'Nancy Drew': Fans skeptical about latest rendition of beloved teen sleuth given The CW's hodgepodge approach in 'Riverdale'
The CW's latest thriller offering, 'Nancy Drew', is unlike any portrayal of the beloved character you have seen before.
The network has claimed that the show for The CW audience. "The show is not necessarily designed for 12-year-olds, we made the show for the CW," Stephanie Savage, executive producer of the show, said at the TCA panel held in August this year.
Actress Kennedy McMann, who stars in the titular role, has also said that the character is set to reflect a 2019 sensibility. "I just think there's a little more risk now, especially regarding women. (There is) much less taboo in showing women how they actually are. She is very prim and proper in the 1930s. In a more modern context, there is just a broader market for a lot riskier material," she had said.
In The CW's 'Nancy Drew', the sleuth will be solving the mystery of the murder a socialite, who it seems was killed by a ghost—Dead Lucy. The ghost had worn the crown of Horseshoe Bay’s Sea Queen for just one night in 2000 before dying at age 17. How she died is still a mystery since the trailer and other clips released by the network only show her falling off a cliff into the sea.
As Nancy finds herself and her friends tracked down as suspects in the murder, they must solve the mystery as fast as they can. But with the ghost haunting her investigations, she soon makes the discovery that the socialite's murder shares an eerie connection to the unsolved murder of a local girl.
But now fans of the sleuth are worried that the network that is rather notorious in certain circles for its mishmash of genres and universes will treat the character of the teen detective in the same way that they treated 'Riverdale'.
The CW's 'Riverdale', which debuted in 2017, received positive reviews raving about the show's amalgamation of mystery and supernatural with its star feature of heart-throbbing actors. On account of it being a teen show, in its first season, 'Riverdale' also made the Archie Comics contemporary by bringing it to an audience that probably wouldn't pick an Archie off the shelf but have just enough knowledge about the cartoon.
As the series progressed, however, the reviews were mixed. By the third season, even fans of the show had had enough. The show was criticized for how it handled its minority characters, how Jughead Jones was not portrayed as asexual, and for queerbaiting some characters. By the time the show got to season 4—which is set to premiere on October 9, 2019, along with 'Nancy Drew'—it seems to have lost a chunk of its audience to its blind ambition.
Considering how the network completely revamped Archie Comics, disregarding its original audience, fans worry the same treatment to befall 'Nancy Drew'.
"Thinking of how CW is about to ruin the Nancy Drew series by sexualizing Nancy’s character and make horrible dialogues and plot holes like they did for Riverdale," an angry fan took to Twitter to say.
And if this is baiting in any sense, fans have caught a hint of it too. "You needed a new cash cow so you pinned some names of beloved childhood characters to a dartboard and picked one to fill with cheap relationship drama and unnecessary sex and edginess to the point it only has the names in common with its source material?" questioned a very angry fan. "Why the f*** CW Network which ruined Riverdale is touching my previous Nancy Drew. Cancel the whole f****ng thing you are not allowed to sexualise and 'Riverdale'ise Nancy Drew," said another.
There are also those who think that The CW's Nancy is nothing like the Nancy they grew up with. "This ain't Nancy. If this wasn't titled 'Nancy Drew' I think a lot of you wouldn't even give it a second glance after seeing the trailer. Aside from names, there's nothing Nancy-like about it," said the fan adding that the channel might as well call it "Mystery at Horseshoe Harbor" and no one would spot the difference. "I had some hope up until Nancy took her top off in the trailer, thanks CW, I never wanted to view that... I don't mind changes, but this is a whole different universe we're talking," they added.
The CW's Nancy might as well be deemed a contaminated version of the classic, as fans point out. "It's the Nancy Drew label that is stopping me from watching the show. If it were called anything else I might almost give it a chance. But I will never be able to accept a Nancy who doesn’t live up to the classic, wholesome Nancy that I hold dear to my heart. They don’t seem to be making this show for existing Nancy Drew fans because I can’t say that I know many people who ever wanted an ‘edgy’ Nancy."
But it is not just the sleuth. Other so-called contemporary, "edgy" changes aren't welcome either. "I’m really sad that they feel like she needs to be estranged from her father. Carson Drew was like one of my father figures growing up. Why make everything edgy?" lamented a fan.
Should you give 'Nancy Drew' a chance? Maybe.
But you would be better off walking in the series with the mindset that it is not going to be nostalgia-inducing. Perhaps cringe-worthy, while we're at it, owing to the network's desperation to make the show "edgy".
'Nancy Drew' will premiere on Wednesday, October 9, 2019, at 9/8c on The CW.
