One Star Classics

The pensive stares are back; the sleuthing, not as much.

For this second season of Nancy Drew, I get the sense that CW didn’t try particularly hard. The first outing of the teen-detective soap might have had its feet planted in J-Horror ghost stories, but the old-school detectiving was decidedly there. That element has been removed this time around, and we are served what is a whole lot more Scooby-Doo than Nancy Drew.

Picking up from the last season, the teens are still haunted by the Aglaeca, who has given them visions of their impending deaths. As they learn more about the spirit’s background and how to fight her – to reiterate, it involves little to no detective work – the story takes what I can only assume is an unintended turn: I am completely on the Aglaeca’s side. I mean, really. That a group of spoiled brats decided to start messing with her powers? That’s on them – Team Aglaeca for life.

It was a bold move to introduce ghosts to Nancy Drew in the first place, but the writers managed to keep the first iteration quasi-grounded. The sleuthing was present, and the two tropes were balanced. With the increased focus on hexes and curses, we’re in a season that feels increasingly like a mid-aughts teen-horror flick.

With that said… Nancy Drew is still a guilty pleasure, and I might be over-thinking things, if only just a little. It is a fun show in the most ridiculous of ways. Kennedy McMann surely looks about the same age as her TV-not-dad-after-all (Scott Wolf), but she makes for a likable Nancy. It’s a slickly produced show, too, with some impressive cinematography.

I miss Nancy Drew the detective, but if Nancy Drew the ghost hunter is all I get, then whatever, I’m in.

By Remi, Feb 26, 2021

Ratings from around the web

Icon	Site	Score
	One Star Classics	3/6
	IMDb	6.6/10
	Classicmeter™	50%

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