Dead Boy Detectives was initially developed for television by HBO Max in 2021. After a long and winding road of purgatory, the series eventually is reaching Netflix in early 2023. (Please note that this has nothing to do with Netflix licensing Max properties as of late.) The adaptation of DC Comics has a cult following that can tap into every popular young demographic.
Now, every comic book property will continuously develop in the ever-competitive streaming landscape. This makes it more surprising how ordinary, at times, Dead Boy Detectives can be, considering Netflix’s binge model. Dead Boy Detectives is like a purgatory Hardy Boys procedural, with the boys trying to solve a new case weekly.
However, as the series progresses, you see its overall potential. You hope the streaming giant will allow Dead Boy Detectives to achieve that potential.
Netflix’s Dead Boy Detectives Season 1 Review and Synopsis
The story follows two teenage ghosts, Charles Rowland (Fate: The Winx Saga’s Jayden Revri) and Edwin Paine (Findhorn Case’s George Rexstrew). Deciding they have too much life yet to live, they forgo the afterlife and stay on Earth. They become the Dead Boy Detectives, investigating crimes that involve the supernatural and causing harm to those living on Earth.
Rowland and Paine are different because they died at various points in the last century. Edwin is formal, put together, and contemplative. Charles is reactionary—a wild child who is an 80s punk rock type who acts first and asks questions later. They complement each other, but it’s hard to make a living in their professions, as they mostly barter their services to humans and ghosts alike.
Dead Boy Detectives comes from the DC Comics The Sandman universe, making the property an obvious choice for the streamer. The series is a creation of Steve Yockey (Doom Patrol) based on the DC Comic characters developed by Neil Gaiman and Matt Wagner. Initially, the series has trouble finding its footing, being too in love with special effects, gloomy aesthetics, and establishing character in the pilot.
Yet, as the episodes progress, the cast begins to gel and have chemistry. That includes Kassius Nelson’s Crystal, a clairvoyant who can speak to the dead, and Yuy Kitamura, who plays Niko and shares Crystal’s talent for talking to dead boys and other ghostly figures. Yockey can then marry the special effects and comic relief to give the show the necessary levity.
Those come together in the season’s best episodes, one being “The Case of the Devlin House,” where the team finds themselves in a horrific and ominous entertaining Groundhog Dog-like episode of thrills and chills. Then, there is the inventive ” The Case of the Lighthouse Leapers.” These episodes represent the best of the series.
Is Netflix’s Dead Boy Detectives Worth Watching?
Dead Boy Detectives is worth watching because the cast gels and the series finds its footing by the halfway point. While the season finale does fall into the trap of trying to convince viewers to come back for season 2, clever story plot devices keep the show interesting but not necessarily fresh.
While Dead Boy Detectives would have benefited, I would have enjoyed a more stylish approach at points; the series offers enough thrills, chills, and grim humor to entertain multiple generations of fans of the genre.
You can watch the new streaming series Dead Boy Detectives only on Netflix.
6/10
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