Dead Boy Detectives (TV series)

Dead Boy Detectives
Genre	Comedy-drama Occult detective Supernatural horror
Based on	Dead Boy Detectives by Neil Gaiman     Matt Wagner
Developed by	Steve Yockey
Showrunners	Steve Yockey Beth Schwartz
Starring	George Rexstrew Jayden Revri Kassius Nelson Briana Cuoco Ruth Connell Yuyu Kitamura Jenn Lyon
Music by	Blake Neely Murat Selçuk
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	8
Production
Executive producers	Neil Gaiman David Madden Lee Toland Krieger Jeremy Carver Beth Schwartz Steve Yockey Sarah Schechter Greg Berlanti Leigh London Redman
Producers	Joanie Woehler Carl Ogawa Chris Pavoni Kristy Lowrey Joshua Conkel
Production location	Langley, Canada
Cinematography	Pierre Gill Marc Laliberté Craig Powell
Editors	Brian Wessel Troy Takaki Imelda Betiong
Running time	52–56 minutes
Production companies	Berlanti Productions Ghost Octopus DC Entertainment Warner Bros. Television
Original release
Network	Netflix
Release	April 25, 2024 (2024-04-25)
Related
The Sandman

Dead Boy Detectives is an American supernatural horror detective comedy-drama television series developed by Steve Yockey based on the DC Comics characters of the same name by Neil Gaiman and Matt Wagner. The series stars George Rexstrew, Jayden Revri, Kassius Nelson, Briana Cuoco, Ruth Connell, Yuyu Kitamura and Jenn Lyon, and follows Charles Rowland and Edwin Payne, who decided not to enter the afterlife and instead stay on Earth to investigate crimes that involve the supernatural.

Plans for a television series began in September 2021, when a pilot was ordered by HBO Max for a TV series based on Gaiman's Dead Boy Detectives comics. The series was given greenlight by April 2022. However, it was moved to Netflix in February 2023. Gaiman later confirmed the series would be set in the same continuity as The Sandman, with Kirby set to reprise her role as Death in the series.

Dead Boy Detectives premiered on Netflix on April 25, 2024. The series received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its writing, directing and tone, as well as the performances of the cast and visuals.

Premise

The series follows the ghosts of Charles Rowland and Edwin Payne who decided not to enter the afterlife and instead stay on Earth to investigate crimes that involve the supernatural.

Cast and characters

Main

• George Rexstrew as Edwin Payne, a ghost detective who was killed in 1916 when his classmates performed a sacrifice ritual only as a prank to scare him, but inadvertently summoned a demon who took him to Hell
• Jayden Revri as Charles Rowland, Edwin's partner at the Agency who died in 1989 from hypothermia and internal bleeding
• Kassius Nelson as Crystal Palace, a psychic medium able to see ghosts
• Briana Cuoco as Jenny Green, a butcher and owner of the Tongue & Tail butcher shop who rents out the rooms upstairs to Crystal and Niko
• Ruth Connell as Night Nurse, a woman who runs the Afterlife's Lost and Found Department handling misplaced dead children. Connell had played the role of the Night Nurse before, in the Doom Patrol episode "Dead Patrol" – the first TV appearance of the Dead Boy Detectives
• Yuyu Kitamura as Niko Sasaki, a young girl and anime fan who lives across the hall from Crystal and becomes able to see ghosts after a near-death experience
• Jenn Lyon as Esther Finch, an immortal witch in Port Townsend seeking revenge against the Dead Boy Detectives after they rescued one of her victims

Recurring

• David Iacono as David the Demon, a demon who previously possessed and now stalks Crystal
• Lukas Gage as the Cat King, a magical cat able to take on human form, who puts a spell on Edwin that prevents him from leaving Port Townsend
• Michael Beach as Tragic Mick, a walrus cursed into a human's body who runs a shop for magical artifacts
• Joshua Colley as Monty, Esther's crow familiar who she gave human form to
• Max Jenkins as Kingham, a Dandelion Sprite kept in an enchanted jar
• Caitlin Reilly as Litty, a Dandelion Sprite kept in an enchanted jar
• Lindsey Gort as Maxine, a librarian and Jenny's secret admirer

Notable guests

The following actors reprised their roles from The Sandman (2022–present):

