Carmen Sandiego is Back!
“She’s a world traveler from Kiev to Carolina, a world-class thief from Berlin down to Belize. She takes her foes for a ride on a slow boat to China. Just where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?” – Rockapella
That’s right! The thief in red, Carmen Sandiego, is back with an all-new series on Netflix which started airing on Jan. 18. A sort of modern-day Robin Hood, Carmen (voiced by Gina Rodriguez) is an expert thief who travels around the world pulling off heists against her adversaries, Villains International League of Evil. Luckily, she’s not alone. On her adventures, she has allies in the forms of a young hacker named Player (voiced by Fin Wolfhard) and the Bostonian-donut-stealing siblings Ivy (voiced by Abby Trott) and Zack (voiced by Michael Hawley). On their travels of stealing from evil and giving to the poor, Interpol agents Devineaux and Julia are on their trail with the help of the mysterious Agency to Classify & Monitor Evildoers.
Like most reboots, the series brings back the classic motif that gained fans to begin with, all-the-while bringing in new ideas to make it stand out from its predecessor. The Carmen series originally started out as a computer game in 1985 for platforms like the Apple 2 or MS-DOS in which the player would search around the world with the help of the police to arrest Carmen. One TV series people may know Carmen from is a game show in which kids would answer geological and historical questions from the chief of ACME. What made it most memorable was the music group, Rockapella, who would sing the intro. The series became so popular that it spun a cartoon, “Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego,” which was broadcasted on Fox Kids.
Now, after 25 years, the series gets a fresh coat of red paint. While this version is more plot-driven, don’t think you won’t learn a little something along the way. This new series pays homage to the old with educational facts that don’t feel forced and can help you on your next geography quiz. Currently, there’s nine episodes in the first season, so take a journey with the red velvet thief.