I read the Hardy Boys novels as a kid in the 1970s and I'm guessing that I'm the target audience. From the first episode, I'm impressed but it is different to what I expected.
In the books, the boys mother, Laura Hardy is pretty much a non-entity. Aunt Trudy and the boys girlfriends are pretty much the only female characters and are pretty poorly developed - kind of expected, it's for teenage boys written in the sixties and seventies.
Well, they spent a lot of the first episode really developing Laura and her relationship with her boys ... and then kill her off. I did not expect this. Other differences are that Frank is 16, in the books he is 18, Joe is supposed to be 17 but in this he seems younger, maybe 13 at a guess. The story starts in Dixon City (probably named for the author of the books, Franklin W Dixon) and then the boys move to Bridgeport and start meeting their friends. Biff is now a girl closer to Joe's age, Chet is also a little younger and doesn't seem to have the prominent role he has in the books. The brother's grandmother, Gloria Estabrook seems to have a very prominent role, while Aunt Trudy is very much in the background. Granted, this is just from the first episode.
I thought it was pretty good, production values are fine and getting kids that can act this well can be difficult. Granted, they aren't going to win Oscar's any time soon, but they are pretty good. The atmosphere is pretty spot on, cinematography is good and the writing is very clean.
I'll keep watching for sure.
In the books, the boys mother, Laura Hardy is pretty much a non-entity. Aunt Trudy and the boys girlfriends are pretty much the only female characters and are pretty poorly developed - kind of expected, it's for teenage boys written in the sixties and seventies.
Well, they spent a lot of the first episode really developing Laura and her relationship with her boys ... and then kill her off. I did not expect this. Other differences are that Frank is 16, in the books he is 18, Joe is supposed to be 17 but in this he seems younger, maybe 13 at a guess. The story starts in Dixon City (probably named for the author of the books, Franklin W Dixon) and then the boys move to Bridgeport and start meeting their friends. Biff is now a girl closer to Joe's age, Chet is also a little younger and doesn't seem to have the prominent role he has in the books. The brother's grandmother, Gloria Estabrook seems to have a very prominent role, while Aunt Trudy is very much in the background. Granted, this is just from the first episode.
I thought it was pretty good, production values are fine and getting kids that can act this well can be difficult. Granted, they aren't going to win Oscar's any time soon, but they are pretty good. The atmosphere is pretty spot on, cinematography is good and the writing is very clean.
I'll keep watching for sure.
