Nancy Drew is a dull Riverdale wannabe with a fundamentally uninteresting mystery - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

TMC · 10-10-2019, 01:52 AM

https://variety.com/2019/tv/reviews/...ew-1203355207/

"In a roundabout way, Twin Peaks may be the most influential show in today’s teen TV," says Daniel D'Addario. "It’s roundabout because it’s not actually Twin Peaks, David Lynch’s brilliant, flawed soap opera about trauma, Americana, and, ultimately, itself that’s doing the influencing. The CW’s Riverdale, loosely based on the Archie Comics series, cracked the code that what people wanted was a show that had Twin Peaks flavor — small-town quirk, winking awareness of its own outsizedness, affected nostalgia existing right next door to cynical contemporaneity — even if it wasn’t interested in, and couldn’t achieve, actual Lynch. In borrowing from Riverdale, the new CW series Nancy Drew is borrowing from this imaginary Twin Peaks. Like its network-mate, it is leveraging an intellectual property known for its squareness and pumping it with raunch and an overstated air of enigma. Which wouldn’t matter if it were interesting. But Nancy Drew isn’t just dull, it has the misfortune of following another dull show that is much like it."

ALSO:

Nancy Drew is so cheesy it works: "It’s impossible to watch Nancy Drew without drawing comparisons to Riverdale, only strengthened by the fact that it airs directly after the popular high school soap about characters from the Archie comics," says Jordan Julian. "Both shows are adapted from source material that was popular in the 1940s and ’50s. Both reimagine beloved, squeaky-clean teen protagonists as modern-day teenagers who have sex, talk back to their parents, and, oh, regularly commit felonies. They have in common a pulpy, neo-noir tone and possibly supernatural elements. The dialogue in Nancy Drew is similarly cheesy, and, at times, forced and unnatural for the sake of explaining unnecessarily complicated plot developments."
There's a leap in quality between the pilot and the second episode that might make Nancy Drew a success for Netflix binge-watchers
Somehow, fiction's original teenage girl detective has been brought back to TV in a way that feels primarily derivative
Can Nancy Drew be more than endlessly recyclable intellectual property?

Amanda Hugnkiss · 10-11-2019, 04:45 PM

I watched the first episode and fast forwarded through the bedroom scene with her and Ned; and other than that, it's not too bad. I've read a lot of Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books, and it's a lot different than the books with Ned having a record for manslaughter. In the books the ghosts were always hoaxes that crooks did instead of being real like in the television show so I wonder why they changed it. I was hoping she'd solve the mystery in the first episode and move on to another mystery on the next one.

TMC · 11-06-2021, 05:58 AM

Nancy Drew's diversity and unquenchably horny main character makes a reboot like no other

"Nancy Drew has all of the supernatural action of the CW’s The Vampire Diaries without the heavily laden soap opera qualities (at least yet)," says Nadira Goffe. "It most certainly nails the darker-toned-twist-on-childhood-IP trend without the truly chaotic plots of Riverdale, although it does dip an occasional toe into the unhinged; in one plotline, George is possessed by the ghost of a 19th century French heiress, who uses her control of George’s body to have an affair with Bess. The show is sexy, not only because everyone is as hot as you would imagine—the CW will never let that trend go—but also because there’s, well, sex and sex positivity. There’s even a hilariously corny, yet still earnest, episode where a lust spell makes Nancy unquenchably horny. The CW’s Nancy Drew turns a series aimed at bookish white girls into a fun, diverse, and sexy story landscape that doesn’t shy away from dealing with real-world harm. And it’s great not because of its source material, but because it’s a lot of things its source is not. Nancy Drew may endure, but Nancy Drew hasn’t always been for everyone, at least until now."

TMC · 11-06-2021, 05:59 AM

Nancy Drew's diversity and unquenchably horny main character makes a reboot like no other

"Nancy Drew has all of the supernatural action of the CW’s The Vampire Diaries without the heavily laden soap opera qualities (at least yet)," says Nadira Goffe. "It most certainly nails the darker-toned-twist-on-childhood-IP trend without the truly chaotic plots of Riverdale, although it does dip an occasional toe into the unhinged; in one plotline, George is possessed by the ghost of a 19th century French heiress, who uses her control of George’s body to have an affair with Bess. The show is sexy, not only because everyone is as hot as you would imagine—the CW will never let that trend go—but also because there’s, well, sex and sex positivity. There’s even a hilariously corny, yet still earnest, episode where a lust spell makes Nancy unquenchably horny. The CW’s Nancy Drew turns a series aimed at bookish white girls into a fun, diverse, and sexy story landscape that doesn’t shy away from dealing with real-world harm. And it’s great not because of its source material, but because it’s a lot of things its source is not. Nancy Drew may endure, but Nancy Drew hasn’t always been for everyone, at least until now."

