Dead Boy Detectives

“Dead Boy Detectives portrays a wide range of LGBTQ experiences that can help queer people feel seen at any point on their journeys of self-discovery.”

Title: Dead Boy Detectives
Episodes Reviewed: Season 1
Creators: Steve Yockey 👨🏼🇺🇸 and Beth Schwartz 👩🏼🇺🇸
Writers: Steve Yockey 👨🏼🇺🇸 (1 ep), Cheech Manohar 👨🏽🇦🇺 (1 ep), Oscar Balderrama 👨🏽🇺🇸 (1 ep), Ross Maxwell 👨🏼🇺🇸 (1 ep), Shoshana Sachi 👩🏽🇳🇿 (1 ep), and Beth Schwartz 👩🏼🇺🇸 (1 ep) based on the comics by Neil Gaiman 👨🏼🇬🇧 and Matt Wagner 👨🏼🇺🇸

Reviewed by Sam 🧑🏻🇺🇸🏳️‍🌈

—SPOILERS AHEAD—

Technical: 4/5

Even before it premiered on Netflix, there were high expectations for Dead Boy Detectives. Some folks first met the titular characters of Edwin Paine and Charles Rowland in Max’s Doom Patrol, a DC Comics series taking place in the same universe. Others are long-time readers of the comic upon which Dead Boys Detectives is based. Still more are fans of The Sandman, another Neil Gaiman-created story about supernatural mysteries—also in the same world. These audiences had reason to look forward to an expansion of stories they’d already enjoyed, and thankfully, they should be more than satisfied with this debut season.

It combines mystery and supernatural horror with a sprinkle of comedy and teen shenanigans. Edwin (George Rexstrew) and Charles (Jayden Revri) are ghost boys who run a detective agency. Eventually, Crystal Palace (Kassius Nelson), a psychic medium, and Niko Sasaki (Yuyu Kitamura), a person who can see ghosts after a near-death experience, join the two in their missions to solve cases around gloomy Port Townsend, Washington.

While early episodes are dedicated to solving standalone mysteries, the latter half of the season becomes more focused on combating the main villain, Esther (Jenn Lyon), an evil witch who wants to get revenge on the detectives for foiling her plans for eternal youth. Simultaneously, our intrepid heroes must escape the Night Nurse (Ruth Connell), a being from the afterlife who wants to chase down the ghosts to drag them into the afterlife, where they’re meant to be.

Balancing strong plot and character development, the series gives plenty of space to build compelling relationships, such as Niko and Edwin’s tight-knit friendship. Overall, this genre-bending show has gotten off on a solid start, leaving viewers wanting more otherworldly mysteries for this unlikely group of friends to solve.

Gender: 4/5
Does it pass the Bechdel Test? YES

Although the series ultimately centers around Edwin and Charles, it proudly presents a gender-balanced cast. Two of the main characters, Crystal and Niko, are women who each get their own backstories and story arcs. Well-rounded supporting characters such as the Night Nurse, Esther, and Jenny (Briana Cuoco), the landlord of the butcher shop Crystal and Niko reside in, also enjoy plenty of screen time. These women are allowed to be flawed, and in Crystal’s case, she even finds strength in her weakest moments, like when she briefly loses her psychic powers and has to look within her mind to regain control.

Several episodes also explore women’s issues. In “The Case of the Two Dead Dragons” (Season 1, Episode 5), the detectives investigate the murder of two male athletes. They soon discover that the jocks had mistreated women, causing one girl to end her life. By communicating with the mystery's true victims—not the murdered men, but the women whose lives they’d upended—Dead Boy Detectives is clear about who deserves empathy. When the dead athletes are delivered to their assignation in the afterlife (hell, of course), it's empowering to see justice prevail on screen, especially when so many abusers in real life go unpunished.

Esther’s story is another example of the show endorsing female solidarity. We’re introduced to the witch as a middle-aged woman with an insatiable desire to remain forever young by capturing and draining young girls of their essence. But when Crystal summons Lilith (Rochelle Okoye), the goddess of wronged women, and shows her the evils that Esther has been committing in her name, Lilith grows angry at how Esther perpetuates injustice against women in her name instead of supporting them.

