Generation BSC: A Baby-Sitters Club Podcast

Re-Watch 06: Emergency Meeting - Netflix Season One, Episode Six: Claudia and Mean Janine!

October 12th, 2021  |  58 mins 56 secs

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Welcome to our end of summer re-watch of season one of the Baby-Sitters Club series on Netflix. For the next few weeks, watch along with us and revisit our thoughts on the series before season two drops in October.

We’ll be back in the fall with our own season two as well, and can’t wait to catch up with you then. In the meantime, keep your eye on our social media and don’t forget to e-mail. We love to hear from you all!

Re-Watch 02: Emergency Meeting - Netflix Season One, Episode Two: Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls!

September 14th, 2021  |  40 mins 3 secs

claudia, emergency meeting, netflix series, rewatch

Welcome to our end of summer re-watch of season one of the Baby-Sitters Club series on Netflix. For the next few weeks, watch along with us and revisit our thoughts on the series before season two drops in October.

We’ll be back in the fall with our own season two as well, and can’t wait to catch up with you then. In the meantime, keep your eye on our social media and don’t forget to e-mail. We love to hear from you all!

Episode 033: Claudia and the Great Search!

May 25th, 2021  |  1 hr 18 mins

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Due to the subject matter of Kristy and the Secret of Susan focusing on an autistic child Kristy spends a significant amount of time with, Kate and Lauryn are taking a minute to bring on some great guests that they feel will help make that conversation as sensitive and thoughtful as possible. As a result, this week we're diving into Claudia and the Great Search, where Claudia becomes convinced she was adopted and goes on a thorough search to find the truth about her birth family and ultimately realizes, with Stacey's help, that she needs to just talk to her parents. This conversation results in the ultimate Danny Tanner moment.

Episode 026: Claudia and the Sad Good-bye.

February 16th, 2021  |  1 hr 6 mins

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Well, we’ve reached the book we’ve been dreading since the beginning, knowing that eventually we’ll have to say goodbye to Mimi with the rest of the BSC, Claudia in particular. It was a tough book to come back to after a break for the holidays that we’d hoped would be a nice opportunity to reset after the shitshow that was 2020, made even more tough when an attempted coup and attack on the Capitol occurred about a week before recording. Kate and Lauryn ended up coming to this book from very different perspectives, due both to their own personal experiences with grief and this book and the proximity to January 6th in their reading. Join us for an in-depth conversation that tries not to wallow in the sadness and instead focus on just how great this book is overall, but especially in just how perfectly it provides for teachable moments and opportunities to learn about how to deal with death of a loved one, the death of a friend or acquaintance’s loved one, and how loss and the processing of grief looks different for every person. We also dive into the subplot with Corrie Addison and her awful parents (or maybe not so awful if we allow some grace for what they might be experience that we don’t see in the book?) and Claudia’s close relationship with Corrie where they both fill a space they’re currently missing (due to Mimi’s death and Corrie’s aforementioned awful parents). This includes comparing and contrasting with Mrs. Barrett in her introduction. We take some related and unrelated tangents (as usual) to discuss topics like Lurlene McDaniel YA novels, the implications of unexplained bruises, Dorianne’s name change, the importance of friendships being a two-way street with both parties on the same page, honoring people with art and reactions when people share personal work with you, how grateful we are for Generation BSC, an acknowledgement that sometimes you have to suffer for fashion, the continued problematic references to Emily Michelle, and Jamie’s adorable way of referring to the Shillaber twins – the “Very-lyn twins.”

EM012: Emergency Meeting - Netflix Season One, Episode Six: Claudia and Mean Janine!

August 25th, 2020  |  58 mins 25 secs

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Kate and Lauryn keep up the mini-series discussion about the Netflix series with a conversation about episode six of season one, Claudia and Mean Janine, and also delve a little deeper into The Claudia Kishi Club.

EM009: Emergency Meeting - A Conversation with Anna Nguyen re: The Claudia Kishi Club and the Netflix Series!

August 4th, 2020  |  55 mins 31 secs

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Kate and Lauryn are joined this week by Anna Nguyen, a PhD student in rhetoric and composition who also uses her Instagram (@whatwouldclaudiawear) to document her own sartorial choices and meta-literary commentary on the Baby-Sitters Club. We discuss Sue Ding’s documentary, The Claudia Kishi Club, and the Netflix series generally and touch on some specifics from the book series as well. In our discussion, we examine the model minority myth and the othering of Claudia in descriptions related to such myth. Anna notes that the legacy of Claudia for Asian Americans is largely positive and shares her concerns on why she feels differently. In doing so, she unpacks the significance of identity categorizations and the tendency to universalize experiences in monolithic ways. We dive into the cultural impact of the new Netflix series, the general reception and reactions since its release, and why we (as a culture) might not be viewing it as critically as we watch and discuss. The concepts of “white excellence,” the “white savior complex,” and “black shows” vs. “white shows about black characters” come up in our discussion of the series and the books themselves when we deconstruct Kristy’s characterization in particular, including a discussion of how changing the race of some of the characters for the show had broader implications in the interpersonal reactions. We round out the conversation with an examination of the opportunities in our future discussions related to socioeconomic issues, racism, and the use of Native American imagery and names.

One small correction: In a reference to the problematic Asian character in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Anna mentions Mickey Rourke as the actor in that role. Mickey Rooney appeared in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

EM007: Emergency Meeting - Netflix Season One, Episode Two: Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls!

