Animation
Good Times
Netflix takes a classic sitcom, Good Times, and turns it into a vulgar, violent, sexually-charged TV-MA show.
Frank and Joe Hardy have a mystery on their hands.
That, paradoxically, is no mystery. In fact, it’d be weird if they didn’t. The brothers have solved literally hundreds of mysteries in their long literary history, cracking cases related to everything from diamond smuggling to medical malpractice to, of course, murder.
But now, the boys are sleuthing on Hulu. Whether they’re investigating the latest mystery for business or for pleasure, one thing’s for certain—it’s always personal. And sometimes, it’s more personal than they’d like it to be.
The brothers—Frank and Joe—are still reeling from a terrible tragedy: Their mother was killed in a car crash while driving to one of Frank’s baseball games.
Fenton, the boys’ grief-stricken dad, can’t raise the lads all on his own. So he and the boys move down to the small town of Bridgeport (motto: “Where friends meet”) to live with Aunt Trudy and for all three can start over.
But it’s not so simple as that. They’ve barely had time to unpack when a mysterious stranger shows up and tells Fenton that his wife’s death wasn’t an accident: She was murdered. The former journalist was still working, apparently—much to Fenton’s surprise—and she’d found something big.
But that’s all old news to the duo now. By the end of Season One, they’ve solved that case, through and through—no thanks to the town’s police, either. That case revealed many more mysteries of Bridgeport than the average person could handle, like the magical object called the Eye that gives power to those who wield it, the cult that obsesses over it and more.
All of that is more than enough for Frank as we enter into Season Two, who just wants to return to a normal, uneventful life. But without the mysteries, Joe can’t help but feeling a bit antsy and purposeless. Joe’s starting to see leads to mysteries where there aren’t any, and it’s getting a bit exasperating. Well, until a fellow student suddenly vanishes in a forest believed to hold a mythical demonic entity.
Now that’s certainly a case.
The Hardy Boys began their long history of sleuthing back in 1927—three years before Nancy Drew pulled out her own magnifying glass. Since then, literally hundreds of Hardy Boys mysteries have been published (all ghostwritten under the pseudonym Franklin W. Dixon). To my knowledge, they’ve never failed to solve a case.
Hulu’s version of Frank and Joe Hardy looks a little different from the original models, who were 18 and 17 years old, respectively. Frank’s a high school baseball star researching colleges. Joe’s still coming into himself as a young teenager. It’s set in the 1980s, too—as if the makers were trying to give the show a bit of a Stranger Things nostalgia vibe. And, of course, devoting a whole season to an overarching mystery departs from Hardy Boys’ typical quick, clean mystery solving.
And though Season One had given us clues that the Hardy Boys case might be a clean and easy watch, Season Two begins leading us down the more typical road. The Hardy Boys is by no means the worst we’ve seen of these streaming originals, but Season Two begins to reveal that it’s tipping more toward an adult than kid show each episode.
Season One keeps the on-screen language, romance and violence to a minimum.
But if Season One is the well-to-do friend who’ll help you with the homework out of the goodness of his heart, Season Two is the bully who comes along and steals Season One’s lunch money. Characters begin using swears more frequently, including misusing God’s name, “h—,” “p-ss” and “a–.” Aunt Trudy is revealed to be a lesbian and shares kisses with another female character, and as it turns out, Bridgeport celebrates an annual festival known as “Demon Week,” where they nominate a “Demon Queen” in recognition of the Bridgeport Demon, a local cryptid legend. This latter point is a central point of the season.
The Hardy Boys are indeed back, and viewers looking to tune into the first season the show will be in for a treat. However, all oases dry up eventually, and The Hardy Boys’ more recent work is fixed on taking the show through a heavy drought.
Joe, excited for a new mystery to solve, gets into a dangerous situation in pursuit of its answer. Frank struggles with a strange mystical power that causes visions.
Frank and his girlfriend, Callie, share quick kisses on many occasions. Callie makes a romantic innuendo toward Frank. Frank speaks with his deceased mother in a strange dream. Frank, Joe and their friends skip school to look for fellow student Dennis.
Joe’s friend Biff asks him to swear on his mother’s grave. Joe picks a lock, and he disobeys his father. Joe and friends faint from hydrogen sulfide poisoning, and Joe sees the “Bridgeport Demon” towering over him.
Dennis climbs into a forbidden area with a sign that reads, “trespassers will be shot.” Dennis is said to be making a horror film about the Bridgeport Demon, and he captures footage of a creature wearing a deer skull. He is attacked by something offscreen.
Belinda, a new student, says she intentionally gets herself sent to detention on the first day of school to “figure out who’s cool.” Another woman threatens to cut out a character’s eye.
There are references to an upcoming festival called “Demon Week” where a “Demon Queen” will be nominated. Additionally, characters frequently discuss and debate the existence of the Bridgeport Demon because Dennis went missing in Demon’s Paw, the area where the demon is said to live.
“H—” is used twice, and “d–n” is used once. God’s name is misused five times. We also hear the insult “idiot,” and someone says that something “sucks.”
With student Dennis found, Joe and Frank focus on investigating an inconsistency within the case’s police report. Frank’s girlfriend, Callie, discovers some upsetting news about her financial aid eligibility.
Joe makes a joke about stabbing security officers. Joe and Frank sneak onto private property. A man lights a shack on fire, forcing a hiding Joe and Frank to flee before it collapses upon them. Frank and Callie share a couple of kisses.
Biff steals Phil’s watch, and the two wrestle for it before simply wrestling for fun. The two lie to Joe and Frank’s father about where the brothers are.
Joe and Frank’s Aunt Trudy is dating Biff’s mother, and the two kiss. Aunt Trudy references “oily men in tights” when she discusses wrestling. The new student Belinda references an ex-girlfriend she had, and she flirts with Frank’s friend Chet. Belinda also compels Chet to trespass on city property, and Chet runs from the mayor and police.
A boy talks about passionate kissing. A man argues with members of a cult about being the cause of 4,000 deaths.
“H—” is used twice, and “a–” is heard once. God’s name is misused twice. “P-ss” is also used once. We also hear the insults “idiot,” “jerk” and “snake.”
After their mother dies in a tragic car crash, Frank and Joe Hardy—along with their policeman father—move to quaint Bridgeport. But when a strange man grabs Joe during a town-wide get-together, and a strange woman visits their father and tells him that his wife was murdered, the brothers realize that there’s more to Bridgeport than just clean streets and good ice cream.
On the day of Mrs. Hardy’s deadly accident, she tries to drive away from a car that’s driving waaaay too aggressively. The surviving Hardys see the crash site, including Mom’s overturned and smashed-up SUV. Elsewhere, baddies shoot and kill several people aboard a boat, then set the boat on fire. (It explodes shortly thereafter.) Joe’s temporary kidnapper holds a knife and threatens the kid with it. The Hardy boys’ father, working undercover, hits a suspect in the face. (The suspect was quickly arrested for bribery.) Several people attend a funeral.
Frank kisses his girlfriend before leaving town (much to the annoyance of some). Joe can be a bit exasperating: He lashes out and blames Frank for his mother’s death. He’s going to summer school because he failed algebra. He taunts some bullies by kicking their ball a long way away (necessitating a hasty departure).
He kicked that ball, by the way, after one of the bullies called him “farty.” The brothers call each other names, too, including “butt head” and “barf bag,” but that’s as bad as the language gets here.
Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”
Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.
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