One year during middle school, I read all the Nancy Drew books. It was the only series that my small, rural school library had that I hadn’t already read, and it seemed interesting enough. I devoured the Cat Who series by Lillian Jackson Braun, and had discovered I enjoyed mysteries, and enjoyed trying to figure them out even more. Nancy Drew wasn’t particularly relatable to me; she seemed to have a ton of money and constantly talked about shopping and clothes, but I didn’t feel particularly interested in clothes. I hated them, really. Nancy enjoyed thinking about boys and having “girl” talk with her friends Bess and George. I thought all the boys I went to school with were stupid, or immature, or both, and figured I’d probably be alone forever. Maybe I’d solve mysteries with some cats like the reporter in my favorite series.
But I read those books, every one. As an adult, I appreciate the series for its positives as well as its negatives. Nancy didn’t have much in common with me, but she did love mysteries, and she loved explaining things rationally. In a way, Nancy Drew is like the Scooby Doo gang. Each case typically has a very logical, scientific explanation. The ghost horse of shadow ranch turns out to be something very mundane (I won’t spoil it for you here, though!), and the girls end up able to explain to the adults exactly what went down. That’s one of the key components to Nancy Drew, always: the kids know what’s happening before the adults do. There’s something empowering about watching a group of young people outsmart their elders, especially when you’re a child reader. Seeing kids actually enact change in the world gives young readers the hope that they, too, can actually do something instead of just watching on the sidelines.
And yes, because Nancy Drew is essentially the “girl” version of the Hardy Boys mysteries, there’s plenty of time for shopping and discussion of weight and talk about boys, but that doesn’t overshadow the mystery. At the end of each novel, there’s still a core group of friends, a problem that has been solved, and a satisfying conclusion to a story.
One of my favorites because it’s so silly and because Bess is in it!
And that’s why Nancy Drew, the novels, work so well, and why the new adaptation of the series from the CW and the production team behind Riverdale, is so disappointing.
The latest Nancy Drew adaptation updates Nancy for a new generation of viewers, just as previous revisions to the series have done. Nancy is no longer happy with her life, or interested in solving mysteries. She’s dark and gritty, out of the game of solving crimes since her mother died of pancreatic cancer before the show begins. She says repeatedly that she doesn’t get involved with that “dark stuff” anymore, though she seems to be looking for clues at every turn, immediately falling back into her old detective habits. George and Bess are different, too; instead of being friends with Nancy, George and Bess are her coworkers. George is depicted as cold and rude, unconcerned for others’ emotions, and Bess is the new girl in town, bubbly and, to be frank, dumb. Neither girl has much of a personality aside from these traits, and though they’ll likely develop over time, there’s no real need to begin the series this way.
And here lies my biggest gripe with Nancy Drew: pitting girls against each other. Nancy, George, and Bess will likely become friends (at least well enough to work on cases together, so what do viewers gain from beginning the series with the girls as frenemies? All too often, shows try too hard to paint female characters as “tough” or “gritty” by making them abrasive and difficult to get along with, that way it can be considered “character development” when those girls reveal that they’re not always mean. But making “toughness” the only part of a character’s personality runs the risk of alienating viewers that don’t see that in their experience, or worse, are tired of that altogether.
Women should support each other, and that’s just like, the rules of feminism.
In the working world, unfortunately, women are often told that it’s best to toughen up in order to compete with their male colleagues, that any sign of weakness could be perceived as an inability to do one’s job. While I think that things are slowly but surely changing, gender equality in the workplace won’t be reached in my lifetime. The appeal of characters like those on the new Nancy Drew adaptation is that they do seem to have it all together able to be hard and logical while keeping their emotions in check. The secret here is that everyone has emotions and it’s okay to be honest about that. There’s no need to turn into a robot so you can get paid a wage similar to your other coworkers. Prejudices die hard, especially on network television.
Of course, I have other complaints about the adaptation, but those are common across the many adaptations Nancy Drew has had over the years. For example, Bess is portrayed as very thin in almost every visual depiction of the girls (even in the original art for the novels). I have praises for he new show, too. There’s more much needed diversity in the casting (something the CW is surprisingly good at in some of its newer shows). Overall, though, the lack of friendship between the girls is the most disappointing.
These are a lot of judgements to make on a show that hasn’t even had its second episode yet, but I think that the issues I have with Nancy Drew are indicative of a larger problem on network television. Women characters can be friends, work together, and maintain healthy boundaries. We should prize healthy relationships between women on television—as well as in real life—and leave the fighting elsewhere.
