CW’s Nancy Drew: Is it Different from the Book?

The Nancy Drew books by Carolyn Keene have occupied the bookshelves of more than one generation as it has been running since the year 1930. Knowing of its popularity, it doesn’t come as a surprise that there have been more than one adaptation of the novel in the film and industry. In 2019, the new Nancy Drew series aired and has so far been rated 5.5/10 by IMDb.

Since there have been so many shows based on books; from Vampire Diaries to The Perfectionists; we knew the show wouldn’t be a perfect copy of the books! Letting our curiosity get the best of us, we looked into the differences of this masterpiece of a book series!

The Protagonist; Nancy Drew, herself

Unlike most other book adaptations, CW has kept the Nancy Drew character fairly similar to the character in the book, appearance-wise. Although, some fans have definitely argued that the shade of the actress’s hair is not “titian” enough!

The character is kept extremely relatable to her attributes in the books, too! Where in the initial books, Nancy was a 16-year-old high-school graduate, CW’s Nancy Drew (Kennedy McMann) seems to have been taken from the later books where she was an 18-year-old high-school graduate!

Lights, Camera, SET (of the Nancy Drew series)!

It’s extremely important to remember the set you’re basing your storyline in. The setting in CW’s Nancy Drew is surprisingly very different from the one described in the books. If you’ve read the books, River Heights is the place you all would know too well to be Nancy’s town! However, the series is shot in a made-up town in the state of Maine; known as, Horseshoe Bay!

The Characters as portrayed by CW!

The protagonist’s mother is shown to have died at a much more recent time in the show. The father is seen moving on quickly with a detective named Karen Hart! Even our very fun cousins and Nancy Drew’s best friends are portrayed differently. The two are just blunt and dislike each other in the series!

CW did not even make them cousins! Nancy Drew’s boyfriend, Nick, in the series is a black guy who is shown to be one of those very cliche boyfriends. He’s played by Tunji Kasim. This is a huge shift from the laid-back college-going white boy, Ned.

The plot of CW’s Nancy Drew

CW is known for making its shows to be very in-depth with the characters. Their characters are often portrayed so that the entire story revolves around their personal affairs. They made it so with their Nancy Drew show too! The Nancy Drew series has always been fixated on her mystery-solving, but now CW is focusing more on the character than on her mysteries.

Are you a Nancy Drew fan? Leave us comments on what changes you have noticed!