3 'best’ and ‘worst' new TV shows for families this fall: Parents Television Council

By Samuel Smith, Deputy Managing Editor Tuesday, October 01, 2019

“Nancy Drew”

CW’s new mystery drama will premiere on Wednesday, Oct. 9 and focuses on the life of the main character of the popular series of mystery novels, Nancy Drew, after her mother dies.

“Though an amateur sleuth as a teenager, Nancy has turned away from solving mysteries and become despondent after the recent death of her mother. Refusing to enter college, Nancy prefers to work as a waitress at a diner in her hometown of Horseshoe Bay,” Gildemeister explained. “But when a wealthy heiress is murdered, Nancy is once again drawn into a web of mystery and intrigue … including genuine encounters with the supernatural.”

Although the Nancy Drew books became a “beloved part of childhood” for many women, Gildemeister contended that mothers who grew up reading those books would be wise not to let their daughters or sons watch the new television series.

Gildemeister warns that the new series features “heaping amounts of gratuitous teenage sex.”

“[T]he very first time viewers see the present-day Nancy Drew in the new series, Nancy and Ned Nickerson are having wild, bed-rocking sex,” Gildemeister stresses.

“Subsequent dialogue makes it clear that Nancy and Ned have just met, and that sex is all that interests Nancy.”

Gildemeister also warns that other characters from the mystery series have also “shed their innocence.”

“Tomboy George is now Nancy’s old enemy from high school and is having an affair with a millionaire suspected of murdering his wife, while Ned Nickerson is now a convicted killer who did prison time while still a minor,” Gildemeister said. “The series also embraces the occult, with seances and actual ghosts being a prominent part of the new program.”