Carmen Sandiego

Like most, I was a little skeptical when I saw that they were rebooting Where On Earth is Carmen Sandiego. With the animation I was sure it would be a flop. But it isn't! I'm so glad that they made tweaks here and there and that it is a breath of fresh air. I see this as a prequel of the TV series in the 90's because of all that has happened in 10 episodes. I think it does deserve some work because all of the men are dumb and crave food while the women are smart and on point. While I do support gender equality, I feel like they should make at least SOME of the male protagonists/antagonists better. The design is flawless and I love the new music for the theme song. Overall, I love it and I hope they make a season 2!

I remember loving this show as a kid. And the game! Loving the new series as an adult. Im reminded of how much more I knew about the world as a child. Offers a great opportunity to teach youngsters about the world; geography, trade, culture and tradition, climate, species etc.

Carmen Sandiego is not only entertaining, but it also has great animation and action sequences and an adorable animation/art style. Prepare for an ungodly amount of puns. I hope there will be a second season. If there will be, there is advice at the bottom of this review.

It starts off great in the first two episodes. Here, Carmen tells about her life and upbringing from her point of view as her old friend keeps her at gunpoint. We learn about her, her motivations and her fears, and also about the people around her. These two episodes are not only entertaining, but also surprisingly touching. In the following episodes we see her attempts at thwarting the operations of V.I.L.E. together with her friends "Player", Zack, and Ivy. These range from retrieving stolen museum pieces to preventing a rocket from being launched. Although these later episodes are a bit repetitive, they're entertaining nonetheless.

The art style is very good looking and sharp. I don't know a lot of art terms in English (as it isn't my native language), but the art style is worth mentioning nonetheless.

However, this show isn't perfect, and there were things that bothered me about it. Most of the episodes felt kind of repetitive, and didn't have the high stakes or depth that the first two episodes had. The quality of some episodes was just not good in some of the episodes. (For example in episode 6, how on earth could Carmen deduce that V.I.L.E wanted to destroy an Aboriginal reservation with a rocket?) And as much as I like the artstyle of this series, it bothers me a little that Carmen doesn't seem to be drawn the same way. In this series, everyone has pronounced facial features (noses, freckles, lines, etc.). In comparison, Carmen's face (with almost no nose and no freckles or lines) looks almost featureless.

If there's going to be a second season, here are my recommendations. Let Carmen be vulnerable once in a while. Let there be actual high stakes. Let the relationship between those Interpol agents develop past constant bickering. (Romantic or platonic, I don't care.) Let us get to know more about the lives and backstories of Player, Jack and Ivy.

A femme fatale/complex heroine from Buenos Aires, international travel, action and suspense - what's not to like? Not surprisingly, it's a slightly bigger hit with Sienna (as compared to, say, Avatar, which the kiddos seem to enjoy equally); but we all love the Boston sidekicks and their accent. I vaguely remember the computer game from the 80s (did I play it on my Apple IIe?), but there doesn't seem to be any resemblance.

First watched - 2019-2020. Update: season 4 watched 2021, Seb didn't like that she temporarily worked for VILE, but it all worked out at the end of the season!

The new 'Carmen Sandiego' is absolutely binge-worthy. I just watched the entire first season in one go. I think it was a very good decision to make it rather a prequel instead of a remake. This way, fans of the old show (like me) get thrilles when old characters show up before they became what they were in the 90s show. I especially loved a certain cameo scene in an elevator, but no spoilers here. Talking of characters, all of them are well-written and interesting. I love how they have managed to include 'The Player". This brings me to my only point of criticism though: The gender equality is way off balance on this show, and it takes a lot for me to notice such a thing. Apart from The Player, all male characters are dull and clumsy, while all leaders on the show are women, and all women are agile and smart. This was just a bit too much even for me. I hope season two manages to balance this out a bit better - and I hope we won't have to wait too long for the show to continue because season 1 was great fun!