Carmen Sandiego
We’re in a Carmen Sandiego Renaissance
Episodes watched:
Episode 1: “Becoming Carmen Sandiego: Part I”
Episode 2: “Becoming Carmen Sandiego: Part II”
Episode 3: “The Sticky Rice Caper”
Episode 4: “The Fishy Doubloon Caper”
Episode 5: “The Duke of Vermeer Caper”
Episode 6: “The Opera in the Outback Caper”
Where: Netflix
Image: Netflix
Like many kids from the 1980s-2000s, I grew up with the Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? franchise. Over the years, I retained two pieces of information about Carmen Sandiego:
She’s a fashion icon
She is completely evil.
So when Netflix first announced a reboot with Carmen as the heroine, I was skeptical. Didn’t Rockapella tell us she was trying to flimflam every nation? If I spent my childhood trying to stop her, does that mean I’m the bad guy now? Will Netflix stomp all over the source material?
The show just released its final season, so I watched the pilot episode. Then I watched five more.
It’s true that Carmen isn’t the bad guy anymore. Still, Carmen Sandiego stays true to its origins. It’s a still children’s show (thank goodness, given the glut of gritty reboots lately) that sets out to teach its viewers about culture and geography, and it’s just as fun as I remember the older iterations being.
Carmen Sandiego is still a thief, but the show assures us that she only steals items to get them to their rightful owners, and that she never profits off of her crime. Now, Carmen’s nemesis is the evil organization that raised her, V.I.L.E., which is trying to profit off of cultural treasures. While law enforcement is trying to find her, she’s not their enemy. I was worried that the choice to make Carmen a hero would ruin the character’s cool, mysterious persona, but she still feels like the same character, just with more reason to care about her.
What works well about the show is that the learning doesn’t feel obligatory: Every place is like its own character, with its own personality that’s an important part of the story. Even when the show has the characters introduce many facts at once, it presents these facts in an interesting way, and weaves them into the story later. While the educational content in each episode is accessible to kids, there are at least a few facts that will be new to adults, too.
Completely putting aside the fact that it's an educational show for kids, the show has a great plot. If you're a fan of stories with a similar genre (action with elements of science fiction), you’ll recognize aspects of the story: Computer hackers, secret government organizations, a boarding school for gifted youngsters, etc. Still, the writers aren’t trying to reinvent the wheel, the plot mechanisms in the show have been done over and over again because they work. Carmen Sangieo takes familiar devices and executes them so well that it doesn’t matter how many times you’ve seen them before.
The supporting characters generally make the show more compelling: They have great designs, interesting plotlines, and there was an effort to cast actors who share identities with the characters (an especially important choice given that this is a show about geography and culture, and that this is in Netflix’s “Representation Matters” Collection). Sometimes the actors do fake accents, and unfortunately, it’s obvious at times. My other complaint with the representation of the supporting characters of the show is that Tigress, the only woman in the main group of Carmen’s classmates, is disappointingly stereotypical. She’s catty (I know) to Carmen for no reason, and they become rivals, even though they both get along fine with all of the male characters, perpetuating stereotypes about girls not getting along. Still, most of the characters are multidimensional and help to bring faces to the places in the show.
Even if the rest of Carmen Sandiego were completely boring, I would be sucked in by the animation. Every landscape frame is striking enough to be someone’s phone wallpaper. The action sequences remind me of a 2D version of The Incredibles, stylish and exciting. The quality of the animation helps the story be engaging, and also helps the real life places and artifacts sink into the viewer’s memory.
Carmen Sandiego was a really successful franchise in its heyday, and nostalgia sells well. Because of that, I figured the people at Netflix thought it could get people to watch a mediocre show, and that they wouldn’t really put much effort into this reboot. Clearly, though, I was wrong. Carmen Sandiego was made by a team of people who strived for excellence, and for my money, they achieved it.
Detailed content advisory for Carmen Sandiego:
(Note: I have only watched the first six episodes)
Language: No profanity in the episodes I watched. A handful of minced oaths (eg “crud” or “gosh”) throughout the six episodes I watched. In episode 6, the word “gypsy” is used -- while this is not used as an insult, some consider this word offensive.*
Violence: There are many fight sequences. Blood and other injuries aren’t shown.
There are direct references to killing throughout the show, although no one has actually died. (including offscreen).
Characters get drugged and tied up.
Sexual content: None. There isn’t any romance, either (in the episodes I watched, although I’d be surprised if the show’s writers went that route).
Questionable content:
A couple of instances of crude humor (a few references to vomiting, one reference to “number two”).
Though broken up by a lot of humor, there’s a fair amount of suspense in the show, and a few of the villains may be frightening for younger children.
*If you would like to know more about the use of this word, here are some resources: 1, 2, 3.
