Nancy Drew: Season One Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Nancy Drew: Season One Blu-ray Movie Review

A somewhat rocky start has enough going for it to warrant a try...

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown March 25, 2024

Once upon a time in a land far, far away, nestled in a lush kingdom of nostalgia called The 1980s, there were three books every child had at their bedside: at least one "Choose Your Own Adventure" volume, a copy of a "Hardy Boys" caper, and of course "Nancy Drew," each one an episodic series with dozens of entries, all with mysteries to solve and wrongs to right. But while the epic "Choose Your Own Adventure" tomes emerged in 1976, the ghostwritten "Hardy Boys" and "Nancy Drew" series were created long before the Kingdom of the '80s rose to prominence, hailing from decades earlier. The 1920s to be specific. And lo, behold! Nearly 100 years later, from the self-proclaimed champion of teen-driven, often oddly sexualized adaptations, The CW (see Archie), comes Nancy Drew, a reimagining of the beloved books. Yes, minus its strangely supernatural bent, it bears a striking resemblance to fan-favorite Veronica Mars, particularly with its first season's looming murder mystery, but then Veronica Mars was heavily inspired by the "Nancy Drew" stories, so its ouroboros-ized nature is largely moot. What Nancy Drew is, though, is quite a bit of CW fun, and should give those mourning Veronica Mars' absence some comfort while they wait for the inevitable VM reboot, requel, remake or Kristen Bell-led middle-aged continuation.

Retired high school detective and homegrown genius Nancy Drew (Kennedy McMann) is taking a gap year, working at The Bayside Claw restaurant in the not-so-small small town of Horseshoe Bay, Maine. Still grieving the death of her mother, her old skills return to life when a young socialite named Tiffany Hudson, wife of businessman Ryan Hudson (Riley Smith), is found murdered. The police chief (Adam Beach) suspects Nancy, as it goes in all of these stories, since her meddling in cases has always rubbed him the wrong way. But when she finds a locket that belonged to Tiffany, one that mentions another girl killed nineteen years earlier, the game is afoot. With the hesitant help of her co-workers and fellow suspects, "The Drew Crew" -- manager and former high school nemesis Georgia "George" Li-Yun Fan (Leah Lewis), rich-girl waitress Bess (Maddison Jaizani), pacifist cook Ace Hardy (Alex Saxon), and her on-again off-again hookup, mechanic Ned "Nick" Nickerson (Tunji Kasim) -- all of whom she neither knows as well as she wishes nor trusts all that much, Nancy tackles the biggest mystery of her adolescent career. It's a mystery that soon involves a medium, a female police officer named Karen, and a bloodstained dress locked away in an attic.

Developed, helmed and showrun by Noga Landau, Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, the first season of Nancy Drew also stars -- ahem, red herring's -- Alvina August as investigator Karen Hart, Scott Wolf as Nancy's father Carson Drew, Ariah Lee as George's younger sister Ted Fan, Katie Findlay as Hudson family assistant Lisbeth, Judith Maxie as Bess's aunt Diana, Anthony Natale as Ace's father Thom, Teryl Rothery as Ryan's mother Celia, Martin Donovan as Ryan's father Everett, Liza Lapira as George's mother Victoria, Sinead Curry as Ryan's murdered wife, Sara Canning as Nancy's deceased mother, Stevie Lynn Jones as Tiffany's sister Laura, Kenneth Mitchell as Lucy's half-brother Kenneth, Miles Gaston Villanueva as socialite Owen Marvin, Stephanie Van Dyck as the ghost of Lucy, Lizzie Boys (in flashbacks) as the still-living Lucy, and Zibby Allen, Cecilia Grace, Jaime Callica, and Luke Baines as additional ghosts Nancy meets.

