ooh, so close, BSC season 2
Oct. 11th, 2021 06:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
impyMmmf. New BSC dropped today. I really liked Season 1, as I found it adorable and true to the heart of the classic books, even as things were changed.
S2, however, started off on the wrong foot and I've been grinding my teeth at each new change. So I'm thinking I might vent a bit every few episodes or so.
Episode 1 is Kristy and The Snobs and we aren't getting Shannon. Instead we get YET ANOTHER version of Amanda Delaney, this one being 11 and an only child, whose mother is named Shannon. She's kind of snobby and kind of socially awkward and it's a weird mix and I get why they keep doing this book and changing it, but also... just introduce Kristy to the neighborhood in some way, kill off Louie (which they did, off screen) and incorporate it into another story. If you're just going to change everything about Amanda (literally the only thing she has in common at this point is being a rich, kind of snobby neighbor of Kristy's), call her something different. Amanda Delaney is meant to be the cliche snobby rich, blonde stereotype. She brags about how much everything costs because it's what the parents do and she and her brother are meant to be annoying. If you don't want to deal with that, fine. Don't. Use someone else instead. Hell, half the reason the Delaneys were even around was because they had a pool. Which Watson does now so... what's the point?
UGH.
Still not sold on new!Dawn, hate meta jokes about 'ha, it's a whole new me', and love Kristy's solutions for Mary Anne worrying about Logan.
Episode 2 is Claudia And The New Girl and it's both very clever and SUPER frustrating.
Clever because anyone who's read the book is assuming we're getting super artsy Ashley. And we do. But she's been aged up and given to Janine as an actual friend, and instead of being talented but seen as very weird, she's insanely popular and kinda famous. Nope, the new girl is in reference to Claudia having to train Mallory in the ways of being a babysitter.
Mal can't catch a single goddamn break, ever, can she? She's the oldest of a billion kids. The problem was NEVER she wasn't a good babysitter. And yet she comes across as one in the limited time we see her with a sitting charge. She's desperate to fit in and impress Claudia and keeps putting her foot in her mouth and I swear to god, the cringe factor was cranked up to 13 when I realized they were going to have her walk the line of being the well meaning but awkward white girl asking what the ~exotic~ foods being served at the Kishi's breakfast spread were. Like... wtf, show. You did so well in season 1 and now, now you're going to just shit all over Mal?
Oof. Like there's no way Mal would immediately assume it was cool to make a frozen pizza and cookies at the Newton's and just keep bumbling around like that. Be awkward and tell Claudia way too much about her stories? Maybe. Wish longingly and a bit too hard to be just like Claud? Sure. But dude, it took way too long for Mal to find her dignity and then they yanked it back again at the end anyway.
I can't handle secondhand embarrassment. Never could, so this episode was straight up torture for me.
3: Stacey's Emergency at this point we're just doing nods to the books/titles and doing our own thing, huh. Dr. Johanssen asks Stacey to be the covergirl/speaker/about a thousand other things at a JRDF Gala. Stacey's riding high on having managed to conquer her diabetes because it's basically just a numbers game and she's fab at math. Soooooooo everyone knows her diabetes is about to go crazy, right? Right. Stace snaps at Claudia who can tell that Stacey's not herself, and Stacey's jealous of Jessi, who might also have a restricted diet at times but it's because Jessi's a super athlete while Stacey's body takes a lot of attention to just get to baseline normal. That's a pretty interesting take, actually.
There's a subplot spoiled in the trailer about Liz and Watson considering trying for a baby but Dawn's the one to tell Kristy, and Kristy decides that since her mom didn't tell her, it means Liz doesn't think Kristy is on board with the Thomas-Brewer clan. But she is, and the best way to show that is to win a baby bundle at the silent auction. Mal gets a moment to shine as she tries to steer other people away from bidding on something and for the sake of show shenanigans, I'll pretend that they wouldn't have someone whose job it would be to run the teens and tweens away from something just to keep the bids low.
I actually liked this one for the most part, and putting it right after Claudia and the New Girl made me less annoyed with Claud for biting Mal's head off since she spends this episode getting her head bitten off. The difference, of course, is that Stacey had a medical excuse and Claudia was just... nope, gonna leave that thread here.