• Kirby as Death, a member of the Endless who the Dead Boy Detectives work to evade
• Donna Preston as Despair

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date	Prod. code
1	"The Case of Crystal Palace"	Lee Toland Krieger	Steve Yockey	April 25, 2024 (2024-04-25)	T11.10148
Ghosts Edwin Payne and Charles Rowland successfully help a World War I-era ghost move on to their afterlife, before hiding to evade Death. The ghost of a Victorian girl arrives at the Dead Boy Detective Agency shortly after with the intent of hiring Edwin and Charles to rescue a psychic named Crystal Palace from demonic possession. The Detectives successfully exorcise the demon David from Crystal, who stays at the agency. A missing child poster of girl scout Becky Aspen delivered to the agency leads Edwin, Charles, and Crystal to Port Townsend, Washington. Crystal rents a room above the Tongue & Tail butcher shop run by Jenny Green as Crystal later meets her neighbor Niko Sasaki. With the help of Crystal's psychic powers and information extracted from a local gray cat, they find that Becky is being held by a witch named Esther Finch. Edwin and Charles break into Esther's house while she's lured away by Crystal to rescue Becky, extracting her from a hidden basement containing a large snake. Esther returns from the lure and fights them, overpowering Edwin and Charles, which leads Crystal to use her psychic powers to look into Esther's mind, where she sees a vision of Esther and a woman in an ocean of blood. To allow them to escape, Charles possesses Esther briefly. Esther retreats into her house stating that they have opened a can of worms. Becky is reunited with her parents with her memories of her captivity erased. Charles' possession sets off the Afterlife's Lost and Found Department as it's leader Night Nurse states that she has found the Dead Boy Detectives.
2	"The Case of the Dandelion Shrine"	Glen Winter	Shoshana Sachi & Cheech Manohar	April 25, 2024 (2024-04-25)	T12.17652
After thwarting Esther, Edwin, Charles, and Crystal are confronted by the gray cat that Edwin leashed and are taken to the Cat King. Offended by Edwin using the binding spell on one of his cat subjects, the Cat King gets Edwin alone. While fascinated by Edwin, the Cat King places a bracelet associated with a caging spell that prevents him from leaving Port Washington. As one of the ways for the Cat King to remove the bracelet from him, Edwin must count every cat in Port Washington. Edwin is then returned to Charles and Crystal. Back at the apartment, Edwin mentions to Crystal that he'll be sent back to Hell and Charles will be sent to the afterlife if Death catches them. Upon leaving the bathroom, Crystal encounters Niko who emits a pink aura before collapsing. A doctor is called in and claims that Niko got dehydrated when called in by Crystal and Jenny. At a magic shop owned by Tragic Mick who claims that he is a walrus trapped in the form of a human, Edwin and Charles learn that only the caster of the caging spell bracelet can remove the bracelet. After Edwin and Charles leave, Esther comes in having overheard them and buys something from Tragic Mick that she claims is a "revenge starter kit". After Charles gets the book in question upon mirror-hopping the office, they find a match of Niko's symptoms and discover that Niko is possessed by Dandelion Sprites. As Edwin and Charles go to the sight of where there were dandelions during one of Niko's outings, Crystal is left to take care of her as Niko vomits a rainbow vomit. Upon arrival at a field of dandelions, Edwin uses special lenses to read the rubbed-off inscription about the dandelion sprites. When the local skeletons rise, Edwin and Charles run off while smashing the urn that used to control them on the head of the local skeletons. At the Afterlife's Lost and Found Department, Night Nurse learns the identities of Edwin and Charles as she plans to obtain them once they are found. As Niko's condition worsens by the time Edwin and Charles return, Crystal tricks the Dandelion Sprites Kingham and Litty into entering her body only for Edwin to trap them in a jar. After recuperating, Niko now sees Edwin and Charles. As a side effect of their work, the Dead Boy Detectives receive a lot of clients from Port Washington's ghost community. Back at her house, Esther puts her plan in motion while ranting about the Dead Boy Detectives still being in Port Washington and what the Cat King did to Edwin. Doing a specific spell, Esther turns her crow familiar Monty into a young human.
3	"The Case of the Devlin House"	Cheryl Dunye	Ian Weinreich & Kristy Lowrey	April 25, 2024 (2024-04-25)	T12.17653
