Brief Story Line Season 1
Set in the 1980s, the story focused on the brothers Frank Hardy (Rohan Campbell) a 16 year old high school student and his 12 year old brother Joe Hardy (Alexander Elliot) who moved to small town Bridgerton and live with their aunt Trudy (Bea Santos). Bridgerton was the home of Frank & Joe's mother Laura (Janet Porter) where their grandmother Gloria Estabrook (Linda Thorson - The Second Time Around etc) belonged to one of the most powerful family. She did not have the best relationship with Laura's husband Fenton Hardy (James Tupper - Big Little Lies TV series etc).
The Hardy boys were soon involved in a mystery related to the dark past surrounding Bridgerton. They began to investigate them despite their father's disapproval. During the investigation, they were helped by their new found friends, i.e the intelligent Callie Shaw (Keana Lyn - The Yard TV series etc), her boyfriend Chet Morton (Adam Swain), the sheriff's daughter Elizabeth "Biff" Hooper (Riley O'Donnel) and last but not least, Phil Cohen (Cristian Perri). They also came across a professional thief named JB Cox (Atticus Mitchell - My Babysitter's a Vampire TV series etc) who had significant role in the mysteries.
Brief Story Line Season 2
Set 6 months after the end of Season 1, the Hardy boys unexpectedly stumbled in a different case which was even more dangerous than what they encountered earlier. There was also a new girl in town named Belinda (Krista Nazaire) who would later be involved in the mystery.
End of Brief Story Line
As someone who have read some Hardy Boys mystery novels when I was a kid and liked them, I was looking forward to see the adaptation on TV. I know that there have been more than one adaptations in the past but I have never seen any one of them. So this would be my first experience seeing them "in real life". And I got to say that at first I was a bit surprised seeing how young Joe Hardy was here. I have always pictured the Hardy boys as sibling with 1 or 2 years difference only, hence it felt kind of weird.
However, as I continued watching, I became more accustomed by the youthfulness and did not really mind, especially seeing how resourceful young Joe was. The first episode to me was the standard introduction of the Hardy Boys, where we caught glimpses of their best friends. Only in the second episode we got to see them interacted more and the mystery began to take shape. I think I started to really enjoy the show from episode 3 which was more exciting and had plenty of sleuthing done by the boys. It's nice to see they balance each other out, with the impulsive Joe countered by the cool headed and obviously more mature Frank.
Aside from the boys, the other cast were not just minor supporting characters as they also provided lots of help in the investigation, especially Callie and Biff. In the second season though, Phil and Chet were given much more screen time and they became a more integral part of the gang. Btw, as I have completely forgotten the characters in Hardy Boys novels (it has been decades since I read them), I had to read in the internet to refresh my memory. Apparently Biff was actually a boy in the books but was swapped to a girl in here. For me the main cast were generally OK despite some of them were relatively newcomer and I have no complains on them.
One thing that I felt unique was there was a little bit of sci-fi element in the first season and it was significantly enhanced in the second season. I also think that while the first season which consisted of 13 episodes served as a good introduction, the second season with 10 episodes felt slightly better as it could focus on the more complicated mystery with some surprising twists. There were however changes to the cast that bothered me a bit. Anthony Lemke (Dark Matter TV series etc) replaced James Tupper as Fenton Hardy without any explanation. In addition the character of Sheriff Jesse Hooper was also replaced from Jennifer Hsiung to Alli Chung. I guess the producers did not really think it was such a big deal.
As I have mentioned few times above, the series was based on The Hardy Boys books created by Edward Stratemeyer (who also created Nancy Drew and other books). It was created back in 1926 and subsequently written by many other "ghostwriters" using the pseudonym of Franklin W. Dixon. Amazingly there have been more than 100 books of The Hardy Boys till date, which meant there would be tons of references that could be adapted. However, I do not think this one was based on any specific mystery novel.
Overall to me this is an interesting mystery drama series centering on the quite popular Hardy Boys novels. It was pretty fun watching the young detectives doing their investigation accompanied by their good friends. It also has a large story arc in each season, although there was always that one factor that linked the mystery. After ending the second season, I pretty much have a good idea where it is heading. Hopefully they would continue the third season, otherwise it would be so irritating if it's cancelled. So if you are fans of mystery drama series with a bit of sci-fi element set in the 1980s to give a classic feel, then this one should be to your liking. However, I think there were some alterations that I am not sure if it would be well accepted by hard core fans. I myself do not really mind with the changes, especially since I do not have any recollection of the books anyway and was still able to enjoy it quite a lot.
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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