(In the novels that creepy noise in the attic was probably a neighbor’s cat. After all, Nancy has sex in the CW series, and the show fully embraces the supernatural in a way the original books never did. To be fair, this Nancy Drew isn’t necessarily any truer to its literary roots than The Hardy Boys is. (What high schooler is naturally this eager to hang out with a twelve-year-old, after all?) Frank’s whole uber-protective vibe is sweet enough, but this isn’t the relationship that any of us remember.
In fact, young Joe has more to do with his BFF Biff – intriguingly now reimagined as a tomboyish girl – than he does with his brother. With Frank now sixteen and Joe just twelve, their characters no longer feel like equals, or even really like friends.
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While this move is understandable on paper, in actuality it robs the series of its most important element: The relationship between the Hardy Boys themselves. True, the show features a pair of appealing young lead actors in newcomers Rohan Campbell and Alexander Elliot, but it makes the brothers much younger than in any previous adaptation to date and needlessly widens the age gap between them in an attempt to appeal to a broader audience. The Hardy Boys seems content to let the characters languish in a sort of nebulous vacuum, crafting a fairly bland family mystery that’s populated by characters who not only bear little resemblance to the classic novel versions we know but who aren’t interesting enough in their own right to make up for it. But, of the two, it’s Nancy Drew that ultimately gets the spirit of its source material right. Tonally, The Hardy Boys has a lot more in common with the original Stratemeyer Syndicate catalog than its CW cousin does, with its wholesome feel, younger characters, and colorful, vaguely timeless aesthetic. Nancy Drew jumps at the chance to create a completely new take on a classic heroine for modern audiences, acknowledging that their girl detective does and should look different than her textual counterpart.
And one method clearly works better than the other.
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Either way, neither The CW’s Nancy Drew nor Hulu’s The Hardy Boys is particularly faithful to its source material, though each makes different choices about how to strike out on its own, narratively speaking. Or maybe it’s because there are always going to be growing pains when trying to adapt children’s classics for the adults that networks hope will tune in to watch these series. Perhaps it’s because movies and TV shows naturally dull some of the self-insert joy that young readers get from these books. (Quietly judging you, CBS.) We’re clearly obsessed with these kids, likely because many of us grew up reading stories of their adventures, and wishing we ourselves could take part in them.īut for a variety of reasons, these stories have proven perilously difficult to adapt for the screen. The CW’s Nancy Drew, which is set to return for its second season in January, is the girl detective’s ninth, and that’s only if you don’t count several failed pilots that never moved forward. Hulu’s 2020 The Hardy Boys adaptation is the fifth time the famous sleuthing siblings have appeared onscreen. But this year is perhaps the first time we’ve seen two appear so close to one another. Since the franchises’ first appearances on the page (19, respectively), we’ve all been collectively fascinated by the stories of spirited teens solving crimes that range from neighborhood theft to international espionage. It is a truth universally acknowledged that every few years, a new on-screen adaptation of The Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew will arrive.
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