screen narrative and behind the scenes. In the case of the latter, Kyndra Sanchez has joined the cast and stepped into the role of Dawn after Xochitl Gomez, who portrayed the character in Season 1, wasn’t able to return because of a scheduling issue. The transition is relatively seamless, and Sanchez fully embodies the character, her eccentricities, and her anxieties in such a way that by the end of the finale it’s impossible to believe she hasn’t always been Dawn. It takes nothing away from Gomez’s performance, either; both young women have been exceptional in the role and both have chemistry with the rest of the cast, so nothing has really changed in that regard.
Where the show sees a more obvious change is in the overall chemistry of the club, as two new members join in Season 2. Jessi Ramsey (Anais Lee) and Mallory Pike (Vivian Watson) will be immediately familiar to fans of the books, in which they were junior officers, but both were also introduced in Season 1 of the show. Their constant presence as new inductees alters the central dynamic of the show and the Baby-Sitters Club itself at times, but it’s not in a harmful or necessarily even obvious way. In fact, it feels purposeful.
One of The Baby-Sitters Club’s greatest strengths is its ability to portray everyday growing pains of young adulthood with both humor and empathy. Meeting new people and making new friends is one of the many things that happens as we age, but it can also be one of the toughest to navigate. I don’t know if you’ve ever been a 13-year-old girl, but it’s not exactly easy, especially if you’re the new person in a close-knit group of friends who already have their own interests and identities. So, even if the chemistry is sometimes off or the girls don’t always get along—an early episode finds Claudia (Momona Tamada) struggling to train Mallory, who is a little less mature and still attempting to figure out who she is—it’s only natural. And it’s only right that the girls will continue to struggle and evolve as they make mistakes and feel their way through the confusion of adolescence.