Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Carmen Sandiego’ On Netflix, A New Good-Guy Version Of The Globe-Trotting Thief

If you were a teen or preteen in the ’90s, Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego? was likely what taught you geography; the popular video game series and PBS game show taught kids facts about different nations via the globe-trotting exploits of the canny thief in the red hat and coat. Now Netflix is diving deeper into Carmen’s story with a new series, simply titled Carmen Sandiego. One thing, though: Carmen is (gulp) good. Read on to see if this is a good or bad thing…

CARMEN SANDIEGO: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Driving through the streets of the French city of Poitiers, two Interpol agents discuss the recent robberies committed by the notorious international thief Carmen Sandiego.

The Gist: Carmen Sandiego (Gina Rodriguez) was brought up on the island of V.I.L.E., with no parents save for Coach Brunt (Mary Elizabeth McGlynn), one of the instructors at the V.I.L.E. Academy for Thieves. The only name she knows is the code name she was given: Black Sheep. She becomes an expert thief at a young age and begs to join the academy, where she hones her skills with a group that she gets close to. She does’t pass, and she thinks that the one board member who didn’t want her there purposely kept her from passing. When she sneaks out and stows away on her class’ first caper, she finds out that V.I.L.E. is more than just an organization of thieves; the “E” stands for “Evil”.

So she strikes out on her own, determined to make V.I.L.E. pay for their misdeeds. With the help of a white-hat hacker named Player (Finn Wolfhard) that she only knows by phone, she steals the financial data from a V.I.L.E. hard drive (a caper all by itself) and the two of them use the data to not only fund her travels, but inform them of where V.I.L.E. is hiding valuables all over the world. Carmen’s goal? To steal everything back and return them to their rightful owners.

Our Take: It took a second to wrap our minds around the fact that this version of Carmen Sandiego is a good thief, not a bad one. Based on both the popular video game series and PBS game show Where In The World is Carmen Sandiego?, producers Caroline Fraser, Duane Capizzi and C.J. Kettler have made Carmen a bit more of a well-rounded person instead of a mysterious icon in a red hat and coat. In doing that, it’s understandable that they make her a thief who only steals from other thieves, and the origin story that they lay out in the first two episodes explains that quite well, to a level of sophistication that will make parents as well as their teenagers engaged.

It helps that Rodriguez and Wolfhard play their roles well. You’ll soon forget that Jane the Virgin and Mike from Stranger Things are doing the voices of Carmen and Player and settle into their adventures. Rodriguez is especially adept at playing Carmen at different ages, when she’s just an immature student to when she’s in full-time Carmen mode.

The first two episodes are heavy on storytelling and a bit light on the educational aspect that made the book and original series famous, namely how she integrates facts and figures on the country she visits into how she’s able to foil whatever V.I.L.E.’s plans are there. But once we get into the swing of things, the geographical lessons come back, with Player conveying to Carmen and her two Southie-accented assistants Ivy (Abby Trott) and Zack (Michael Hawley) the info she needs about each country.

But the animation is fabulous, the stories have a light sense of humor that match the caper-filled plots, and the information about each country might be surprising to even adult viewers.

What Age Group Is This For?: The plots are pretty sophisticated for kids’ programming, and there’s mild violence and implications that V.I.L.E. kills people; the thought here is that this is more suitable for kids 12 and up, but if you have an especially sharp 9 or 10 year old, he or she may be able to follow along.

Parting Shot: As Carmen speedboats down the Seine, she says “Paris will be here. We need to stay one step ahead of V.I.L.E.” Another boat follows, carrying two agents who aren’t from V.I.L.E. Who are they?

Sleeper Star: Wolfhard has the more thankless role as Player. But he does a nice job of making him part of the team, even though he’s sitting behind a bank of monitors.

Most Pilot-y Line: Not sure why Ivy and Zack have to sound like Sully and Denise from SNL (Ivy sounds so Denise-like we were shocked when we found out that someone other than Rachel Dratch was doing her voice).

Our Call: STREAM IT. Rodriguez makes a fine Carmen, and the stories will keep everyone engaged, while you and your kids might learn something about the world.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.

Stream Carmen Sandiego on Netflix