#WokeTV Beyond the Hashtag: One Day at a Time and The Baby-Sitters Club as Woke Classic Television

Abstract

ABSTRACT The twenty-first century TV landscape is dominated by high-gloss quality dramas, experimental single-camera comedies, and auteur dramedies. These shows use nihilism and irony to signify their inclusion in the newest pantheon of sociopolitical relevance: Woke TV. A textual analysis of One Day at a Time (Netflix/Pop, 2017–2020) and The Baby-Sitters Club (Netflix, 2020–), however, challenges the ironic detachment that typifies Woke TV. By leaning into the nostalgia of the TV remake, these shows offer a blueprint for a more earnest and active version of the genre that relies not on detachment, but on an audience’s emotional engagement with contemporary social, political, and economic issues. One Day at a Time embraces the artistic conservatism of the multicamera sitcom to, in true Woke TV fashion, shed light on the institutional structures that underpin hegemonic capitalist power and white supremacy. Similarly, The Baby-Sitters Club employs the sincere and earnest framework of the kids’ show to advocate for optimism, responsibility, and fairness in private and civic discourse. Taken together, these two shows exemplify a more populist taxonomy of the Woke TV genre that co-opts, rather than rejects, the traditions of televisual genre and format.