July 21st, 2020  |  39 mins 32 secs

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The Emergency Meetings continue with Kate and Lauryn’s discussion of Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls, episode two of The Baby-Sitters Club on Netflix. Despite the title and general concepts being the same as the second book in the main series, we note that the Phantom Caller concept has been significantly modified and the related Phantom Phone Calls from Trevor Sandbourne and Alan Gray are non-existent. We discuss how this makes sense, but the shoehorning in of the Phantom Caller metaphor to retain that reference to the original leaves us a little disappointed with that aspect, while loving the episode as a whole. We get our introduction to Richard Spier in one of several nods to horror movies (and a clear indication of just how big a drama king he is). Parent/child relationships, expectations, and lack of communication are the big theme in this book, which we explore through our discussion of the Kishi parents with both Claudia and Janine and Kristy with Liz (also known forever to us as Edie) and Watson. Karen Brewer makes her first significant appearance and we are here for it. Her spooky energy is everything we didn’t know we needed. We touch on how great this show is at fleshing out these characters and showing their motivations when they do things that might otherwise seem out of character, how well it justifies original plot points despite updates to technology, Nancy Meyers kitchen porn, Mary Anne’s opportunity to be clever despite the lack of early warning system necessities, just what soigné actually means, and how the costumes chosen by Claudia and Stacey are so indicative of who they are.

Episode 019: Claudia and the Bad Joke!

June 23rd, 2020  |  1 hr 23 mins

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Pranks are sweeping the neighborhood, with new babysitting charge, Betsy Sobak, and the Pikes leading the charge. And despite Kate’s prediction that the prank war declared on Betsy by the BSC could NEVER be after Claudia’s accident because that would be too shitty a thing for them to do, it turns out that they are, in fact, just that shitty as they decide to use a prank war to teach Betsy a lesson. Yeah, it’s another book where the girls let us down and the main child isn’t the greatest as the BSC takes “parenting advice” from George and Lucille Bluth to scare Betsy straight when it comes to the humiliation and embarrassment that comes from pranks when everyone hasn’t bought in on the concept. We compare and contrast the pranking that goes on with the Pikes and their babysitters (where everyone has a tacit understanding of give and take and has fun with it) and the situation with Betsy and her babysitters and classmates, who clearly do not have that type of relationship. We do appreciate that the lesson eventually comes due to a heartfelt conversation between Kristy and Betsy (rather than a mansplainy monologue a la Danny Tanner), but the fact that the prank war and somewhat malicious lesson-teaching works and is reinforced definitely rubs us the wrong way. We again confirm Dawn being the absolute best friend in the BSC and try to dissect why that might be (and getting a little arm chair expert-y in our conversation), while noting that the Claudia/Janine dynamic in this book is our favorite iteration of their relationship. We also touch on Claudia’s Asian-ness when compared to Jessi’s Blackness and how that will be something we pay more attention to as we continue reading, our heightened childhood expectations re: how important dry-cleaning would be when we grew up, wearing our dad’s (oversized on us) button-down shirts and learning how to tie flamboyantly colored/patterned ties, how when you’re a kid, it seems like every adult has stock cliched responses (e.g., “but it’s a dry heat,” “it’s not the heat that gets you, it’s the humidity”), and how oatmeal raisin cookies and apple juice might be the worst afterschool snack ever.

EM003: Emergency Meeting - Claudia in Quarantine!

April 28th, 2020  |  30 mins 1 sec

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Kate and Lauryn continue with their emergency meetings to check in with each of the girls and discuss what we think Claudia is doing during her COVID-induced quarantine. We disagree initially about how Claudia reacts to school being cancelled, with Lauryn focusing on the schoolwork aspect and Kate focusing on the interpersonal face-to-face interactions. We touch on how we think Claudia and Janine are handling being quarantined together (likely exactly how they have in the two books where their relationship has been a focus – conflicts initially, but coming around to understanding). We discuss whether Claudia is on the front lines of mask-making, either actually making them or possibly finding ways to decorate the masks, especially to make them more fun and less scary for kids. Knowing Claudia’s love of junk food and Nancy Drews, we discuss how we think Claudia is getting more of these things to satisfy her needs and whether her parents have maybe softened their position on these items given what’s going on in the world. Lauryn pretends that Amazon doesn’t exist in the version of 2020 that the BSC is in for purposes of our discussion and Kate questions whether Claudia would even use it if it was available. We definitely agree Claudia is using her time at home to focus on her art (and exploring new media) and on fashion and creating amazing outfits, potentially creating (or expanding) a fashion Instagram or blog. We again end with a quick check-in on how we’re feeling and getting through self-isolation this week.

Stay safe and healthy everyone!!

Episode 012: Claudia and the New Girl!

February 25th, 2020  |  1 hr 9 mins

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Claudia’s got a new friend, despite our insistence on no new friends. Ashley Wyeth moves to town and is a Serious Artist. Claudia is immediately enamored of her and starts spending all of her time with Ashley, completely ignoring the BSC, her babysitting charges, and Stacey, in particular. Lauryn initially gets excited about the first non-straight "romantic" crush in the series, which leads to a conversation and re-evaluation regarding crushes and friendships at that age and their emotional complexities. Kate redeems her memory when her prediction of this book was spot-on (but she doubles down that Eddie from her Ghost at Dawn’s House prediction will for sure be in Beware, Dawn!, Mystery #2). As always, we touch on plenty of TV references – this time including, but not limited to, The Good Place, Project Runway, and Buffy. Newbury Award winners that we know and love are discussed in an actually on-topic tangent and we sort of make predictions for the next two books. Clearly, we’re figuring out how Super Specials actually fit in! We touch on Benedict Arnold (with Lauryn being a supporter? maybe?), Banksy, what art is anyway, early 2000s fashion, possibly and definitely problematic descriptive words, and reaffirm #nonewpeeps.