Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls

 Book #2, Netflix S1 E2

Original Book - Writer: Ann M.Martin

No Graphix Book

Netflix Series - Director: Lucia Aniello, Writer: Rachel Shukert

Basic plot

Claudia struggles with schoolwork and with her sister. She has a crush on a boy Trevor, who she wants to go to school dance the Halloween Hop with. Meanwhile a home invader known as the phantom caller is at large.

Things that are kept the same

The Graphix skipped over this book so only two to compare.

• Claudia has a crush on Trevor Sandbourne and she hopes to go to the school dance, the Halloween Hop with him. He does ask her to go with him.
  
• She has a big math test coming up and is struggling with school.
• She feels the only family member that understands her is her grandmother, Mimi. She particularly struggles to get along with her sister, Janine.
• She is painting a portrait of Mimi.
• There is a home invader known as the phantom caller due to him calling people's house before robbing them.
• Richard Spier is particularly concerned about phantom caller and grounds Mary Anne and stops her babysitting, (in the Netflix series its also because she gets home late without messaging him) Kristy has to cover her babysitting job.
• Kristy is at a babysitting job when se gets an unknown caller ringing her several times.
• She gets spooked but turns out it is not the phantom caller.

 

Things from other books 

A new section! 

• Mary Anne uses her and Kristy's flashlight code to try and communicate with her (from Book #1)
• Claudia has a talk with her parents about how she's not Janine, which seems to more reference a conversation she had in 1st book.
• Kristy reluctantly babysits Karen and Andrew for first time but actually likes the kids.
  (from Book #1)
• A new rival group The Babysitters Agency are first mentioned (from Book #3)

Things that are changed

• Surprisingly they actually managed to keep a lot of plot points the same although the phantom caller is not the main focus only something happening in the background.
• In the book the whole BSC are freaked out by the caller and come up with a code to use if they need help while babysitting. 
  
• In the Netflix series they do not care as much and do more metaphorical references to phantom caller like Claudia saying she doesn't want to listen to phantom callers in her head she wants to be herself. 
• Trevor Sandbourne is a fellow artist in the Netflix series rather than a poet in the book. He is also less shy and talks to Claudia, asking her to dance. In the book he is one of the phantom callers trying to get up the nerve to ask her out.
• In the book Alan Gray turned out to be the caller that spooked Kristy, he wanted to ask her out and she does agree to go. In Netflix it is Mary Anne that is the unknown caller, Kristy doesn't pick up phone because there is no ID, but Mary Anne's phone has been taken away by Richard so she was trying to get through on a different phone. Alan Gray is not in the episode.
• Logan is named in this episode.
  
• In the book Claudia makes an effort in the end to be friendly with Janine, in the episode they are still antagonistic.
• Karen is going through a creepy phase in the Netflix series and gives her doll a wake.
  
• Only Stacey goes to the dance in the Netflix series, (Claudia can't go because she failed her maths test and initially lied about it) she also first hears of the Babysitters Agency there.
• More diversity in the netflix series the Johanssens are now a same sex couple Dr Johanssen's wife is a teacher.
  

 Final Thoughts

I can see why the Graphix skipped over this one, especially if Claudia was originally only going to have one book this hasn't the most substantial or realistic stories but the Netflix series did a good job of adapting the book while actually not focusing on the phantom caller aspects. There is also some other parts of the original book that I'm glad the series didn't touch such as Kristy and Alan's relationship being "boys tease you because they like you" which is bad message to send. Also Kristy threatening some unruly sitting charges "one false move and I'll punch your lights out" would not go over well today!

Timeline

 

Original Series	Graphix	Netflix Series
1       1. Kristy’s Great Idea Kristy, Mary Anne, Claudia and Stacey form the Babysitters Club. Kristy babysits the Brewers for the first time. Stacey tells the club about her diabetes.	1.      Kristy’s Great Idea  Kristy, Mary Anne, Claudia and Stacey form the Babysitters Club Kristy babysits the Brewers for the first time. Stacey tells the club about her diabetes.	1.  Kristy’s Great Idea Kristy, Mary Anne, Claudia and Stacey form the Babysitters Club 1st appearance of Logan Bruno (not named until episode 2)
2. Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls Claudia has a crush on Trevor Sandbourne. Claudia struggles academically in school.	2.       The Truth about Stacey       will be discussed in later post	2.       Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls Kristy babysits the Brewers for the first time. Claudia has a crush on Trevor Sandbourne. Claudia struggles academically in school. The BSC find out about rivals - The Babysitters Agency.