I'm glad it works for someone even if they don't know the books.
I don't think I have a favorite character; I like them all! Though I think I find Kristy most interesting (the girl who plays her is a good actor). Kristy quite possibly got the biggest boost from the books for me, and yes, her actor was amazing. (Also how great was Alicia Silverstone? That helped too.) Sadly my book-favorite Claudia didn't pop as much for me here, though I can't tell you that they did anything wrong in particular. It might just be a matter of media and the introvert/extrovert divide? Introvert Claudia comes across better in a book where we have more access to her thoughts while extrovert Kristi reads better on screen.
But the show absolutely solidified my love of Dawn, who is my runner-up fav in the books. As soon as she showed up I felt like the show came to life.
Alas, I've always struggled with Stacy, and I don't think the show did anything to help there.
I also particularly like Karen. She was an unexpected pleasure, for sure, I don't particularly remember anything about her character from the books (I remember her existing) so I wonder how much license they took there.
I did like the show's upgraded progressivism. The books were actually fairly progressive for their time: Claudia has always been Japanese, Jessi has always been black. Stacy has always had diabetes. All of the divorce and single-parent households and blended families were very much a feature of the books. And they tried to show a real variety of kids and families in the people they babysat, like there's a book about a kid who's deaf (admittedly all in a pretty well-off Connecticut suburb). So I think they've done a good job of translating that into modern day with more modern consciousness.
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*\o/* SO FUN.
I'm glad it works for someone even if they don't know the books.
I don't think I have a favorite character; I like them all! Though I think I find Kristy most interesting (the girl who plays her is a good actor).
Kristy quite possibly got the biggest boost from the books for me, and yes, her actor was amazing. (Also how great was Alicia Silverstone? That helped too.) Sadly my book-favorite Claudia didn't pop as much for me here, though I can't tell you that they did anything wrong in particular. It might just be a matter of media and the introvert/extrovert divide? Introvert Claudia comes across better in a book where we have more access to her thoughts while extrovert Kristi reads better on screen.
But the show absolutely solidified my love of Dawn, who is my runner-up fav in the books. As soon as she showed up I felt like the show came to life.
Alas, I've always struggled with Stacy, and I don't think the show did anything to help there.
I also particularly like Karen.
She was an unexpected pleasure, for sure, I don't particularly remember anything about her character from the books (I remember her existing) so I wonder how much license they took there.
I did like the show's upgraded progressivism. The books were actually fairly progressive for their time: Claudia has always been Japanese, Jessi has always been black. Stacy has always had diabetes. All of the divorce and single-parent households and blended families were very much a feature of the books. And they tried to show a real variety of kids and families in the people they babysat, like there's a book about a kid who's deaf (admittedly all in a pretty well-off Connecticut suburb). So I think they've done a good job of translating that into modern day with more modern consciousness.