The excitement around the premiere of “Nancy Drew” is logical: in the end, this series is based on the story of a cult literary character, a heroine, a series of detective stories about which such influential women as Hillary Clinton, former First Lady Laura Bush and US Supreme Court member Sonia Sotomayor read out .

However, the project of The CW TV channel is not about Nancy Drew, who was remembered by admirers of the works of Edward Strathemeier and Carolyn Keane (or rather, the whole team that worked under the pseudonym of the latter). Emmy Roberts was more like literary Nancy in the 2007 film of the same name. But the new multi-part project about a young detective is much darker than the original story and focuses on the adult life of Nancy, who has already survived the teenage period.

In 2017, The CW turned a similar trick with Riverdale, wrapping Archie Comics' comedy graphic novels into a dark teenage story with genre mishmash and reminiscences from Twin Peaks by David Lynch. The project instantly became a hit.

The action of the new series takes place in the fictional town of Horseshoe Bay, Maine. In the pilot episode, Nancy Drew and her friends celebrate school graduation with a strange ritual in the cemetery at the grave of the local "legend" Lucy Sable, the queen of the school graduation ball who once died under strange circumstances. Among the townspeople there is an opinion that her ghost is still pacing around the city.

Nancy Drew does not believe in ghosts, but "prefers to believe the truth." The detective practice of the girl began with the search for the missing child and very quickly became an integral part of her life. However, interest in investigations disappears when Nancy finds out that her mother is terminally ill.

To take up the old Nancy Drew circumstances force. Near the diner, where she got a job after her mother’s death, a murder takes place: the victim is a local socialite, the suspects are Nancy and a motley company of her peers. The guys have no choice but to start their own investigation, including against each other. According to the laws of the genre, every teenager hides a skeleton in a closet.

  • © Shot from the series “Nancy Drew” (2019)

Developed a project by Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, who worked on the series "Gossip Girl", "Oh. S. - Lonely Hearts ”and“ Carrie's Diaries ”(that is, people specializing in teenage dramas).

Nancy Drew surprisingly well-behaved hackneyed tricks like the presence of a mystical town and a group of teenagers in the plot, each of which has its own style and color scheme. At the same time, the storyline and stylistics resemble not only the popular Riverdale, but also the UPN TV series Veronika Mars drama series (which, incidentally, later became The CW clip) starring Kristen Bell. Although, again, Veronica Mars herself is a high school student who, in her breaks from school, unravels complicated things, is inspired by the image of Nancy Drew. So in this case we are talking more about borrowing.

The murder of a socialite is unlikely to arouse great interest in the audience (at least in the pilot episode), however, “Nancy Drew” captivates with a personal drama and numerous riddles surrounding the heroine, her family and friends.

So, Nancy does not approve of her father’s new novel, and he does not sympathize with her boyfriend Nick, which is natural (but at the same time stereotyped), because Nick is a former felon. Also of interest is the relationship of Nancy's parents with the murdered Lucy Sable.

Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the series is the evolution of Nancy as a character.

Edward Strathemeier conceived the story of the detective girl as a response to the Hardy Brothers detective series, seeking to expand the potential audience for his novels. On the literary plane, the story of Nancy Drew has changed to cater to fluctuations in American pop culture since the late 1950s. At first, Nancy was portrayed as an independent and confident high school student, “a kind of iron lady,” and only later her appearance was somewhat romanticized: the girl acquired “female” character traits - for example, suppleness.

Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage upgraded and liberated the heroine. Kennedy McMann's Nancy Drew breaks away from literary roots: this is an adult, self-conscious and sexy girl, still independent, but this time ready to work in a team.