But the history of Nancy Drew taking on adult incompetence is not always so pessimistic (rather, is not always so clearly a cause for pessimism). This new Nancy Drew show, which stars Kennedy McMann as the resolute young detective, duly promises to disparage the resistance society has to letting a teenaged girl call BS on the mismanagement of serious problems. The Sheriff responds, “She used to complicate my job.” George Fan, another teen, then articulates show’s (proposed) chief gambit in the form of a punchline: “You mean, do it for you?” (Indeed, the scene goes down very Veronica Mars. “Why does he say your name like that?” asks Bess, another teenager. Upon seeing Nancy at a crime scene, in the pilot episode of the CW’s adaptation, the sheriff growls her full name in lieu of a greeting. Teenagers, old enough to understand the adult world while young enough to see through it, are motivated to take justice into their own hands, knowing that if they themselves do not, no one will. Key to understanding the plot of any Nancy Drew story (as well as many, many other texts in twentieth-century young-adult entertainment, from Harry Potter to Scooby Doo ) is accepting that grown-ups cannot fix problems, only create them. It also promises to be just as moody and chiaroscuroed as another CW network show, my beloved, stupid Riverdale, whose ponytailed and dogged teen heroine Betty Cooper both embodies and identifies with the character Nancy Drew, solving mysteries in her small, suburban hometown, because its adults don’t know how. Reviving the famed adolescent sleuth as a battleborn teen, the show promises two intertwined mysteries: there is a murder and there is a ghost.
NANCY DREW TV SHOW APPROPRIATE FOR KIDS SERIAL
This week, the CW premieres its newest television show: an hour-long weekly mystery serial called Nancy Drew.