The Dead Boy Detectives go through a lot of ghost clients. They take a case from Susan Kessler whose sister Stacy and nieces Hope and Hannah were killed by her brother-in-law Brandon Devlin. When asked about the Devlin murders, Jenny told Crystal what she knows about it through gossip as she was very young when it happened. Edwin disguises himself as Niko's aunt to visit the library where the librarian Maxine gives them information on the Devlin murders that haven't been digitized yet. The Tongue & Tail is visited by Esther who came to purchase tallow. When Crystal asked her about the gigantic bloody woman she previously saw, Esther mentions that she got her longevity from Lilith. Esther gets her order from Jenny and leaves. As Edwin and Niko leave the library, they bump into Monty who claims that he can see Edwin after being in a short coma. At the Afterlife's Lost and Found Department, Night Nurse is unable to get travel approval from the notary due to the information she lacks on the Dead Boy Detectives' sighting. With the Devlin House being demolished, Edwin, Charles, and Crystal go there and enter it as the grey cat and the tabby cat watch everything from the window. As "Owner of a Lonely Heart" plays in the background, they see Brandon confronting Stacy and his daughters Hope and Hannah about the letter he found regarding Hudson where he takes an axe to them before going upstairs and committing suicide by gunshot. Then the scenario plays over and over again. It is then discovered that they family is in a time loop as Charles soon gets trapped when he tries to intervene. After finding out that Hope was accepted into Hudson University which set off the murder-suicide and time loop, Edwin and Crystal find Brandon's secret room where "Owner of a Lonely Heart" was playing and surveillance monitors. If they destroy the VHS, they will break the loop and then leave the house as quickly as they can before Death shows up. Just then, they see a Misery Wraith emerge. Crystal is then contacted by David who tries to get Crystal to let him back into her body so that he can fight off the Misery Wraith. With the VHS erased, Edwin proceeds to drag Crystal out of the secret room and trap the Misery Wraith. With the time loop broken, Edwin, Charles, and Crystal run out of the house as Death enters the house and takes the family to the afterlife. Niko shows up late due to the taunting of the Dandelion Sprites as she wields pots and pans to bang which she read on the Internet. With the Misery Spirit trapped, it will be awhile before it dies from lack of misery as the group meets Monty. From outside the Tongue & Tail, the grey cat and the tabby cat watch from the alley before being driven away by Esther who threatens to call animal control on them. Back at the Afterlife's Lost and Found Department, Night Nurse is called into a room where she meets Hope and Hannah Devlin. Having been informed that both sisters have been missing for 29 years, Night Nurse hears about how the Dead Boy Detectives saved the Devlin sisters.
4	"The Case of the Lighthouse Leapers"	Andi Armaganian	Joshua Conkel & Kristin Layne Tucker	April 25, 2024 (2024-04-25)	T12.17654
After Crystal and Niko pay their rent to Jenny who is looking at secret admirer letters, they are visited by a ghost fisherman. Edwin and Charles are introduced to the ghost fisherman Dagfinn who needs them to get the ghosts out of his lighthouse. He offers a payment in saltwater taffy and a magic 8-ball that can tell anyone when they are going to die. As the ghosts are seen, Edwin is diverted by a visit from the Cat King who says that he has miscounted the cats. Meanwhile, Night Nurse has arrived in Port Townsend. Crystal begins to hear the voice of a woman and nearly falls to her death only for Charles to grab her. An elderly gift shop owner named Asha tells Niko about the legend of the Washer Woman, the legend of Lilith, and the legend about specific mermaids who lure men to their doom. With the Dead Boy Detectives getting the information they need, Crystal nearly falls for the same voice again as Niko grabs her. Edwin and Charles see something moving beneath the waves. After their next encounter with Monty, Niko gives Edwin a red sea glass as he recites the riddle of the Washer Woman as they get a riddle from her about a sea monster that's larger than the mermaids in question. Before ending up back in the real world, Crystal gets a riddle from the Washer Woman about how to regain her memories that goes as "The ground moves and the bird cries. Stop looking without and look within". The Dead Boy Detectives then visit Tragic Mick's magic shop where they are looking for something that can kill a sea monster. Meanwhile, Night Nurse arrives at the Tongue & Tail and uses her tricks to get information on where to find Crystal. Back at Tragic Mick's magic shop, the group is told by Tragic Mick that the sea monster is named Angie who he never found when he was still a walrus and states that they need to put her back to sleep. Charles manages to find a music box for that. Later that night, Edwin, Charles, Crystal, and Niko prepare to deal with Angie as they run into Night Nurse who has arrived to take Edwin and Charles back to the afterlife. Crystal touches her and sees a giant skeleton with infant arms coming out of her ribs. After making Charles relive his tragic life and death, Night Nurse is struck with the music box by him many times until she falls off the wall and is swallowed by the anglerfish-like Angie. The next day, Dagfinn thanks the Dead Boy Detectives for their good work and gives them their payment. Niko sees Tragic Mick on the shores looking for a red sea glass. As Edwin and Niko watch Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? on her computer, Charles and Crystal make out with each other.
5	"The Case of the Two Dead Dragons"	Amanda Tapping	Kelli Breslin & Jeremy Kaufman	April 25, 2024 (2024-04-25)	T12.17655
6	"The Case of the Creeping Forest"	Glen Winter	Beth Schwartz & Oscar Balderrama	April 25, 2024 (2024-04-25)	T12.17656
7	"The Case of the Very Long Stairway"	Richard Speight Jr.	Steve Yockey	April 25, 2024 (2024-04-25)	T12.17657
8	"The Case of the Hungry Snake"	Pete Chatmon	Ross Maxwell	April 25, 2024 (2024-04-25)	T12.17658

