Carmen Sandiego (TV series)

Premise

Characters

Main

• Carmen Sandiego / 'Black Sheep' - The eponymous heroine seeking to dissolve V.I.L.E. and donate their stolen funds to humanitarian causes; the proceeds go through Carmen's charity Black Sheep Inc, as subtle taunt to V.I.L.E. This Carmen is notably different than previous incarnations, who were leaders of V.I.L.E. and lady thieves. The story she knew was that she was found as an abandoned baby on the roadside of Buenos Aires, Argentina 20 years ago. At a young age, she used to be a student at V.I.L.E. Academy until she left when she didn't want to take the life of anyone who gets in her way after stowing away on a mission and seeing what really goes on in V.I.L.E. She takes her name from the brand name tag in the hat she used in her escape disguise. She is also nicknamed "Carm" by Zack and "Red" by Player. By the end of the second season, Carmen learns that her mother may still be alive, and thus makes it her new secondary objective to find her mother.
• Player - A white-hat hacker from Niagara Falls, Ontario who helps Carmen plan her heists. He also gives Carmen intel about the places she visits, keeping her updated on the local authorities, and possibilities she may have missed. Player is inspired by the live-action character of the same name from Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?, who in turn is a reference to people playing the video games; this version, however, has met Carmen in person at least once, as he has the stolen V.I.L.E. drive which he uses to plan out Carmen's trips to the caches of V.I.L.E.'s stolen goods. He cares for Carmen as a friend, and helps Shadow-san uncover The Chief's identity.
• Zack and Ivy - twin siblings from South Boston helping Carmen after they met during a Donut shop heist which was a V.I.L.E. front. They are inspired by the A.C.M.E. detectives of the same name from Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?, voiced by Scott Menville and Jennifer Hale respectively. Ivy, the older of the two, often runs interference for Carmen, either through disguises or her engineering skills; she also is much more well-read than Zack, who habitually makes mistakes about their discoveries and is less experienced with going undercover, hence why he more often serves as Carmen's wheelman/getaway driver.
• Shadow-san / Suhara - A master thief, skilled swordsman, assassin, and a former-member of the head faculty at V.I.L.E. teaching stealth and covert thievery. He gave a test where students had to find and steal a dollar from his coat when Carmen was still in school, and emptied his coat so she wouldn't be able to find the dollar, which caused Carmen's need to outdo Tigress. In the season one finale, Shadow-san revealed that he was really on Carmen's side all her life, and that he was the one who found her in Argentina when she was a baby. He emptied his coat in order to protect her from joining V.I.L.E. He is a secret member of Carmen's team as well, providing her with a new drive on V.I.L.E.'s financial data at the end of the season. By season 2, his treachery is revealed and he becomes an enemy of V.I.L.E. while helping Carmen foil their plans. In the Daishō Caper, his real name is revealed to be Suhara, having stolen his katana from his brother decades earlier and regretting the life he chose. In the season 2 finale, he reveals to Carmen that he was sent to kill her father Dexter Wolfe, a.k.a. The Wolf, a V.I.L.E. Faculty member, but witnessed his death by Tamara Fraser who then became Chief of A.C.M.E. He joins Carmen's search to find her mother, who went into hiding just before Wolfe's death.

  A.C.M.E.

• The Chief / Tamara Fraser - Head of A.C.M.E. and supervises all of the organization; she is inspired by the Chief from the PBS game shows, played by Lynne Thigpen. She has only appeared via hologram in most of the series, but believes Carmen may be a lead to helping A.C.M.E. prove the existence and downfall of V.I.L.E. By the end of season 2, it is revealed that her name is Tamara Fraser, and that she was the one who killed Carmen's father, Dexter Wolfe, the night she was taken in by Shadow-san; it's possible that due to her error in judgement that caused Wolfe's death, The Chief does not tolerate incompetence and issues agents with capture only gear, despite her own mistaken assumptions about Carmen. The Chief has been obsessed in her pursuit of finding evidence on V.I.L.E. ever since, for as yet unknown motivations.
• Chase Devineaux - A French Interpol Agent turned A.C.M.E. Detective. He, along with Julia, is one of the only two officers to get close enough to see Carmen's face. He is arrogant, pompous and constantly over-estimating his own abilities. By the end of the first season, Chase is put into mental strain caused by a device Brunt and Shadow-san used to force him to answer their questions. In season 2, after waking up from his coma, he provides a lead but is dismissed and returned to Interpol with a desk job, only to be fired for going off the grid in pursuit of Carmen and finds the Isle of V.I.L.E. only after it was destroyed. By the season 2 finale, A.C.M.E. rehires him after Carmen steals from their databanks.
• Julia Argent - Chase Devineaux's partner and opposite: she usually does the logistics and fact finding that Chase would otherwise overlook or disregard; is more highly intelligent, competent and perceptive; and, unlike Chase, who constantly blames Carmen for the actions of V.I.L.E., is more open to believing Carmen is instead stealing from other thieves. She, along with Chase Devineaux, is one of the only two officers to get close enough to see Carmen's face. She is also the only A.C.M.E. agent to visibly keep her job for the whole of both seasons.
• Zari - a longtime pursuant of Carmen Sandiego's, who becomes Argent's partner in season 2. While focused and efficient, her loyalty is shown to lie with the Chief and not her partner, as seen in Stockholm when her team swarmed Carmen in talks with Argent to secure loyalty after Zari realized she was following a decoy.

