The Hardy Boys 2x01 "A Disappearance" (2022) TV Show Review

 Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm doing pretty well. So normally I'd have a comic book review out for you today, but I had a dental appointment today and it got moved up to this morning from this afternoon, so I haven't had time to do a comic book review. However, the first four episodes of the second season of The Hardy Boys dropped on Disney+ up here in Canada (it being on Hulu in the U.S.) and I just finished watching the season premiere. Which means I'm here to talk about the season premiere. So let's get into it!

The weirdest thing about this episode is that both Joe and Biff are older than they were in season 1, because season 1 was filmed near the beginning of 2020, almost a year before the season dropped on Hulu in late 2020, and in alot of these cases, two years can make a difference. There's also a different actor playing Fenton Hardy, and a different actress is playing Jesse Hooper, Biff's mom, and I guess the chief of police in Bridgeport now that Chief Collig is gone, but I'll get more into that later.

The episode opens six months after the events of the first season and Joe is a bit upset that he and Frank didn't get the recognition for stopping The Circle, led by their grandmother, Gloria Estabrook, and is looking for a new case so that they can be recognized finally. Frank on the other hand, just wants to live a normal life, and go to work and school, and hang out with his friends, including his girlfriend, Callie Shaw. But, when a classmate of Joe, Biff, and Phil goes missing, the Hardy Boys work together to find him.

Honestly, I really enjoyed that Joe is looking for a new mystery because in the original books, both boys were always willing to dive into a new case no matter what it was. Now, on the show, I don't think the boys will be travelling around the world like they did in the original books, so all of the cases they get, in however many seasons this show ends up having, will come to them in Bridgeport and will take them around Bridgeport rather than around the world. Joe was one of my biggest problems with the first season since they made him, and Biff, the unlikable younger kid characters rather than teenagers like Frank and his friends. So hopefully this season brings both of them out of that mode because they were both annoying in season 1.

I also respect Frank for wanting a normal life after the insanity of his mother's murder, and the revelations about his grandmother's involvement with The Circle. TV Frank doesn't have that same thirst for adventure that Book Frank does. So naturally he isn't going to immediately jump into another mystery. As he said to Joe in this episode, solving their mom's murder was something they had to do for themselves, for Fenton, and for Aunt Trudy, putting The Circle out of commission was just a bonus. 

We don't get very much with any of the other characters in this episode. Aside from Fenton, but even he didn't do a whole lot in the episode. I still love the returning characters from last season though. Though Phil is a little more annoying this season, given that he was actually in most of this episode. I didn't mind him in small doses last season, but having him in most of the first episode, and probably most of the season as a whole, might become a problem.

I find it interesting that the events of this episode is tied to the season 1 finale and the shadowy organization running the cleanup from everything that happened at the end of season 1 with The Circle and The Eye. I don't know where any of that is gonna go, but I'm intrigued to find out as the season goes on. Especially with how it relates to the Hardys and their friends. 

I don't really have much else to say about this episode. I enjoyed it, but being a serialized story, like season 1 was, this episode only represents a piece of the whole story, so I don't really even know what exactly is going on with this season as a whole yet. Especially because Disney+ didn't drop the entire season all at once, just the first four episodes of a ten episode season. So we'll see what happens, but I'm excited for it.

Alrighty that is going to be it for me for today. I'll be back on Friday with my review of this week's episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and I think I might post something on the magazines of Star Trek tomorrow. So until then have a wonderful evening and I will talk to you later. Take care.