Carmen Sandiego Season 3 Review

October 5, 2020 at 7:33pm
By Jason Stettner

This is an animated Netflix Original Series that continues the adventure of this title lead. A little time has passed since the last season, and Carmen (Gina Rodriguez) is now attempting to find out details about her mother. It’s an interesting change, and isn’t necessarily the whole of what this selection of episodes is about.

This is a much smaller allotment of episodes, only five of them are present. It does tell a more confined story, but acts somewhat like a tease of what’s to come instead of entirely providing its own arc. It doesn’t really stand out on its own, being more like an extended Halloween special which is a tad odd for sure.

I would have liked more of a focus on the mother aspect since they were teasing something possibly interesting, but that dies out fast for a more shifting type of season. Some new characters were introduced, others were swapped out which was an interesting direction.

It was still a good time, yet I had hoped for more of an expansive story progression instead of a tease. I liked the clever setup with the tales at play here, still had wanted more from it. I think it’s definitely on brand with the previous seasons, just feels like a slight step back from the really great last season that was present. I really enjoyed that one, and this was good yet not as expansive.

While the art style for this is more minimalistic, it truly does shine here and looked simply radiant. There were some straight up sleek transitions too, wild in style. They had some absolutely gorgeous and iconic landscapes for the character to fulfill missions within.

This really did span the globe, and each of those locations mattered in regards to filling out the back story for the various involved members of her expanding crew. They even had some splendid musical additions to the action, those were great to see in action. Aside from showcasing some visually appealing areas, they did provide some laughs and educational moments.

With each location, there was some sort of historical fact or for certain items they would give context which is important considering the target audience. That being said, there’s still some good action in this one and that gets amped up a bit. The voice acting was solid here, with a varied selection of unique voices present.

The Conclusion

Carmen Sandiego Season 3 provides a solid selection of episodes, but it did feel smaller in scope and more cut out in comparison to the fuller second season. It was still great, I liked the themes and just wish we could have seen something more concept wise expanded upon. It was almost like filler episodes instead of having its own theme going on.

Telling a bit of story expansion within the first episode and then going in another direction. It’s a big shifting time too, some characters are gone and others are getting more of a spotlight. It’s different, and I’m mostly curious to see where they’ll head with it. I imagine the next season will have more going on, and perhaps push things further.

It’s good to see a sense of maturity within the cast, they’ve come far that’s for sure. I can’t wait for more, and mostly just was disappointed we didn’t get more episodes this time around. Still, excited to see what they do next as there’s the potential for more to enjoy as that fourth season is confirmed. It’s largely just a wonder as to the direction it’ll take, and how they’ll push the characters going forward.

Carmen Sandiego Season 3 Review at Home with Streamed Viewing
Content Access was Provided by Netflix

Rating Overall: 7.2