Review: Netflix's Carmen Sandiego Pt. 1

WARNING: Spoilers Ahead
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When Netflix's Carmen Sandiego came out, I was a little weary. The first thing they got across in the trailer was that she was "a thief that only steals from other thieves." Casting Carmen as the hero felt awkward and I wasn't sure how it would work out, but I gave the show a fair shake. And you know, they knew what they were doing. The show isn't without its faults, but it's certainly better than it could've been. Let's take a deeper look, shall we?

Now I'm going to be breaking this review into two parts. For today, I'm going to explore Carmen Sandiego and give my basic impressions of the show and its constituent parts. Part two I'll be comparing it to another show with a fairly similar premise. But that's for later. Let's get into what this show is all about.

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Premise

The trailers were pretty blunt about this. Carmen Sandiego is the hero in this Netflix adaptation. ​She still evades ACME, but now, instead of heading V.I.L.E., she actively fights against them. This turns the whole character of Carmen on her head as she's always been the one being chased, usually by us as the players.

Found as a baby somewhere in Argentina, Carmen is raised by V.I.L.E., a criminal organization that, conveniently, also trains young, would-be villains in the art of thievery. Given the initial code name of Black Sheep, she learns from a slew of villainous experts, a child prodigy as she's been around the school her whole life, absorbing everything since early childhood.

Eventually she flunks out after an unfair test administered by an instructor not fond of her, but despite this, she stows away with the rest of her class on their first big mission. There she comes to the remarkable realization that -gasp- crime hurts people. From there she dedicates her life and talents to stopping V.I.L.E., wherever they may rear their ugly heads.

ACME - The Most Useless Detective Agency

Now I mentioned before that prior to this, Carmen has always been the villain, always just out of grasp, yet so close that you couldn't give up. With her as the hero, things have been shifted around. This leaves ACME and Interpol as fairly useless agencies.

We see in the very first episode that Carmen eludes Interpol agents Chase Devineaux and Jules Argent without so much as breaking a sweat. Even after the pair join up with ACME and get cooler toys, they're never even close to capturing Carmen. And since they only indirectly go after V.I.L.E., their purpose in the show seems vague at best.

We know that Chase and Jules aren't going to catch her. And we know that only Carmen has the wits and skills to contend with V.I.L.E. So what is ACME's purpose? At best, Jules and Chase are there to offer a bit of exposition and maybe help shape the viewer's attitude toward Carmen. At worst, they're completely unnecessary. With all the love I can muster for these two characters (and the Chief!) I have to admit, if you removed them from most episodes, nothing would change.

Sure, Carmen uses the pair to funnel stolen goods back to their rightful owners, but come on; Batman and Spider-Man leave thugs in neat little packages for nameless police, there's no reason Carmen couldn't drop things off with local authorities and get the same story by. ACME, for all the great throwbacks it has, really just has nothing to do.

VILE

I'm actually quite torn on V.I.L.E. The characters are deeper than any incarnation of henchmen yet, and as a "bad guy" organization, they serve the dual purpose of antagonizing Carmen as well as offering her the "high school" experience via flashbacks. The instructors are awesome and I even dig some of the agents that Carmen studied alongside.

What really makes them stand out now, though, is their M.O. V.I.L.E. has always been an extension of Carmen's wishes, so they stole all the corn in Iowa or the Statue of Liberty or even the concept of zero. Here, as the show is much more ... I hate to say realistic... let's say down to earth... they tend to engage in more profitable crimes. They destroy a country's staple food supply so they're forced to purchase V.I.L.E. brand alternative, or sabotage a tech company so that they can sweep in and take over their contract. I... like that. They still globe trot and engage in some over-the-top shenanigans, but things are just on the cusp of believability. 

Geography Breaks
It wouldn't be Carmen Sandiego if we didn't learn something. The show is quick to establish that Carmen developed a love of geography as a little girl trapped on V.I.L.E. Isle. This comes into play as every time the show changes location, Carmen and Player (more on him later) have a little back in forth. These "geography breaks" tend to bring the show to a halt in the earlier episodes, but get a little better as things progress. 

You get to learn a little bit about local currencies, customs, history, or other culturally relevant tidbits, and while these sections don't always have any real impact on the show, it's clear that this is one of the show's obligations; it wouldn't be Carmen Sandiego if you didn't learn about France's largest exports.

Throwbacks

Something that tickled me to no end was just how much this show pays homage to previous incarnations. One of the constant staples of Carmen Sandiego has been the naming conventions of her thugs. From Nosmo King to Justin Case, they all had stupidly corny names. This is referenced in Carmen's school days when a classmate named Graham declares that, because he's a former electrician who now wields a glorified taser, he will be called Graham Crackle. His classmates quickly berate him and tell him no one will ever take them seriously with dumb names. On a side note, fortunately, this warning doesn't extend to the greatest V.I.L.E. agent of all, Mime Bomb.

Speaking of characters, this show pulls freely from older incarations. We have the previously mentioned ACME agents Chase Devineaux and Jules Argent, both characters taken from older games in the series, and their fearless leader known only as The Chief, a clear homage to Lynne Thigpen, the Chief from the old PBS game shows. Carmen has a "man in the chair" that helps her out remotely, referred to only as "Player." Even her friends/lackies, Zack and Ivy are a reference to the brother and sister duo dedicated to capturing her in the animated cartoon, Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego?.

Speaking of that iconic series, if you pay close attention during the elevator ride in one of the early episodes, you might notice a familiar theme playing as Carmen and Cookie Booker ride in awkward silence. Yes, that's the theme from Where on Earth. Even better, the voice of Cookie Booker just so happens to be Rita Moreno, the voice of Carmen from that same series. I don't think it's a coincidence that the show has Carmen steal her signature coat and hat from Cookie, a clear passing of the torch from one generation to the next.

Carmen the Spy

Lastly, today, I want to talk about Carmen herself. Now, what I'm about to say is going to sound like nonsense, but stay with me. Carmen isn't a thief. Sure, she steals things, but so does James Bond. No one short of Mr. Blofeld calls him a thief when he breaks into volcano lairs to steal back precious diamonds. No. Carmen is a spy. A secret agent. 

Carmen, initially, comes off very much like a Mary Sue. That's fine if you're the villain, but as the hero, it kills all the suspense. Neither V.I.L.E. nor the ACME agents come close to catching her in the early episodes. Fortunately this is remedied by the middle of the season with the introduction of characters who actually present a challenge. Still, Carmen doesn't lose. 

On top of this, Carmen is a philanthropist. This isn't a bad character quality, but it's a bit of a curve ball. Throughout the years, Carmen's attitude has always been one of self-confidence and maybe a little bit of smugness. Her main concern was the thrill of the hunt in capturing the uncapturable, and the thrill of the chase in evading ACME. 

Netflix Carmen is... nice. To steal a phrase from screenplays, she saves the cat early. And often. All the funds she steals from V.I.L.E. go to charity. All of them. They make a big deal about children's charities every time money comes up in the show. It makes me wonder how Carmen can afford her gadgets, hats, and of course, travel expenses when she claims every penny is going to charities. 

Maybe it's just me, and maybe I'm over analyzing a children's cartoon, but I like my thieves to be just a little selfish. And you know, I think that's a good segue into part two, because I'm bringing in another "hero" thief to compare and contrast. I hope you look forward to it.

Be Excellent to Each Other