The Baby-Sitters Club (2020)

The Baby-Sitters Club remains enjoyable as it challenges the protagonists’ notions of themselves or of their friends. ... The last several months have proven that the demand for sappy, hopeful content is on the rise. The Baby-Sitters Club provides exactly that for multiple generations—it captures an old-school family TV vibe, but the comedy is relatively subtle.

This newest adaptation is a dream. Like its namesake, The Baby-Sitters Club (Netflix edition) is funny, sweet, and emotionally complex. ... The Baby-Sitters Club’s five young leads truly carry the series, grounding characters that could easily turn into broad types and making them each feel complicated and awkward and real.

"Baby-Sitters" is a near-perfect distillation of what made the book series sell millions of copies. The series is optimistic but not deluded, youthful but not juvenile and sweet but not mawkish. Its quintet of young actresses (the original four sitters and one mid-season addition) are talented beyond their years, but the dialogue never makes them sound like 40-year-old Hollywood scriptwriters.

I'm delighted to find that Netflix's 10-episode adaptation of the series is not only warm and effervescent — it's downright among the best shows the streaming platform has produced to date.

The most comforting, delightful stretch of viewing I’ve had in the last few months. ... [The cast] are fantastic together — a believably middle-school-aged group of friends who are idealistic, loving, deeply feeling, occasionally annoying, sometimes mistaken kids. ... It is a vision of The Baby-Sitters Club that smartly updates it for the world of 2020, without also sacrificing the innate warmth and optimism of the original books.

A funny, fresh reimagining. Building on Martin’s solid, good-hearted tales, it maintains a contemporary feel without losing the old-fashioned charm at its heart.

It’s sweet, and honest, and nice, in a way that feels just as refreshing as the girls’ old-fashioned business model.