Like the CW's melodramatized Archie series (Riverdale), Nancy Drew takes an early and too-frequent right turn into the supernatural, connecting Nancy with a spiritualist that opens her third-eye to all things dead and lingering. It's a distraction, jettisoning the Scooby- Doo charm of a teenage detective on the case and replacing it with visions, hauntings and other things that try to go bump in the night but are too helpful to be all that scary. These ghostly elements also rob the central and side mysteries of the show of real clues and crime-solving, relying on far too many (and far too convenient) pieces of evidence and information acquired from spirits. Presumably quite a challenge when it comes to admissibility in a court of law. Nancy still cobbles together plenty of her own conclusions, but the biggest benefits to her case come by way of developments that, in any other crime show, would be impossible to uncover. It infuses the series with a sense of too much luck and good fortune, and Nancy seems less brilliant and more supernaturally atuned as a result.

The cast keeps things fairly light, thankfully, and heart and humor is out in full force, even if the sheer number of characters and suspects grows a little tiresome over the first season's rather bloated eighteen episodes. McMann does a fine job as Nancy, crafting a leading character worthy of being in nearly every scene, both as an audience proxy and a self-made heroine. The supporting actors are mostly excellent too, despite the baffling amount of mustache-twirling that only exists to make you suspect anyone and everyone at least once throughout the course of the season. It all comes down to a neat though convoluted solution that sets up the Drew Crew for a baked-in second season. Along the way, Nancy solves other crimes, of course, and the series bounds nimbly between mini-mysteries and the over-arching tale, offering both episodic intrigue and a reasonably satisfying ongoing case. It never gets as dark, trendy or weird as Riverdale (a series I have zero love for), thank the CW gods, and its Veronica Mars-esque town gossip and narrative melodrama is more engaging than irritating. Again, convoluted is the word of the day, but if you aren't binging episode after episode, getting bleary eyed in the process, it's not too difficult to keep track of the goings-on and ever expanding collection of possible villains and criminals of the week.

Nancy Drew: Season One Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Even if you didn't tell me the series aired on the CW, I would've spotted the tell-tale signs within two minutes of watching Nancy Drew's 1080p/AVC-encoded video presentation. It's all there, from cinematography to stylization, so beware if the neo-soap aesthetic of the CW's teen dramas get under your skin. Thankfully, Paramount's Blu-ray efforts make such things a non-sequitur, as the image is technically proficient and occasionally even striking. Colors are bold and brimming with life, from the photography's warm, natural skintones to the brilliance of its primaries. Supernatural sequences lead to quite a few nighttime encounters, complete with fog and icy blue hues, but black levels remain deep and satisfying, and rarely crush. Contrast is consistently pleasing too, as is grain and overall detail, which is fairly revealing and well-resolved. Fine textures aren't remarkably refined -- blame the show's at-times hazy appearance, softer shots, or blooming sunlit exteriors and windows -- but there isn't anything in the way of artifacting, banding or errant noise to muck up the proceedings. The only real downside is that the series' first season is presented on four BD-R discs, which deteriorate more quickly over than years than standard BDs and aren't playable on every Blu-ray player.

Nancy Drew: Season One Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Nancy Drew's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track offers some go-to CW sound design as well. Dialogue is clear and intelligible, though a tad float-y in the center channel. Rear speaker activity is more convincing, with smooth pans and spooky directionality that make supernatural scenes especially engaging. And low-end output gives the LFE channel a nice workout when sinister forces, criminals, murders and general crime-solving suspense is in play, with a series score that delivers some pulsing thooms. The soundfield is hit or miss, with a few too many strictly front-heavy sequences taking away from the immersion of it all, but never in a way that suggests the track itself is at fault.

Nancy Drew: Season One Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Like its DVD counterpart, the 4-disc Blu-ray release of Nancy Drew: Season One doesn't include any special features.

Nancy Drew: Season One Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Nancy Drew's first season lays a decent foundation for future CW outings. It isn't all that original, even when it careens into the supernatural, but its Drew Crew characters have enough charm and its story enough intrigue to pull you along. Best watched when under the weather or when there's nothing better to binge, its a not-so-essential series that nevertheless offers some decent mysteries. Paramount's Blu-ray release is more of a mixed bag, but only due to its BD-R discs and lack of special features. Otherwise, its AV presentation impresses and makes this a fairly easy release to recommend to fans of the show.