Hey guys, and welcome back to The Quoted Blog! Today I'm here to start a new blog post series. I'm calling this I watched... and in each post I'm going to share a show that I watched and my thoughts. This is kinda like every movie I watched, except I'm planning on going more in depth with things.
So, to start off this series, I'm going to write all about Nancy Drew. Let's get into it!
So, if you've been reading my blog posts for a while, you would probably know that I love Nancy Drew. I love Nancy Drew so much that any adaptation regarding Nancy is going to be held to very high standards.
I love Nancy Drew so much because all of the books got me into reading. I found them at my Meemaw's house one day, and now here we are. My goal is to read every single Nancy Drew Mystery and Nancy Drew Diary book. There are about 500+ books total, but these are my favorite and they haven't been messed up.
If you know nothing about this girl detective, then...here we go!
Nancy Drew is an amateur detective with titian strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes. (And yes, she is a fictional character even though I wish she was real).
No one really knows who wrote Nancy Drew. Every single book is written with the name "Carolyn Keene," but really multiple people wrote the books. I love how it's a mystery who wrote her character and stories.
Now, one day I randomly googled Nancy Drew on YouTube and discovered that there is a TV show that was created in 1977 starring Pamela Sue Martin as Nancy Drew. I will always say that Pamela Sue Martin is the best Nancy Drew. And the Nancy Drew/ Hardy Boys show (with episodes that can be found on YouTube and Peacock) is the best Nancy Drew adaptation there is.
But, now we have a new Nancy Drew show competing for the spot of the best adaptation. The most recent adaptation came out in 2019, and I have been aware of it since then.
However, when I first tried to watch the show, I realized there were so many things wrong with it. If you're going to make a Nancy Drew show, make it right. Nancy Drew deserves a good adaptation, even if it means making it without things people would want in today's world.
So, I'm trying my best to give this new show a shot, but I'm afraid that there are so many things wrong with it that I have to share with you.
First I want to start with the negatives, then I'll share the positives!
EVERYTHING WRONG WITH THIS SHOW:
-First of all, this was redeemed (I'll explain why in a bit), but the show is set in Horseshoe Bay instead of River Heights. I'm sure we all know it's only iconic to make the show set in River Heights like it should be.
-Ned goes by Nick in the show instead of Ned. Now, I know that's not a super big thing, but it still bothers me that they called him Nick when his name is Ned!
-Bess and George are not Nancy Drew's best friends. I mean, they do help her solve the cases, but they also have secrets of their own.
-Bess Marvin is gay. Um, hello? In what world is Bess Marvin gay? This just makes me so mad, but in the books, Bess loves boys. She talks about them, she loves meeting them. I hate how they decided to change her character in the show. They really did Bess dirty.
-George's name is really George Fan instead of George Fayne. I just don't get it...lol
-Nancy Drew doesn't have a good relationship with her father. That's not an extremely bad thing because I'm sure there are people who can relate to that, but still. Carson was always helping Nancy solve mysteries in the books, but instead Nancy is fighting with him all the time.
-Chief Mcginnis doesn't even trust Nancy. Like, what happened to the amazing Chief Mcginnis from the Emma Roberts movie who thanks Nancy for helping solve cases?
-The paranormal aspects of the show are not fun. As someone who hates jump scares...yeah that wasn't fun for me. In all of the books, even if they make it seem like a ghost, there's always a reasonable explanation, which I prefer a lot more.
-One thing I've always wanted for a Nancy Drew show is episodes based off of each book in order, with the same titles. My wish has not been granted yet, but...the directors of this show tried. In season one, episode six is titled: The Mystery of Blackwood Lodge. Book #25 in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series is called The Ghost of Blackwood Hall. So, close enough. And episode nine is The Hidden Staircase which is identical to the title of book #2. (The characters go to the Lilac Inn in one episode which is from The Mystery at Lilac Inn.) Episode twelve is called The Lady of Larkspur Lane which pertains to book #10 Password to Larkspur Lane. (A.K.A. one of my favorite books.) I'm just going to keep going...Season two episode eight is The Quest for the Spider Sapphire which goes along with The Spider Sapphire Mystery (book #45). There's also season two episode thirteen titled The Beacon of Moonstone Island which definitely reminds me of The Moonstone Castle Mystery (book #40). Then there's...I promise I'm almost done...Season three episode twelve is called The Witch Tree Symbol...and so far, that's it.
-Hannah Gruen is mysteriously absent until the thirteenth episode, in which she's not even Nancy's beloved housekeeper.
EVERYTHING GOOD ABOUT THIS SHOW:
-Kennedy McMann actually makes a really good Nancy Drew! Now, she's not Pamela Sue Martin, but she looks like Nancy Drew, she reminds me of Nancy Drew. I'm so thankful they did a good job casting the main character of this show.
-The mysteries are good!
-Even though the show isn't set in River Heights, I was happy to see a River Heights Road on a road sign haha
-Also the addition of Keene High School was a good idea!
-Honestly, I'm glad they added Ace's character to the show. I wonder if he was inspired by another character in the books...🤔
-Nancy Drew actually drives a blue convertible. That is a really good thing.
I didn't finish the show.
You read that right.
I got to season one episode fifteen and then I quit. And here's why...
One, if you look at my list of EVERYTHING WRONG WITH THE SHOW above, you'll notice that I wrote a lot more than the EVERYTHING GOOD ABOUT THIS SHOW section. Now, if that's not a sign, I don't know what is.
Basically, the supernatural elements of this show were just too overwhelming for me. The creators of this show decided that it was a good idea to make every episode centered around fighting a supernatural demon of some sort. Now, as someone who does not really believe in all of that, it got to be really annoying.
Nancy Drew is not a demon fighter. She's a crime fighter. There's a big difference.
And, I got tired of being jump scared. That was a big reason why I didn't finish the show. There were just too many jump scares, and I just didn't even want to watch it anymore.
So, with that being written, here are my final thoughts:
Don't watch this show. If you're a big Nancy Drew fan like me, don't even give it a chance. The supernatural plotlines completely ruin the whole show, and you barely even see Nancy stop any humans. The whole time she's trying to stop demons of some kind.
This Nancy Drew adaptation actually sucks. The potential was there, and then it was ruined. And I don't have anything against the acting. The acting is awesome, but the script. I hate to say it, but the script and the plot just isn't it.
Nancy Drew should be popular enough to get a decent adaptation. This is just completely disappointing. (So, if I ever become a script writer for a movie, or a movie director, I will make a better adaptation that actually lives up to the Nancy Drew books.) For now, let's stick to watching Nancy Drew/The Hardy Boys from 1977. That show actually lives up to Nancy Drew's potential.
Okay, that's it. Those are my thoughts. If you've watched the full show and know that it gets better, comment below and I'll give it another chance. But, for now I feel like I've watched enough to know how the rest of the show goes. I know there's one more season coming out this year, so I'll check out the episode descriptions for that and see if it's any different. But, I've given up on this show. It was fun at times to watch, but I really don't want to see a creepy ghost jumping out at me.
At the beginning of this post, I wrote that this is the beginning of a new blog series called I watched. So, as you can probably imagine, I'm not done writing about T.V. shows.
The next show that I plan on reviewing is The Hardy Boys. Now, I've only read like one or two of the books in the past, so I might go back and read those again to refresh my memory on the characters. But, I truly want to know if The Hardy Boys adaptation from 2020 can live up to it's name.
Stay tuned for that blog post! And have a great rest of your day! ~Ella