4: Jessi and the Superbrat Derek's not an actor yet, he's a TikTok star (that won't age terribly at all) and we've got yet another single parent. I'm not sure if Chaz got to be a single parent due to covid restrictions, the fact that single parenting is on the rise since the books were written or what, but this is another one with a little in common with the book it was named for but mostly just the name. Derek became famous when a video of him dressed up as the Superbrat went viral and he's been riding that wave ever since. Jessi gets hired to be his sitter and the two bond over being on the verge of auditions. Jessi for the fall ballet performance and Derek for a TV show. Neither gets their part. Jessi wonders if maybe she only loved ballet when she was the best and now that she isn't, if she should quit and work on trying to be internet famous. Derek and his father (Chaz) offer to give her a leg-up in the follower department but Jessi's mother is NOT having it and I kinda love that scene and Mary Anne trying to disappear, Homer Simpson style, into the chair. I especially love Jessi's mother introducing MA to Jessi's dad and Becca.
5: Mary Anne and the Great Romance. No, we don't get Richard and Sharon engaged, much to MA's and Dawn's dismay. Instead the romance is mostly on Logan and Mary Anne and how weird it is to go from friends to more and how it feels like MA is missing out on things. Probably because Stacey has appointed herself the queen of boyfriends and keeps assuming things, much to Mary Anne's, Kristy's, and Dawn's horror.
Karen gets a subplot with making her family tree and hearing the crying lady ghost, which leads to a nice Kristy scene.
6: Dawn and the Wicked Stepsister Richard and MA move in for a week while their home is fumigated and it goes about as well as you expect. I hate that Dawn's closet has a VERY obvious door inside and MA notices about 2 seconds into their first hour but this is the secret passage... that Dawn does not immediately want to explore. WTF.
We get a subplot that doesn't quite land when Byron winds up needing stitches after a sitting job at the Pike's goes wonky and this means that Claire's birthday party isn't going to be what she wanted, so the club decides they'll throw her the party of her dreams. Mal is freaked out about being seen as a charity case and I get where they were going with it, but when they finally have her voice that concern, it doesn't feel like they stuck the landing. Loved Mal's, "yes, that was a literal charity," comment to Stacey, but it's like someone chickened out at the last minute. Like Mal can say she doesn't want to be a charity case and the girls can say they never thought of her like that, but... we can't have anyone see how she'd think they were treating her like one? Tis weird.
Kinda sleepy so the last few rambles might be a little loopy. Gonna say that you can tell the shows that filmed during COVID, though.
Episode 7: Claudia and the Sad Goodbye. Not going to pick at this one too much because Mimi. ;_; Turns out that Ashley isn't just Janine's friend, she's her girlfriend. Mimi found out a few weeks before she died and approved and aw. We get the set up for Stacey's parents divorcing when Claud escapes to Stacey's after the funeral and overhears the McGills fighting.
Episode 8: Kristy and the Baby Parade. Of all the visuals I did not need to see represented, this book cover is right up there. Ignoring that, and the fact that Mal still didn't get an episode AND looks like a dumbass in this episode (wtf, show), this episode is actually where we sneak in Kristy's dad. If you listen carefully, you can hearluxken27 twitch as Sam and Charlie switch reactions to their father wanting to see them. Charlie's cool with it, or as cool as any of the Thomas kids are, while Sam wants nothing to do with him.
I like that they don't try and redeem Kristy's father. He cancels last minute and Watson blows up because he can see how hurt the kids are. This prompts Mary Anne to agree that Kristy's father is the worst and she hates seeing Kristy and her brothers get hurt over and over again. I could've maaaaaaaybe done without Dawn chiming in that her dad lives far away but wouldn't do such shit, but I think it was meant to be a thing where it breaks through to Kristy that good parents don't do shit like this and it's okay to cut off a bad parent, especially if you're lucky enough to live with a good one. Watson then wants to adopt the Thomas kids officially and btw, I don't think we're getting Emily Michelle or a new baby, though who knows on that last bit.
Overall, I think this season ended better than it began, but it could also be that it started with something I hate (why, why bother with Amanda if you're going to change everything?) and ended with something I love (Watson winning over Kristy, finally, and Mary Anne wanting to straight up murder Mr. Thomas for being a deadbeat and hurting Kristy and her family). I hope they stop treating Mal like a punching bag because they've tweaked so much about this series and it works fairly well but this, this they chose to keep. Why?
