Review: ‘Hardy Boys’ let loose in season two

By Nicholas Neikon Ebadat STAFF WRITER

The popular long running mystery book series, “The Hardy Boys,” has a Hulu exclusive television series that just released its second season. The show takes a step further into the fictional elements of the first season to muddy up what makes the show special: its young characters putting clues together to do the right thing when no one else will.

As the brothers Frank and Joe Hardy, played by Rohan Cambell and Alexander Elliot, have become a little more adjusted to living with their aunt in a new town, a local boy’s disappearance prompts the boys and their friends to dive into another case.

The first season set the show’s expectations to be faithful to the books in tone, while simultaneously diverging from some of the details of the books to make a necessary switch to today’s standards of storytelling.

For example, the books detail a stayat-home mother who is only slightly concerned for her children and world-class detective husband as they are constantly getting into trouble. The show solves this concern in a way that makes sense and moves the story forward.

In addition, the show makes creative choices that feel related to the audience it was made for. Joe Hardy is made much younger in the show as he is 12 years old rather than the book’s 17-year-old version of the character. Frank is made 16 instead of the book’s 18-year-old version. The time period of the show is also set forward from the books to the ‘90s; a time with no smartphones, flatscreens or social media.

An overarching story in the first season centers around a MacGuffin the Hardy boys need to keep out of the wrong hands. Conveniently for the writers, this brings all the trouble you could imagine showing up at their doorstep. The item also introduces mystical elements to the show that albeit gives a reason for why two children and their friends are the most competent people in an entire town, but cheaply creates solutions to the pair’s most pressing questions.

Something that the show does extremely well, however, is the characterization of the core characters and dynamic between the detective group. Despite Joe being so young, he’s the type of kid to be wise beyond his years and has trouble interacting with others his age.

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