Dead Boy Detectives – At Death’s Door

Edwin Paine (George Rexstrew) and Charles Rowland (Jayden Revri) are young men who both died and decided not to enter the afterlife and instead stay in the realm of the living to help the ghosts of those that no one cared about. Edwin and Charles are on the lam from Death and must avoid calling too much attention to themselves. They investigate crimes that involve the supernatural with the help of Crystal Palace, a psychic medium who can see ghosts.  Crystal was the subject of one of their investigations, as she was possessed by a demon and during their exorcism, he stole some of her memories leaving her not knowing who she is or where she lives or if she has family missing her.  The trio travel from London to America, to find a missing girl whose disappearance was from supernatural causes and the team gets trapped in Port Townsend, America by a spell cast by a cat (you read that right…a cat).  The first episode involves a witch who will play roles within future episode plotlines as will the demon named David who is stalking Crystal.

Dead Boy Detectives is based on comic book characters created in 1991 by writer Neil Gaiman and primarily appeared in the Vertigo’s Sandman comic book series.  This Netflix show is technically a spinoff of two series, HBO’s Doom Patrol, which had two different actors playing the parts, and The Sandman which premiered in 2022 with actors Kirby Howell-Baptiste reprising the role of Death and Donna Preston as Despair.  All episodes were mass released on April 25, 2024.  The series was originally set to stream on HBO Max but was moved to Netflix to not conflict with the DC Universe shows being developed by James Gunn and Peter Safran and the fact that HBO could not fit it into the 2024 schedule. Steve Yockey and Beth Schwartz remained the show runners with Greg Berlanti producing.

I really enjoyed the first episode as this show combines two of my favorite genres, murder mysteries and supernatural thrillers. The casting is spot on with the three leads doing a great job portraying the young detectives with their own troubled past and complex working relationships.  The music composed by Emmy award winning Blake Neely and Murat Selcuk is amazing and adds the appropriate emphasis to each scene heightening the emotional impact of the well written and intriguing script.  The plot moves at a good pace and has a quirky feel utilizing well placed flash backs to give the audience insight into the main characters’ past.  The pilot episode does a wonderful job in establishing who each character is, what their goal is and why Edwin and Charles remain in the land of the living.  The dynamics between the three leads are also interesting. Not knowing much about the source material or the characters sexual orientation, I get the feeling that Edwin has feelings for Charles that goes beyond friendship and is a bit jealous when Crystal comes on the scene, as Charles unsuccessfully attempts to woo her.  Overall, I loved the first episode and am definitely putting the show on my must watch list.