The Hardy Boys - S2E1 - A Disappearance

[SkyWarp]

The second season starts off at least six months after the end of the first season as a radio announces in the background that Gloria Estabrook as been in jail for 6 months. 

This story is a direct sequal to the Frank is fused with the power of the Eye story line from the first season.

If you don't like supernatural powers and lots of talk about super hero super powers, then you might want to pause and breathe before watching.  There is of course all the talk of Demon's Paw from the first series and they expound upon that a lot.   

There is a lot of name referencing from all kinds of Hardy Boys series.  But one of the biggest books to get several mentions is Original Series book #8 The Mystery of Cabin Island. 

Beyond that we get an introduction to Belinda Conrad and supposedly Vanessa Bender in the first episode.  I am still trying to verify where Vanessa is shown, but she is definitely shown in the second episode.

Overall I am good with the story and things do have my interest. 

Some may worry about the changes in actors who play some of the characters.  So far, I have no problem with Jesse Hooper.  Fenton I am undecided on so far.  But depending how things go, I may change my mind on both of these. 

They do play up his change right at the very beginning with a comment from Trudy about her being unsure about his new beard.  Fenton responds with, "Alright, let's just get over it and move on.  This is my new look."  I laugh about it now even though I honestly didn't catch it the first time.

One thing that does annoy me (and in an even bigger way in the second episode) is there seems to be a requirement for more kissing in this series.  Callie and Frank seem to kiss several times already and I am barely through half of the second episode.  They played the first one off with a comment from Joe, but it got annoying real quick.  I never liked the few mentions of it in the Casefiles either. 

All in all, I am still interested in this series, but am cautious at the same time.  There is potential this could go badly, or be just as good as the first one. 

[NZone]

$3 for a milkshake in a small town in the 80s is an extortionate rate. I wouldn't pay that much now.

[SkyWarp]

$3 for a milkshake in a small town in the 80s is an extortionate rate. I wouldn't pay that much now.

Very true.  I think it is too expensive now though too. 

[MacGyver]

I finally started in on Season 2 of The Hardy Boys. I see some things have already been mentioned so I might be repeating things here and there but I'm just going to mention the things that I caught.
  So far I like the start of the second season well enough. I see that new characters like Belinda Conrad have been introduced, as well as Dennis Gilroy, whom I will assume is this universe's equivalent of Jerry Gilroy.
   I also appreciated the usage of a great Halloween-appropriate song, Season of the Witch by Donovan.
It would be fitting if all the music used was from the 1980s or earlier, due to the setting of the show, but oh well. I liked seeing the camcorder and top-loading VCR being used to watch the VHS tape recording.
The question about the demon in the woods really added to the Stranger Things vibe I get from the show, and the video footage recording of strange happenings in the woods reminded me of The Blair Witch Project. (I suppose the demon could reference books like The Mystery at Devil's Paw or The Demon's Den.)
    It's nice to see that the traditional romantic relationship between Frank and Callie continues to be established.
I may have missed some name drops but I did hear Skull Mountain mentioned, as in The Secret of Skull Mountain. And there is apparently a villain named Stratemeyer! I'm glad JB Cox is still included. I like his portrayer's work as an actor.
    My only complaints are that I would still rather not hear any cursing at all but at least it's relatively minor and limited, compared to what it could be. I also didn't think Fenton's reaction to Frank and Joe's disobedience was totally realistic either.
   Overall though, it seems to be an interesting start to the second season.