How The Baby-Sitters Club manages to make kindness compelling television

Indiewire

Kindness is a big part of the Netflix adaptation of Ann M. Martin's beloved novels. "But one complaint often levied against shows populating the nicecore movement is that the products often lack the stakes and conflict found in less savory programming," says Libby Hill. "On The Baby-Sitters Club, no one is going to be lured into playing a children’s game that might kill you or stumble into an uber-rich family’s territory war over control of a global media empire. But that doesn’t mean that nothing happens." As showrunner Rachel Shukert points out, "kindness does not necessarily mean a lack of conflict. The girls all have conflict points with each other. And they fight and they have misunderstandings and they clash, but they’re able to kind of move past it. And I felt like what I really wanted to show for middle school girls in the audience is: The world doesn’t end and a friendship isn’t over just because you guys had a disagreement. Friendship is really about what happens after you have a fight. It’s the same with relationships. You don’t really know how strong it is until you fight with each other."

ALSO:

• Showrunner Rachel Shukert admits the cast growing up "does put a little bit of a timestamp on the show": "Because I don’t know that we’re going to follow them into college or anything like that,” she says. “These books, for me, I was such a giant Baby-Sitters Club fan as a kid, and they’re the most important thing in your life for two or three years, and then you age out and another generation finds them. So there’s this very specific, jewel-like quality to these books and to this show that exists in this finite period of time, and that’s something that we’re all sort of OK with.”
• The Baby-Sitters Club remains enjoyable in Season 2 as it challenges the protagonists’ notions of themselves or of their friends
• Season 2 marks a mature turning point for The Baby-Sitters Club, utilizing the club as not just a money-making venture but a space for brilliant young women to come into their own
• Season 2 offers the perfect representation of the Horse Girl
• Season 2 upends the sad sack storyline of Vivian Watson's Mallory 
• Mark Feuerstein discusses his touching speech in the Season 2 finale