The show’s ability to both present complicated female characters while addressing the need for more progress makes it a very woman-friendly show. Furthermore, all the women in the show have relationships with one another that don’t depend on male characters, like the dour Jenny and bubbly Niko’s adorable, unlikely friendship. It's refreshing to see such supportive female bonds within a teen show, a genre in which girls are commonly pitted against one another for the attentions of men, as in Pretty Little Liars. There, the main four female characters spend most of the show navigating love triangles and jealousy over male love interests. You’ll find no such in-fighting in Dead Boy Detectives.

Race: 4.5/5

Three of the main four characters are people of color, with each of their racial backgrounds addressed and integrated into their identities rather than ignored, They also each exist outside of their relationships with white characters.

Initially, I had worries about Niko, played by Japanese actress Kitamura. Introduced as an avid anime fan and recluse, the show thankfully gives her room to grow beyond her trope as a quirky Asian woman with brightly colored hair. Sure, Niko is sweet and agreeable, but she has a difficult relationship with her mother back home in Japan. She’s also given depth as someone who cares deeply about the people in her life, and her infectious joy soon makes her a compelling character, rather than a caricature of a Japanese otaku, or fangirl.

English and multiracial actress Nelson plays Crystal, and her journey to figure out her inner self involves accessing her ancestral plane and connecting with a council of her Black women ancestors. This supportive group sends a beautiful message about how embracing one’s heritage can lead to empowerment.

And then there’s Revri, who's English with Indian and Jamaican heritage, in the key role of Charles. In the show, Charles mentions that he’s half-Indian (like Revri) and flashbacks to Charles' death in the 1980s show a group of white boarding school boys bullying a Pakistani student. However, Charles never visibly struggles with his racial identity, instead demonstrating that he’s secure in his heritage and doesn’t see it as a hindrance. These details, which involve rather than ignore his race, ground his character. And with his many other attributes, such as a tendency to squash his darker feelings by putting on a cheerful face, he’s never defined by race either.

Finally, it’s important to note that Crystal and Charles are white in the comics. So the fact that the show cast actors of color, and—crucially—incorporated their race into each of their stories, is fantastic. This comfort level with portraying race onscreen might be a positive reflection of the series’ diverse writers room, with several writers of color working on Dead Boy Detectives' first season.

LGBTQ: 5/5

The show does an excellent job of normalizing LGBTQ characters by including several queer plotlines and relationships. Most notably, Edwin realizes throughout the season that he’s gay, thanks partly to Lukas Gage’s sultry rendition of the Cat King and the character’s sexual advances. It's a sobering but ultimately empowering journey to watch as Edwin combats decades of internalized homophobia. By the time he’s reconciled with his sexuality, his comfort level with himself feels hard-won.

While Edwin spends a lot of time working on accepting himself, he isn't alone on the journey. His friends support him along the way; Niko encourages him to pursue a romance with Monty (Joshua Colley), a crow-turned-human who shows interest in Edwin. Charles also wholeheartedly expresses support after Edwin comes out to him as queer. Centering queer characters is essential for great LGBTQ representation, but it’s just as crucial to show positive examples of allyship.

Another queer character is Jenny, who has an unfortunate romance with a secret admirer who turns out to be a stalker. Before the date with the admirer, Jenny is skeptical, not because she’s insecure about her sexuality but rather because she knows every woman in town and expresses doubts that her secret admirer would meet her expectations. By contrasting Edwin’s emerging sexuality with the Cat King and Jenny’s confidence in their own, the show portrays a wide range of LGBTQ experiences that can help queer people feel seen at any point in their self-exploration.

Mediaversity Grade: B+ 4.38/5

Haunted unsolved cases aside, Dead Boy Detectives is ultimately about friendship and discovering one’s identity. Characters are able to find power within their marginalized identities and receive support from one another. Having diverse writers behind the lens helps shape the way such storylines are tackled on screen, making the writing more nuanced overall.

While the show's future is uncertain, fans are hopeful that Netflix will renew it for a second season and continue a show that provides meaningful LGBTQ representation, as well as positive women and characters of color. Hopefully, there will be plenty more cases in store for our favorite ghostly detectives and their human friends to solve.

Like Dead Boy Detectives? Try these other offbeat supernatural series.

Grade: BLiMay 3, 2024Female/Nonbinary Creator, Great for: LGBTQ