Scene 1: Kristy and Mary Anne are walking home from Stoneybrook Middle School through a ridiculously beautiful suburb, discussing women's empoewrment (girls who speak up in class get detention). Mary Anne goes into her mansion. Kristy stops to say hello to a boy-crazy neighbor and to help a little boy (her brother?), who peed his pants, then goes into her working class house.
The babysitter for tomorrow night cancelled, and the babysitting app costs too much, so Mom asks if Kristy and Mary Anne can do it. Suddenly Kristy gets an idea -- why can't teenage girls (and boys) babysit? They're just as responsible as adults and they will charge less!
Scene 3: At school, Kristy tells her second-best friend, artistic Claudia, about the idea. Later they all congregate at Claudia's house. We meet the Goth lesbian big sister Janine. Claudia has brought in a fourth member, the sophisticated New Yorker Stacey. They discuss the logistics of the business, and come up with good reasons why they'll use fliers instead of social media, and get jobs via a landline instead of texts.
Scene 4: Dinner. Mom's rich boyfriend Watson (Mark Feuerstein, top photo) loves the idea -- teenager girls (and boys) babysitting, what an innovation! Then he announces that he and Mom are getting married, and Kristy gets mad and storms off.
Scene 5: They start distributing the fliers in their ridiculously elegant cafe-and-boutique filled downtown.. Mary Anne goes to the library, and gets gushy over a boy reading to the kids (Ryan McCririck).
Scene 6: Waiting around, waiting for the phone to ring. Finally it does: Kristy's future stepfather, Watson, needs someone to babysit his two kids. Obviously a pity job. Kristy orders the other girls not to take the job Claudia has art class, Stacey will be in New York, but Mary Anne says she will do it. Kristy is incensed.
Scene 7: The next day, Kristy jogs through the ridicuously ritzy neighborhood where Watson lives t odo some spying on her so-called friend. Good grief, the kids have their own bounce house. Suddenly the next door neighbor confrontts her, her cover is blown, and she runs away.
Suddenly she runs into Stacey and her parents. She lied to get out of a babysitting gig! Betrayal! (I would have just said I didn't want to do it, but I'm not 13).
Scene 8: Mom and Kristy have a heart-to-heart. About her being bitchy to Watson? No, aout Stacey's betrayal!Scene 9: Kristy brings pizza to the next Baby Sitter's Club meeting, two large pizzas for four people (smart way to keep them happy, but can they really eat that much? I don't think I could).She apologizes for being bossy.
The phone rings. A real job! And another. All recommended by Watson. Maybe he's not so bad after all.
Beefcake: Watson is cute. Maybe the older brother. There are more "dreamy boys" and hot Dads in the cast.
Gay Characters: Goth lesbian Janine, maybe Kristy's sensitive artistic brother.
Plus every episode seems to have a throwaway gay character or reference to LGBT people.
In Episode 4, Mary Anne babysits a transgender girl (played by real life transgender girl Kai Shappley) who has just come out, so she's still listed as a boy on her medical records. When she gets sick, Mary Anne rushes her to the hospital, and has to educate the "Let's take a look at the little man" doctor.
In Episode 7, Mary Anne meets a boy at the beach, who casually references a crush on a boy.
Heterosexism: Claudia is boy-crazy. Otherwise not a lot.
Class Consciousness: Kristy's family is poor (i.e., middle class) in a nieghborhood populated entirely by the 1%, and she feels bad about it.
Boy Babysitters: They keep saying that boys can be babysitters, but nothing ever comes of it.
Will I Continue Watching: Definitely
I do remember Jason David Frank was on a 90s adaptation, one of his like, two non-Power Ranger roles.
ReplyDeleteAfter watching several episodes, I have lost count of the gay moms among the clients and "My dad is gay" statements, but none of the teenagers seems to be LGBT.
ReplyDeleteAlso heterosexism. One of the girls is interested in a boy, and her grandmother says "If he's not into you, he must be out of his mind." What a terrible thing to say, ascribing mental illness to a boy just because he isn't intterested in a girl. He could be gay, right? Or asexual. Or heterosexual and seeing someone else. Or not ready for a relationship. THere are lots of reasons other than insanity for a boy to not want to date a girl.
ReplyDeleteThere are references to LGBT people in every episode except the first. Usually in throwaway characters, like the art teacher brings her wife to a school function, or Mary Anne meets a gay boy at the beach who never appears again. Still, that's very good representation.
ReplyDelete