Dead Boy Detectives Season 1 Review: A Charming but Restrained Supernatural Teen Dramedy

Dead Boy Detectives is a charming, queer, and wildly fun teen supernatural detective dramedy. The series is certain to please fans of the DC comics that inspired it, as well as newcomers looking for a show in the same vein as Lockwood & Co. or The Winchesters.

Set in the same universe as Netflix’s The Sandman, the show follows two deceased schoolboys, Edwin Payne and Charles Rowland, who passed away at the same boys’ school 70 years apart.

After his death in 1916, Edwin was sent to Hell on a technicality before escaping and lingering in the school until Rowland’s death in 1989. Together, the pair decide to evade Death and remain on Earth to solve supernatural cases and help restless souls find the peace they need to make it to the afterlife.

The show features two Sandman cameos, including Kirby Howell-Baptiste’s kind incarnation of Death. While the cameos are enough to stir excitement and remind viewers of the shared universe, Dead Boy Detectives stands well on its own.

It does boast some of the gothic morbidity and surrealism of The Sandman but is quite a few notches lighter in tone and spirit.

The show earns the label of a “YA series,” given that it primarily functions as a teen drama with a dark, supernatural twist. Its youthful spirit makes the show very fun and pure entertainment, though it also means the show doesn’t go as deep or dark as some viewers may have hoped.

Dead Boy Detectives‘ quality depends on one’s perspective. When viewing it in comparison to similar teen-oriented series, it’s quite exceptional, standing several steps above the typical CW series in quality and depth.

One of the main highlights of the series is its top-notch performances. George Rexstrew and Jayden Revri embody the dead boys exceptionally well, almost making viewers believe they stepped straight out of their respective time periods.

They are two charming, charismatic, funny, and endearing leads. However, some of the best performances come from characters viewers don’t get to see quite enough of.

Briana Cuoco’s Jenny Green will resonate with older viewers of the show as the town’s jaded butcher who finds herself exasperated but secretly pleased when forced to take on a motherly role for the show’s teens.

Despite her hard outward appearance, she’s one of the most human characters, struggling to give love a shot and feeling a sense of duty to protect the young girls renting rooms in her shop. It’s difficult not to want to peel back more layers of the woman and her story.

Lukas Gage’s Cat King is also a pleasant surprise, as the elements of absurdity and pity make the queer villain quite an intriguing puzzle to crack.

The show also does a decent job storywise. The pacing is adequate, and Dead Boy Detectives effectively maintains an overarching story arc while also featuring a new mystery in every episode.

Its decision to feature a new case in each episode is quite interesting. On the one hand, it adds uniqueness to each episode, but it also takes away much mystery and suspense to have every case neatly tied up at the end of every episode.

Meanwhile, the new cases in each episode also remind viewers that the overarching story is not complex and interesting enough to sustain the entire show.

The central plot involves Crystal Palace attempting to shake a demon who possessed her and get back the memories he stole. Meanwhile, Edwin and Charles try to lift a spell that keeps them restricted to Crystal’s new hometown, as a witch pursues them.

The whole story is largely a matter of several characters being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Hence, just as the characters are unnaturally forced together, the story feels like a bunch of mismatched subplots unnaturally forced together.

Of the main plot and subplots, the most interesting one is Edwin’s story. The show honors the LGBTQ+ representation in the comics by making Dead Boy Detectives a queer romance inside a supernatural mystery.

Throughout the series, viewers explore Edwin’s story, from being a victim of a vicious prank to escaping Hell to grappling with his repressed feelings for Charles. The story is handled positively and delicately, ending with whole-hearted acceptance of Edwin’s identity.

In fact, the series is always at its best when exploring the dead boys’ past, including raising the question of how these boys decide to remain on and help Earth despite being victims of abuse and hate inflicted on them by the living world.

Unfortunately, it only scratches the surface when delving into the themes of mortality, abuse, trauma, discrimination, and identity. Instead, it forgoes more serious concepts to focus on lighter topics like the power of friendship.

Ultimately, Dead Boy Detectives‘ light-hearted and teen-oriented nature makes it a wildly fun series that delves deeper into supernatural shenanigans than teen issues.

However, choosing to go in the YA show direction means it fails to grasp the level of drama and complexity that its morbid premise made possible.

It’s a great and entertaining show, but there’s always an underlying sense that it’s not quite as impactful, original, and influential as it could be.

What did you think of this season of Dead Boy Detectives? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Dead Boy Detectives Season 1 is streaming now on Netflix.

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