Entertainment NOW

2 • May 29 - June 4, 2022 Entertainment Now By Christina McIvor TV Media T here are certain characters who burst onto the televi- sion screen and command attention from their very first scene, and it immediately be- comes apparent that they deserve a series of their own. For fans of CW's "Nancy Drew," this is the case with Tom Swift (Tian Rich- ards, "The Quad"), who leads his own self-titled series as of Tues- day, May 31, on the same net- work. Audiences familiar with "Nancy Drew" will remember bil- lionaire inventor Tom from his ap- pearance in the Season 2 episode "The Celestial Visitor," in which he enlists Nancy's (Kennedy McMann, "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit") help to find the meteorite that crashed into their town 90 years earlier. The purely science-driven Tom quickly finds his beliefs tested as he encounters more than he bargained for in the form of the supernatural, but finds a friend in Nancy as well as the courage to come out to his father, Barton (played in "Tom Swift" by Christopher B. Duncan, "Black Lightning"). Now it's Tom's turn to take the spotlight. The character, who first ap- peared in the 1910 novel "Tom Swift and His Motor Cycle," was first portrayed as a brilliant teenage inventor fascinated by the rapidly evolving science and technology of the times. Created by Edward Stratemeyer, whose publishing house also produced the Nancy Drew book series, the Tom Swift novels were written by many ghostwriters who published under the pseudonym Victor Appleton. To date, there are over 100 books featuring Tom and his son, Tom Swift Jr., the most recent of which was published in March 2022. The upcoming series reimag- ines Tom as a gay Black man, a far cry from his first appearance as a straight white man over a century ago. "The original Tom Swift was great for his time and what he represented," Richards told TVLine last year. "At the time, that was the face of young boys, all-American kids full of possibili- ties. But in 2021, that can look so different. It can look like someone like me — a Black guy who is chocolate, who is queer, who is all those things that we're told aren't the normal or the status quo." This incarnation of Tom is an MIT-educated billionaire and future heir to his father's empire, poised to one day take over Swift Enterprises. However, the brilliant inventor is thrown into a world of shadowy conspiracy after Barton vanishes. Tom becomes determined to find his father and uncover the web of mysteries surrounding his disappearance, many of which require him to leave his extravagant lifestyle behind and plunge deep into the unexplained. Pursuing Tom throughout the series and throwing a wrench in his plans is a mysterious organi- zation that will stop at nothing to keep him from discovering the truth. Needless to say, Tom will need all his considerable wits and genius to save the day and fight to keep the people he cares for safe. Cover Story Tian Richards as Tom Swift in "Nancy Drew" A 'Swift' spinoff: 'Nancy Drew' crew stars in new CW series Ready Rental 3 x 4 Hayley Siefert 3 x 2 Letters & Numbers Sudoku Fill in the grid so that every row,every column, and every 4x4 box contains the digits 1 through 9 AND the letters A-F. Solution on page 12.

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