Ivan Radford | On 28, Apr 2024

From Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Scooby Doo, there’s always been something appealing about watching young adults run about solving spooky goings-on. Which is why Netflix’s disappointing decision to cancel its teenage paranormal detective series Lockwood & Co last year was such a surprise. Even more of a surprise? The fact that it’s now released another teenage paranormal detective series, Dead Boy Detectives.

The show has had a curious past, beginning originally over at HBO Max as a spin-off from Doom Patrol. Bought by Netflix last year, it’s now emerged as a series set within the same universe as The Sandman – Netflix’s gorgeous fantasy drama based on Neil Gaiman’s DC comic series. (Watch out early on for the fabulous Kirby Howell-Baptiste briefly reprising her role as Death from The Sandman.) With exec-producers including Gaiman and CW veteran Greg Berlanti, the result is somewhere between The Sandman and Riverdale, or a light-hearted Constantine.

George Rexstrew and Jayden Revri star as Edwin and Charles, two teenagers who died in the 1910s and the 1980s respectively. Flashbacks gradually reveal their backstories – Edwin died in a ritual-gone-wrong carried out by school bullies, while Charles is a forward-thinking radical compared to his stick-in-the-mood Victorian partner. Edwin is studio and methodical. Charles acts before thinking – and carries a cricket bat. The thing they have in common? They’re hanging around in the after-limbo, helping other ghosts and cracking cases delivered by a mysterious postman.

From the opening case – involving a haunted gas mask – the dial is set firmly to “quirky”, and the fast-paced shenanigans are entertainingly daft, without skimping on unsettling flashes of horror. When their second case sees them help out a living human, their double-act becomes a threesome, with the addition of medium Crystal (Kassius Nelson) to their agency. The opening episode is a bit too haphazard in its attempt to catch us up to the show’s breakneck speed, with exposition thrown about amid one-liner quips with a lot of noticeable effort. But Crystal is the ingredient that makes the show’s spell work and helps its settle into a groove.

The cast are charming, with Rextrew and Revri sporting the easygoing chemistry of partners who know each other all too well. The introduction of Lukas Gage’s sultry, sinister villain the Cat King threatens to drive a wedge between them, which feels a lot less believable, but gives Gage a chance to have a whole heap of fun. As more characters begin to chew the scenery – a magnetic Jenn Lyon as a vengeful witch, a chilling David Iacono as a coercive demon called Dave, the entertaining Briana Cuoco as Jenny, Kassius’ implausibly patient landlord, a lightly comic Yuyu Kitamura as Niko, who gets on the wrong side of a dandelion, and Ruth Connell as the demanding Night Nurse, who wants to find the Dead Boy Detectives – the crowded show begins to teeter back into less consistent territory. It’s Kassius Nelson, however, who helps to ground events, balancing sarcastic humour that cuts through the lead duo’s interplay with her own painful history.

If the eight-part first season can keep unpacking her character arc, Dead Boy Detectives has real potential to be a fun, flippant romp. But don’t be surprised if the ghost of Lockwood & Co still haunts you every time the end credits roll.

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