  V.I.L.E.

Faculty

• Professor Gunnar Maelstrom - The Swedish teacher of psychological manipulation. Unlike the 1994 animated series, Maelstrom is a member of V.I.L.E. Sinister and quite psychotic, often the classic Machiavellian type villain and coming off as creepy to the V.I.L.E. graduates. He often acts as a mediator and spokesperson for the head faculty as a group.
• Coach Brunt - The Texan teacher of combat and physical training. She was Carmen's favorite teacher, and the two had soft spots for each other. Carmen always thought that Coach Brunt was the one who found her, so the two shared a good relationship. Brunt, like the other faculty members, was quite upset over Carmen's betrayal. However, it seems that Carmen still has a soft spot for Coach Brunt. This is thought when Carmen gets altitude sickness and mistakes Dr. Pilar as Coach Brunt, saying that she always knew it was Coach Brunt who found her as a baby. However, Brunt denies still having a soft spot for Carmen, saying that Carmen was dead to her after she left; it is still unknown if what Brunt said was true or not.
• Dr. Saira Bellum - An Indian mad scientist and V.I.L.E.'s master inventor; teacher of technology and science. She is shown to be slightly more reasonable than the other faculty, and has trouble understanding metaphors, but is willing to destroy the food supply of Indonesia just to shill in a market for an artificial commercial brand. She is of Urdu ancestry in this incarnation. She tends to multitask even during council meetings, focusing on numerous screens of information, much to Maelstrom's annoyance. It is shown on multiple occasions that she enjoys watching cat videos.
• Countess Cleo - A wealthy Egyptian debutant and teacher of culture, class, and forgery. She seems to not really care that much about Carmen, and always tries to use her etiquette lessons to get rid of Carmen's rebellious streak.
• * Dash Haber - Countess Cleo's personal assistant. Dash Haber's main weapon is his hat, which is embellished with razor-sharp blades and can be thrown. His name is a pun of the word haberdasher.
• Roundabout - An MI6 double-agent who takes the place of Shadow-san in the end of season 2. He utilizes his influence in British Intelligence to give V.I.L.E. a leg up on any law-enforcement that may zero in on their operations, as well as divert attention away with proper diversionary substance. Like his namesake, he speaks in the manner of one who received a prodigious education, but also uses that vernacular to imply something without saying so and leading people into how he wants them.

  Agents

• Cookie Booker - V.I.L.E.'s bookkeeper and financier. Rita Moreno was the voice of Carmen Sandiego in the 1994 animated series, a connection subtly referenced when Carmen steals her trademark outfit from Booker as a kind of "passing of the torch".
• Tigress / Sheena - Also known as Sheena, Tigress is a spy with a cat-suit and mask, who is particularly antagonistic toward Carmen, even while at the Academy. She is the longest-running combatant against Carmen, who felt like she needed to prove she was better than Tigress at pick-pocketing due to Tigress acing a test set by Shadow-san that Carmen failed.
• El Topo / Antonio and Le Chevre / Jean Paul - V.I.L.E. partners who used to be in Carmen's group of friends before she left. El Topo, also known as Antonio, is a wisecracking Spanish spy with streamlined powerful digging gauntlets; while Le Chevre, also known as Jean Paul, is a no-nonsense French spy with incredible parkour skills. It is implied that they are in a relationship, although it has not been confirmed.
• Paper Star - A psychopathic master of origami weapons and a V.I.L.E. agent; she is Maelstrom's favorite pupil. While on the contrary, Shadow-san rightfully believes Paper Star to be too psychotic to carryout orders, as Paper Star refused to hand over the stolen goods to Le Chevre per V.I.L.E. protocol.
• Mime Bomb - A silent spy and ; dresses as a mime artist for public camouflage. He is usually used by the faculty to spy on the students, which is also how the faculty found out that Carmen had stowed away. However, they sometimes wonder if it was a good idea to hire a mime as a spy since they can't really understand what he's trying to say.

  Former

• Graham - Also known as Gray or Crackle, Graham is Carmen's former best friend at V.I.L.E. However, after a failed mission, Graham had his memories erased by Bellum. He returned to Australia where he met up with Carmen once again and asked her out on a date. However she left before she even got there, because she thought that Gray had a chance to start over, and that ‘Carmen Sandiego’ would ruin all of that. In "The Crackle Goes Kiwi Caper", Carmen recruits him to help her infiltrate Dr. Bellum's New Zealand lab, but upon his realizing Carmen's true mission, he helps destroy Bellum's experiment; they then finally have that date and talk more.
• Dexter Wolfe - Also known as The Wolf, Carmen's father and Shadow-san's predecessor as V.I.L.E. Faculty and Stealth 101 Professor. Wolfe was master thief who was often allowed to leave V.I.L.E. Island due to his expertise. However, when Carmen was born, the rest of the faculty realized that he was planning to leave the organization and sent Shadow-san to assassinate him. By this point, he was attempting to make his escape with Baby Carmen to be reunited with his wife "Vera Cruz" but was accidentally killed instead by the current Chief of A.C.M.E. after hiding Carmen in the closet, leaving her to be taken to V.I.L.E. Island by Shadow-san.

  Episodes

Season 1 (2019)

Season 2 (2019)

Special

Production

Reception

Pre-release

Post-release

Awards and nominations