Nancy Drew: Pilot

October 9, 2019 7:12 PM - Season 1, Episode 1

An 18-year-old Nancy Drew makes plans to leave her hometown for college after high school graduation, but finds herself drawn into a supernatural murder mystery. (CW, US broadcast)

Variety review: "Given the degree to which “Nancy Drew” attempts to coast by on sheer attitude, it should come as no surprise that the mystery is fundamentally uninteresting and that Nancy’s friends, in the show’s first two hours, are undistinguished. The show is less a series with characters and plot than an attempt at a haunted mood. It may get there at times by sheer, relentless effort. But unlike the best of TV, including its second-degree influences, “Nancy Drew” won’t haunt you for even a moment after the episode ends."

Den of Geek - We caught the Nancy Drew TV series pilot at San Diego Comic-Con. Here's what we thought about the new CW drama!

TV Fanatic Review: A Chilling Paranormal Mystery

Vulture: Nancy Drew Is Not Who You Remember - The girl detective gets a CW reboot, but is she more than endlessly recyclable intellectual property?

posted by oh yeah! (7 comments total)

Oof, I did not like this one. So needlessly 'edgy.' What's the point of a Nancy Drew where she and her friends and her father are all miserable? Where George instead of being a happy tomboy is a teen who's been sleeping with a married man? I found myself taking an instant dislike to Nancy at the graveyard scene in the beginning, and then not liking anyone else either as the episode went on.
posted by oh yeah! at 8:04 PM on October 9, 2019 [3 favorites]

The George twist was off the wall, like the writers' room was throwing around tired cliches -- "what if she was 'fast' in high school and NOW she's been SLEEPING with the HUSBAND?!?!" Completely ignoring that makes the husband a child predator and rapist. (Perhaps they fix that later in the season by making it a plot point about how awful the husband is? But we have no reason to assume they will.) The Bess twist was interesting; still an unlikely motive. The Nick twist was implausible for a motive. Too many twists to build a solid plot. I'd like to see it focus more on the three women's friendship building, and less on breaking rules of evidence.

I liked it until about half way through. I wish they'd modernized the tropes that Nancy, Bess, and George were in the book, other than making George Asian. Nancy was a goody-two-shoes in the 50s; she should not be gathering evidence that will be inadmissible in court. Bess was plump and timid, George athletic and competitive.

If I were plotting this out, I'd make Tiffany's murder more of a background thing through the season, and have Nancy investigating lesser mysteries like in the books as the episode plots. Everyone's at the diner when Tiffany's killed, but the teens aren't suspects, the ghost is a funny tourist legend, and Mom and Dad didn't bury anything in the yard. Maybe even the first episode is the stolen ring, Nancy finds it, then the murder at the end of the first episode. Carson Drew eventually (end of first episode? a couple later?) has Nancy researching for him on the side, and then insists she gets a PI license when she won't stop investigating. (Well. There's my fanfic outline.)

Loved Pamela Sue Anderson's cameo!
posted by JawnBigboote at 2:35 PM on October 10, 2019 [1 favorite]

Pamela Sue MARTIN. I am SO embarrassed.
posted by JawnBigboote at 3:43 PM on October 10, 2019 [1 favorite]

I found Nancy mostly unpleasant. I briefly felt for her when she cried, but generally speaking I was not into her. I'm surprised Bess and George aren't somehow related given how similar they look. Also, George was so obviously uh.... well, i would have cast her as a butch lesbian or trans or something since the original character was along those lines, so missed opportunity there. "Nick" wasn't too interesting either despite his criminal record. Dad kind of comes off as an irritating schmuck.

Why can't anyone do Nancy Drew right?

I might give it one more episode, I might not.
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:36 PM on October 10, 2019 [1 favorite]

Oh, that Vulture article really explains why anyone can't do her right. She has no personality!
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:42 PM on October 10, 2019 [1 favorite]

Yeah, original Nancy was very much a blank slate of rules-following competence, designed to be churned out by ghost writers, and Bess and George's personalities were "plump" and "tomboy."
posted by JawnBigboote at 2:20 PM on October 11, 2019 [2 favorites]

Maybe they're actually basing this on Kate Beaton's Nancy Drew? In which case can I hope there'll be a Kate Beaton's Wonder Woman series?
posted by happyroach at 9:02 AM on October 17, 2019 [1 favorite]