Production

Development

On September 3, 2021, Variety reported that HBO Max ordered a pilot for a potential Dead Boy Detectives series, then-intended as a spin-off of Doom Patrol, with Steve Yockey as writer and executive-producer alongside Jeremy Carver, Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, and David Madden. On April 14, 2022, HBO Max gave the production a series order, with Yockey set as showrunner; Beth Schwartz was attached as co-showrunner that September. By February 24, 2023, the project was moved from HBO Max to Netflix, reportedly due to being incompatible with DC Studios co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran's plans to have HBO Max's DC shows be set in the DC Universe, as well as due to HBO Max's inability to air the series before 2024.

On April 20, 2023, Neil Gaiman confirmed the series would be set in the same universe as The Sandman; Gaiman was announced as an additional executive-producer that November. While the producers had always planned for the series to be set in the same universe as The Sandman, which aired on Netflix, Warner Bros. (parent of HBO Max, DC Comics Studios and Dead Boy Detectives publisher Vertigo Comics) did not allow them to use elements from that series when Dead Boy Detectives was still an HBO Max project, to avoid licensing issues with Netflix. As such, the showrunners instead included broad connections between both shows that still established them as part of the same continuity while only "lightly tipto[ing] around and through the Sandman universe". After the project moved to Netflix, the showrunners incorporated characters and more overt connection to The Sandman at the behest of both Netflix and Sandman showrunner Allan Heinberg.

Casting

In November 2021, George Rexstrew, Jayden Revri, Kassius Nelson, Alexander Calvert, Briana Cuoco, Ruth Connell, Yuyu Kitamura, and Jenn Lyon were cast. Lukas Gage replaced Calvert in September 2022. In October 2022, Michael Beach, Joshua Colley, and Lindsey Gort joined the cast in recurring capacities. A month later, Caitlin Reilly, Max Jenkins, and David Iacono were cast. In April 2024, Kirby said she would be reprising her Sandman role as Death.

Filming

The pilot episode was filmed between December 2021 and January 2022, with Lee Toland Krieger directing and executive-producing. Filming for the series began on November 7, 2022, in Langley, British Columbia, and concluded on April 5, 2023.

Release

Dead Boy Detectives was released on Netflix on April 25, 2024.

Reception

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 93% approval rating with an average rating of 7.5/10, based on 45 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Dead Boy Detectives expands the Sandman universe with an addictively entertaining paranormal fantasy with excitement, romance, and young adult angst to spare." Metacritic assigned a score of 65 out of 100 based on 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

External links

• Dead Boy Detectives on Netflix
• Dead Boy Detectives at IMDb