S2, however, started off on the wrong foot and I've been grinding my teeth at each new change. So I'm thinking I might vent a bit every few episodes or so.
Episode 1 is Kristy and The Snobs and we aren't getting Shannon. Instead we get YET ANOTHER version of Amanda Delaney, this one being 11 and an only child, whose mother is named Shannon. She's kind of snobby and kind of socially awkward and it's a weird mix and I get why they keep doing this book and changing it, but also... just introduce Kristy to the neighborhood in some way, kill off Louie (which they did, off screen) and incorporate it into another story. If you're just going to change everything about Amanda (literally the only thing she has in common at this point is being a rich, kind of snobby neighbor of Kristy's), call her something different. Amanda Delaney is meant to be the cliche snobby rich, blonde stereotype. She brags about how much everything costs because it's what the parents do and she and her brother are meant to be annoying. If you don't want to deal with that, fine. Don't. Use someone else instead. Hell, half the reason the Delaneys were even around was because they had a pool. Which Watson does now so... what's the point?
UGH.
Still not sold on new!Dawn, hate meta jokes about 'ha, it's a whole new me', and love Kristy's solutions for Mary Anne worrying about Logan.
Episode 2 is Claudia And The New Girl and it's both very clever and SUPER frustrating.
Clever because anyone who's read the book is assuming we're getting super artsy Ashley. And we do. But she's been aged up and given to Janine as an actual friend, and instead of being talented but seen as very weird, she's insanely popular and kinda famous. Nope, the new girl is in reference to Claudia having to train Mallory in the ways of being a babysitter.
Mal can't catch a single goddamn break, ever, can she? She's the oldest of a billion kids. The problem was NEVER she wasn't a good babysitter. And yet she comes across as one in the limited time we see her with a sitting charge. She's desperate to fit in and impress Claudia and keeps putting her foot in her mouth and I swear to god, the cringe factor was cranked up to 13 when I realized they were going to have her walk the line of being the well meaning but awkward white girl asking what the ~exotic~ foods being served at the Kishi's breakfast spread were. Like... wtf, show. You did so well in season 1 and now, now you're going to just shit all over Mal?
Oof. Like there's no way Mal would immediately assume it was cool to make a frozen pizza and cookies at the Newton's and just keep bumbling around like that. Be awkward and tell Claudia way too much about her stories? Maybe. Wish longingly and a bit too hard to be just like Claud? Sure. But dude, it took way too long for Mal to find her dignity and then they yanked it back again at the end anyway.
I can't handle secondhand embarrassment. Never could, so this episode was straight up torture for me.
3: Stacey's Emergency at this point we're just doing nods to the books/titles and doing our own thing, huh. Dr. Johanssen asks Stacey to be the covergirl/speaker/about a thousand other things at a JRDF Gala. Stacey's riding high on having managed to conquer her diabetes because it's basically just a numbers game and she's fab at math. Soooooooo everyone knows her diabetes is about to go crazy, right? Right. Stace snaps at Claudia who can tell that Stacey's not herself, and Stacey's jealous of Jessi, who might also have a restricted diet at times but it's because Jessi's a super athlete while Stacey's body takes a lot of attention to just get to baseline normal. That's a pretty interesting take, actually.
There's a subplot spoiled in the trailer about Liz and Watson considering trying for a baby but Dawn's the one to tell Kristy, and Kristy decides that since her mom didn't tell her, it means Liz doesn't think Kristy is on board with the Thomas-Brewer clan. But she is, and the best way to show that is to win a baby bundle at the silent auction. Mal gets a moment to shine as she tries to steer other people away from bidding on something and for the sake of show shenanigans, I'll pretend that they wouldn't have someone whose job it would be to run the teens and tweens away from something just to keep the bids low.
I actually liked this one for the most part, and putting it right after Claudia and the New Girl made me less annoyed with Claud for biting Mal's head off since she spends this episode getting her head bitten off. The difference, of course, is that Stacey had a medical excuse and Claudia was just... nope, gonna leave that thread here.
