A Lively Comic Inspired Detective Drama

(080124) Dead Boy Detectives is an appealing and suspenseful mystery show with many elements of horror and macabre comedy thrown in. If Tim Burton and Guillermo del Toro collaborated on supernaturally themed procedural Hardy Boys-like TV series it might look and feel like this.

The show is aimed at the same youthful demographic as the Wednesday and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina streaming shows. Hopefully, this show will manage to be more consistently good than those shows. The program is based on characters created for Vertigo Comics by Neil Gaiman (Sandman). The characters also previously appeared in the recent Doom Patrol show, but there they were played by different actors,

Dead Boy Detectives is also connected to the excellent Sandman show, and the incarnation of Death from that series appears in the first episode, and Despair shows up later in the series. But this is not up to the level of excellence of that series (more episodes of that Netflix series are coming soon.) The reason that this show is not as high quality might be that Gaiman was not directly involved in the Dead Boy Detectives as he was in Sandman. The person in charge here is Steve Yockney best known for producing the CW's Supernatural, which could be quite good although it went on too long and the more recent The Flight Attendant.

At the risk of sounding like a mature comic snob, it seems like the TV shows based on characters from DC spin-off imprints such as The Boys (which originated at DC), Doom Patrol, Preacher, and Swamp Thing have all usually been smarter and more outstanding than the CW-TV programs more rooted in the main DC Universe like The Flash, Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow. An exception are the DC animated shows like Batman: The Animated Series and Justice League Unlimited which captured the spirits of the comics perfectly.

Dead Boy Detectives has ten episodes so far and I would not be surprised if it got a second season. Each one’s title begins with “The Case of…” and revolves around a different mystery although it also develops subplots often involved the love life of the characters spanning several episodes.

Edwin (George Rexstrew) and Charles (Jayden Revri) are specters, and their dress style, thinking and speech patterns are antiquated because they both died long ago. The more modern Charles passed in the 80’s but the Edwardian one Edwin expired over a century ago. Charles is interesting because he was into the culture of his time and still has punky green hair and wears punk and ska patches on his jackets. Both characters are affected in their afterlives by their previous lives and deaths. Edwin has perished in a hazing accident, and he still has flashbacks of his torture at the hands of his sadistic school mates who could not accept that he was different. Part of this might be because they notice his homosexual orientation or perceived femininity. Conversely, Charles who is usually more upbeat was killed in a prank while all his friends laughed at him. He explains that he is always smiling and upbeat despite his pain he must make up for his dour partner and he wants to hold everything together.

Like other great mystery solving couples like Holmes and Watson or Mulder and Scully, the two are opposite in some ways. Edwin is cerebral, morose, proper, and formal while Charles is more spontaneous and action oriented. It’s like putting together a punk and a dandy. The third main member of the cast who is introduced early on is Crystal Palace (what a great name) who is a still alive psychic who has a demonic stalker ex-boyfriend, David (played by David Iacono) who possesses her and occasionally comes out to advise her or annoy her. But he is not totally evil.

At first Edwin resents Crystal’s presence and how she disturbs the dynamic between the brothers, but David instantly likes her and wants her to join their team. This turns out to be a good thing because her psychic abilities and the fact she is still alive prove useful in some cases. Crystal complains a lot because she must pay rent, and the crew does not make much money. Like the Detective Agency in the Buffy spin-off Angel, they are more into helping people than making a profit. A recurrent joke is that the agency’s clients often want to pay with only marginally useful magical objects. One client pays with saltwater taffy and a Magic 8 Ball that's cursed and provides only useless information, such as telling you when you will die which is useless to already dead ghosts.

The show throws fan culture people a bone when they introduce the fourth member of the crew, Nico (Yuyu Kitamura) who the others are not eager to accept, She is charmingly wide eyed, innocent and optimistic and feels she is qualified to solve mysteries because she has watched every major Asian anime detective show and played crime solving game. Sometimes she talks like she is in a fun video game. She hopes that she can teach him some new detective tricks by getting him to watch Scooby Doo cartoons. Nico is the most down to earth and hopelessly romantic character who publicly declares two starfish must be in love because they are next to each other, But Edwin who is a bit of a party pooper correctly tells her that creatures that do not have brains cannot feel passions or love. She responds that lovers are always seen as brainless by outsiders.

As the series progresses, they gradually keep introducing more supporting characters that hang around. Hopefully, the show will not end up like Supergirl focusing to its determent on a thousand supporting characters no one cared about rather than the Woman of Steel. But so far, the added characters have proven interesting, and some are even worthy of their own episodes or shows. The Cat King (Lucas Gage) is a lord of felines who is a cat in human form. He wants Edwin to be his lover (they are both gay) and schemes to connect with him, the other side characters are similarly weird and wacky including an older witch Esther (Jenn Lyon) who keeps kids prisoners to feed off their youth and Tragic Mick (Michael Beach) a walrus who has been transformed into a man and wants to reverse the spell. There are also two mischievous magical sprites that the detectives kept in a fishing bowl which taunt the main characters and provide comic relief. they are reminiscent of Doctor Pretorius' miniature humans in James Whales’ Bride of Frankenstein.

Like many Vertigo Comics and the shows derived from them, the show features some gay themes and characters. Edwin still understandably represses his homosexual urges because this was such a big taboo which he was still alive (look what happened to Oscar Wilde.) With this added layer the romantic subplots are extremely complicated. David grows increasingly enamored with Crystal and she still has emotional ties to her stalker/possessor. Also, Edwin clearly has a crush on David and the evil Cat King who has romantic designs on Edwin and at one point turns into David so he can attract Davis.

The show is sometimes hard to follow, and it feels overstuffed-with more ideas and characters than necessary. It would probably be helpful for prospective viewers to read some of the comics. I know that is a lot to ask from some of its post-literate youthful audience members. But Dead Boy Detectives is a lively escapist romp focused on dead characters. If it stays focused on the main three characters and does not lose its way, it should continue to be a fun if not essential viewing experience. It is hard to resist a show with caustic talking cats that comment on the action and ferocious killer dandelions.