Get a Clue: A Review of The CW's Nancy Drew Season 2 Premier

On January 20, 2021, The CW’s Nancy Drew returned for season two. Let’s see how the new season holds up.

Season one ended on April 15, 2020 and the production was cut slightly short due to the outbreak of Coronavirus. I covered the entirety of season one during May of 2020. You can find that article here, and I highly suggest reading it before you dive into my review of the season premier.

I can say I was honestly surprised with the overall quality of season one. It held my attention for the full 18 episodes, and I’ve been kinda looking forward to seeing the new season. CW shows do nothing for me, but Nancy Drew isn’t all that bad.

That's surprising, I know.

Now, if you read my season one review, you may remember me stating that I could tell the season ended before it was supposed to. I do not blame anyone involved with the show for that issue as production was shut down due to the pandemic. That was out of everyone’s hands.

Anyway, season one ended with a decent enough cliffhanger where the Nancy Drew Crew each had premonitions regarding his or her death. This was definitely a cliffhanger of an ending, but it most certainly felt like an ending between episodes and not between seasons.

I have seen some really wacky, intense cliffhangers in my day. My automatic thought goes to Percy and Annabeth literally falling into hell in Rick Riordan’s Heroes of Olympus series; thanks for that Rick. So compared to some other cliffhangers, the death premonitions in Nancy Drew just didn’t do much for me.

Sorry not sorry, don't be mad at me.

Perhaps if someone had been in immediate danger my outlook on the cliffhanger would be different, but that did not happen. Alas the pandemic really screwed up the season finale for Nancy Drew, but nothing can be done about that.

Season two is a clean slate though. New cases. New character development. New characters. New supernatural spooks.

Woohoo, supernatural mysteries!

There just happens to be a death curse hanging over the heads of the main characters. And I’m just here to complain about the season one finale in my season two premier review.

Seriously, I’m going to stop complaining about the lackluster season one finale. I keep harping on about it all to say that this death curse is basically the main continuation between seasons. Let’s finally talk about season two now.

The official synopsis from The CW reads as follows:

Nancy and the Drew Crew are still reeling from witnessing the visions of their deaths. They realize even more so now that they need to come up with a plan to stop the Aglaeca before it’s too late. Meanwhile, Detective Tamura shows up at The Claw to bring Nancy in for questioning as she is now a suspect in a mysterious comatose girl’s assault.

I guess you can kind of see why I felt the need to keep going on about the death premonitions. I just wasn’t overly impressed with them last season and didn’t really want to spend a whole episode on them right from the get-go.

Again, don't hate me.

Thankfully, they weren’t actually the main talking point of the episode. Instead the Nancy Drew Crew investigates another urban legend of Horseshoe Bay: The Gorham Wraith.

Oh yes, there are more, many more, angry spirits and spooks in this universe. Let’s see, so far we have seen traditional ghosts and demons, a mystic sea spirit known as The Aglaeca, and now a wraith in this universe. Horseshoe Bay has a lot of haunted history and I am into that.

There are never enough spooks in my mind.

I don’t anticipate that viewers will see more the the Wraith, I could be wrong, but from the premier it seems that the Wraith was just a way of introducing new characters to the show. We’ll get to those new characters in a little bit, but for now let’s stick with talking about these spooks.

In both seasons, the writers have done a great job at giving backstories to these spirits and urban legends. Lucy Sable was a young woman with a tragic backstory that Horseshoe Bay’s public turned into an urban legend that the writers chose to turn on its head over the course of the season. The Aglaeca is a mystery at this point in time. Love that. This spirit is intriguing and I look forward to seeing what lore unfolds over the course of the season. In the season two premier, the Wraith’s legend gets told and there are variations in the story depending on what character is speaking. I love that. I love that the writers thought about how in real life, urban legends vary between people and places and used that tidbit for the show.

The Nancy Drew writers are good at giving limitations to these ghosts. They are great at creating the backstories and lore for the spooks. The spirits pose an actual threat and purpose to the story. I applaud the writers for the work they put into creating these supernatural characters.

Applause to these writers.

The Aglaeca is a character I look forward to being explored; I would even be willing to explore the Wraith as a side character as well. The Bobbsey Twins on the other hand aren’t. They’ve been in one episode and at this time I could truly care less about them.

Yep, Nancy Drew introduced some more famous sleuths into the mix. Much like Nancy Drew herself, the twins- portrayed by Aadila Dosani and Praneet Akilla- have had a massive reimagining. Instead of being twin, children mystery solvers, the now older twins are black market criminals with a long rap sheet that even the new police chief knows about.

I’ve never read any of The Bobbsey Twins books so I can’t really compare the TV versions to their book counterparts. But from what I know of these characters, I don’t think it’s fair, or even possible, to compare the book characters to their new TV counterparts. These characters are on lines that only intersect at their shared last name.

My opinion on them isn’t much thus far. I feel the writers included them just to cause more trouble for the core characters. I imagine the twins will get the leading cast into more trouble around town and cause more issues for the police department. Aside from that, Gil Bobbsey is supposed to be a new love interest for Nancy.

Yeah, not a fan of The Bobbsey Twins.

I could do without that. Nancy is already in a love triangle with George and Nick and it feels redundant to give her a secondary love interest. The Nancy, George, and Nick love triangle was already a plot device in season one. Adding a secondary love interest for the titular character was also a plot device in season one. Repeating these both is totally unnecessary; although this is the CW after all, contrived plot devices are to be expected.

Personally, I feel that the love triangle would be enough on its own to cause drama. George and Nick’s feelings towards each other are heating up; that’s already going to cause more drama within the group. Gil Bobbsey has nothing new to offer to the love side plot. The Bobbsey Twins in general don’t seem to offer much to the show. So far, they’ve only caused needless problems.

As a whole, the season two premier was just okay. It certainly could have been worse, but there were much better episodes in season one. The Aglacea continues to keep me intrigued in this mystery. The writers have proven to me that they know how to create interesting ghost/monster stories and at this point in time that is what I care about. Any new character development has not begun yet. I’m not invested in the love triangle. My focus is solely on the mystery itself.

I have plans to return to this show again in the future. Once the season finishes, I’ll come back and review the entirety of season two. I must say, I don’t enjoy just reviewing a single episode of a show; it doesn’t feel like I have enough to work with.

That’s why next week I’ll be back with a review of a 300+ page book. Until then, take care!

Bye all!