10-10-2019, 01:52 AM	#1
TMC Member Forum Idol Join Date: Jan 09, 2001 Posts: 125,090	Nancy Drew is a dull Riverdale wannabe with a fundamentally uninteresting mystery https://variety.com/2019/tv/reviews/...ew-1203355207/ "In a roundabout way, Twin Peaks may be the most influential show in today’s teen TV," says Daniel D'Addario. "It’s roundabout because it’s not actually Twin Peaks, David Lynch’s brilliant, flawed soap opera about trauma, Americana, and, ultimately, itself that’s doing the influencing. The CW’s Riverdale, loosely based on the Archie Comics series, cracked the code that what people wanted was a show that had Twin Peaks flavor — small-town quirk, winking awareness of its own outsizedness, affected nostalgia existing right next door to cynical contemporaneity — even if it wasn’t interested in, and couldn’t achieve, actual Lynch. In borrowing from Riverdale, the new CW series Nancy Drew is borrowing from this imaginary Twin Peaks. Like its network-mate, it is leveraging an intellectual property known for its squareness and pumping it with raunch and an overstated air of enigma. Which wouldn’t matter if it were interesting. But Nancy Drew isn’t just dull, it has the misfortune of following another dull show that is much like it." ALSO: Nancy Drew is so cheesy it works: "It’s impossible to watch Nancy Drew without drawing comparisons to Riverdale, only strengthened by the fact that it airs directly after the popular high school soap about characters from the Archie comics," says Jordan Julian. "Both shows are adapted from source material that was popular in the 1940s and ’50s. Both reimagine beloved, squeaky-clean teen protagonists as modern-day teenagers who have sex, talk back to their parents, and, oh, regularly commit felonies. They have in common a pulpy, neo-noir tone and possibly supernatural elements. The dialogue in Nancy Drew is similarly cheesy, and, at times, forced and unnatural for the sake of explaining unnecessarily complicated plot developments." There's a leap in quality between the pilot and the second episode that might make Nancy Drew a success for Netflix binge-watchers Somehow, fiction's original teenage girl detective has been brought back to TV in a way that feels primarily derivative Can Nancy Drew be more than endlessly recyclable intellectual property?

10-11-2019, 04:45 PM	#2
Amanda Hugnkiss Member Forum Regular Join Date: May 02, 2017 Location: Florida Posts: 861	I watched the first episode and fast forwarded through the bedroom scene with her and Ned; and other than that, it's not too bad. I've read a lot of Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books, and it's a lot different than the books with Ned having a record for manslaughter. In the books the ghosts were always hoaxes that crooks did instead of being real like in the television show so I wonder why they changed it. I was hoping she'd solve the mystery in the first episode and move on to another mystery on the next one.

11-06-2021, 05:58 AM	#3
TMC Member Forum Idol Join Date: Jan 09, 2001 Posts: 125,090	Nancy Drew's diversity and unquenchably horny main character makes a reboot like no other "Nancy Drew has all of the supernatural action of the CW’s The Vampire Diaries without the heavily laden soap opera qualities (at least yet)," says Nadira Goffe. "It most certainly nails the darker-toned-twist-on-childhood-IP trend without the truly chaotic plots of Riverdale, although it does dip an occasional toe into the unhinged; in one plotline, George is possessed by the ghost of a 19th century French heiress, who uses her control of George’s body to have an affair with Bess. The show is sexy, not only because everyone is as hot as you would imagine—the CW will never let that trend go—but also because there’s, well, sex and sex positivity. There’s even a hilariously corny, yet still earnest, episode where a lust spell makes Nancy unquenchably horny. The CW’s Nancy Drew turns a series aimed at bookish white girls into a fun, diverse, and sexy story landscape that doesn’t shy away from dealing with real-world harm. And it’s great not because of its source material, but because it’s a lot of things its source is not. Nancy Drew may endure, but Nancy Drew hasn’t always been for everyone, at least until now."

11-06-2021, 05:59 AM	#4
TMC Member Forum Idol Join Date: Jan 09, 2001 Posts: 125,090	Nancy Drew's diversity and unquenchably horny main character makes a reboot like no other "Nancy Drew has all of the supernatural action of the CW’s The Vampire Diaries without the heavily laden soap opera qualities (at least yet)," says Nadira Goffe. "It most certainly nails the darker-toned-twist-on-childhood-IP trend without the truly chaotic plots of Riverdale, although it does dip an occasional toe into the unhinged; in one plotline, George is possessed by the ghost of a 19th century French heiress, who uses her control of George’s body to have an affair with Bess. The show is sexy, not only because everyone is as hot as you would imagine—the CW will never let that trend go—but also because there’s, well, sex and sex positivity. There’s even a hilariously corny, yet still earnest, episode where a lust spell makes Nancy unquenchably horny. The CW’s Nancy Drew turns a series aimed at bookish white girls into a fun, diverse, and sexy story landscape that doesn’t shy away from dealing with real-world harm. And it’s great not because of its source material, but because it’s a lot of things its source is not. Nancy Drew may endure, but Nancy Drew hasn’t always been for everyone, at least until now."