4: Jessi and the Superbrat Derek's not an actor yet, he's a TikTok star (that won't age terribly at all) and we've got yet another single parent. I'm not sure if Chaz got to be a single parent due to covid restrictions, the fact that single parenting is on the rise since the books were written or what, but this is another one with a little in common with the book it was named for but mostly just the name. Derek became famous when a video of him dressed up as the Superbrat went viral and he's been riding that wave ever since. Jessi gets hired to be his sitter and the two bond over being on the verge of auditions. Jessi for the fall ballet performance and Derek for a TV show. Neither gets their part. Jessi wonders if maybe she only loved ballet when she was the best and now that she isn't, if she should quit and work on trying to be internet famous. Derek and his father (Chaz) offer to give her a leg-up in the follower department but Jessi's mother is NOT having it and I kinda love that scene and Mary Anne trying to disappear, Homer Simpson style, into the chair. I especially love Jessi's mother introducing MA to Jessi's dad and Becca.
5: Mary Anne and the Great Romance. No, we don't get Richard and Sharon engaged, much to MA's and Dawn's dismay. Instead the romance is mostly on Logan and Mary Anne and how weird it is to go from friends to more and how it feels like MA is missing out on things. Probably because Stacey has appointed herself the queen of boyfriends and keeps assuming things, much to Mary Anne's, Kristy's, and Dawn's horror.
Karen gets a subplot with making her family tree and hearing the crying lady ghost, which leads to a nice Kristy scene.
6: Dawn and the Wicked Stepsister Richard and MA move in for a week while their home is fumigated and it goes about as well as you expect. I hate that Dawn's closet has a VERY obvious door inside and MA notices about 2 seconds into their first hour but this is the secret passage... that Dawn does not immediately want to explore. WTF.
We get a subplot that doesn't quite land when Byron winds up needing stitches after a sitting job at the Pike's goes wonky and this means that Claire's birthday party isn't going to be what she wanted, so the club decides they'll throw her the party of her dreams. Mal is freaked out about being seen as a charity case and I get where they were going with it, but when they finally have her voice that concern, it doesn't feel like they stuck the landing. Loved Mal's, "yes, that was a literal charity," comment to Stacey, but it's like someone chickened out at the last minute. Like Mal can say she doesn't want to be a charity case and the girls can say they never thought of her like that, but... we can't have anyone see how she'd think they were treating her like one? Tis weird.
Kinda sleepy so the last few rambles might be a little loopy. Gonna say that you can tell the shows that filmed during COVID, though.
Episode 7: Claudia and the Sad Goodbye. Not going to pick at this one too much because Mimi. ;_; Turns out that Ashley isn't just Janine's friend, she's her girlfriend. Mimi found out a few weeks before she died and approved and aw. We get the set up for Stacey's parents divorcing when Claud escapes to Stacey's after the funeral and overhears the McGills fighting.
Episode 8: Kristy and the Baby Parade. Of all the visuals I did not need to see represented, this book cover is right up there. Ignoring that, and the fact that Mal still didn't get an episode AND looks like a dumbass in this episode (wtf, show), this episode is actually where we sneak in Kristy's dad. If you listen carefully, you can hear
luxken27 twitch as Sam and Charlie switch reactions to their father wanting to see them. Charlie's cool with it, or as cool as any of the Thomas kids are, while Sam wants nothing to do with him. I like that they don't try and redeem Kristy's father. He cancels last minute and Watson blows up because he can see how hurt the kids are. This prompts Mary Anne to agree that Kristy's father is the worst and she hates seeing Kristy and her brothers get hurt over and over again. I could've maaaaaaaybe done without Dawn chiming in that her dad lives far away but wouldn't do such shit, but I think it was meant to be a thing where it breaks through to Kristy that good parents don't do shit like this and it's okay to cut off a bad parent, especially if you're lucky enough to live with a good one. Watson then wants to adopt the Thomas kids officially and btw, I don't think we're getting Emily Michelle or a new baby, though who knows on that last bit.
Overall, I think this season ended better than it began, but it could also be that it started with something I hate (why, why bother with Amanda if you're going to change everything?) and ended with something I love (Watson winning over Kristy, finally, and Mary Anne wanting to straight up murder Mr. Thomas for being a deadbeat and hurting Kristy and her family). I hope they stop treating Mal like a punching bag because they've tweaked so much about this series and it works fairly well but this, this they chose to keep. Why?
(no subject)
Date: 2021-10-16 10:54 pm (UTC)I guess its a good thing I'm not writing very much right now because I can see getting blasted for my Charlie/Janine fic by the self-appointed fandom purity police.
Maybe this is why they've slowed down the re-release of the books, if they are basically taking the original titles and writing whole new stories.