Our New Babysitter review

The setup

The husband comes home to a quiet house and a babysitter who has read his wife's offer to help herself to anything very generously. Bedtime took her twenty minutes, she reports, because she is excellent at her job. She remarks that his wife is pretty, then makes a pointed joke about who under this roof is still up. Her boyfriend calls mid-flirt; she tells him babysitting is hard work and hangs up. The husband asks when his wife gets home. Midnight, she confirms, and asks him to put her to work.

Episode 2

The meter starts, and the husband plays his only card: he is married. The sitter counters that she is taken too, and considers that the best part. Then the wife calls from Jen's, having too good a time to come home, and cheerfully authorizes a full night's wages. The midnight deadline evaporates. The episode signs off with names exchanged at last, Sophia and a very formal Mr. Owen, and a babysitter now booked until morning.

Who's who

• The babysitter: a confident woman with a boyfriend, a meter running and her eyes on her employer
• The husband: the man of the house, alone with the hired help and suddenly interested in scheduling
• The wife: out for the evening, generous with her hospitality, and due back at midnight

Verdict: 6.0 out of 10

Brisk and shameless, which is the point. The babysitter runs the whole scene, turning every ordinary remark about her job into an offer, and the boyfriend's call is a sharp comic beat that shows how lightly she holds her commitments. The husband is a blank, asking about his wife's schedule like a man booking a dentist. Episode 2 then throws away the midnight clock, with the wife herself paying for the overtime, a good joke that also drains the risk. Fun, but the stakes need rebuilding.

Episode guide