Frank and Joe Hardy are back to solve new mysteries in The Hardy Boys Season 2. The Hulu original series adapted the beloved mystery novel franchise for a stellar first season at the tail end of 2020. Though the show's basic premise of two sleuths uncovering the truth behind a family mystery may be familiar, The Hardy Boys distinguished itself through tight storytelling and chemistry. Season 2 doubles down on what made the series excellent, bringing the Hardy Boys deeper into the family secrets.
Season 2 picks up right where things left off. The eye is destroyed, Gloria is in jail, and the Circle seems disbanded. Frank and Joe Hardy are reunited with their dad and seem to be living a normal teenage summer with their friends. When a local student goes missing in the woods after a campout, the gang of mystery solvers gets involved to help bring him home. On the way, they uncover a more insidious mystery at the heart of their town and learn that the eye may not be through with them.
Season 2 of The Hardy Boys builds on a lot of what made the first season so successful. With the Hardy gang already firmly established in Bridgeport, the new season expands the community. New characters are introduced and the town is fleshed out to include everything from rival schools to a unique local holiday. If the first season was about bringing Frank and Joe to Bridgeport, the second season is about making the town their home. Season 2 also raises the stakes, putting other townspeople and friends in danger and making the Hardy Boys' work feel more urgent and important.
The family dynamic in this second season of The Hardy Boys is another draw. Frank and Joe are clearly brothers and will occasionally bicker or hide things from each other, but ultimately they know they're working toward the same goal. While Joe takes more of a leading role this season, the pair still work well together and their brotherly relationship isn't the source of unnecessary drama. Even their dad seems to accept the Hardy Boys' detective status. He doesn't lecture the boys when they skip school to search for a friend but instead encourages them to look out for one another. Absent of the artificial family restrictions, the mystery-solving of Season 2 takes center stage and makes the series even more entertaining.
The Hardy Boys is perhaps the best teen sleuth adaptation to date. Rooted in the 1980s, its analog mystery-solving sets the show apart from the similar Nancy Drew series and movie. While Season 2 sees the Hardy Boys take on more supernatural forces, the show has always been grounded in real-world threats that make its stories much more relatable. This show about two white male protagonists is also putting in the effort to showcase a version of the '80s filled with real, diverse humans who have agency. The Hardy Boys even prioritizes normalizing queer relationships and characters, whose queerness is never the source of drama. Season 2 leans into this representation in new and exciting ways without making its characters feel token.
Another hallmark feature of The Hardy Boys is how it handles puzzles. The show is based on a mystery series, after all, so finding clues and deciphering secret messages are integral to the franchise. The Hardy Boys excels at making these puzzles feel realistic and walking viewers through the solving process. While the characters may discover the solution first, it's always sensical and always helps build out the world. The puzzles in The Hardy Boys Season 2 are frustratingly good -- they'll make viewers grapple with whether they want to pause the show to solve them or keep watching to find out what happens next.
The Hardy Boys Season 2 is the perfect follow-up for the series. The overarching mystery provides big stakes and allows the show to introduce new characters that instantly mesh. The smaller, episodic stories showcase the series' other strengths: good puzzles, emotional intelligence, and compelling drama. The Hardy Boys knows how to tell a mystery, and this second season is here to prove that the show deserves a place on every watch list.
Catch the Hardy Boys' latest mystery when Season 2 premieres April 6 on Hulu.