- Network: Netflix
- Series Premiere Date: Apr 25, 2024
Critic Reviews
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
I’m never going to be the one to complain about a showcase for supernatural mysteries. I do wish, however, that “Dead Boy Detectives” had more focus, and that some of those mysteries were more compelling. And someone just give the Cat King his own show.
-
It is good escapist fun. It gets the job of entertaining done so efficiently that it seems wrongheaded to want it to be better.
-
The more serialized aspects are hit-or-miss, with some subplots and characters feeling extraneous and meandering, even while strong performances help elevate the threats posed by its villains.
-
Something tells me most people who watch the show will agree we could have left the cringey exclamations of "brills!" out of the script. Despite this, and some characters who didn't pack as much of a punch as they could have, the series has heart and depth, and it's a convincing expansion of the Sandman universe, which is more than can be said for many recent spin-offs.
-
Despite its faults, "Dead Boy Detectives" seems dead set on providing passable, spectral entertainment even for those unfamiliar with the series (both of them) on which it's based. It's just a shame it doesn't feel like it has an identity of its own.
-
That the series begins without an origin story, with details dribbling out as the narrative flows, is calculated to distract from what a viewer instinctively needs and which isn't much to ask for—a set of guidelines about the who, the where and the what. The Dead Boys are entertaining, sure. But enough with the questions.
-
The main foursome is likable enough screen company, but they are hamstrung by weak writing.
-
There’s stuff to like here: The White Lotus’s Lukas Gage is plenty of fun as one of the show’s more memorable villains, the Cat King, who seems to have burst straight out of a cursed production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber show, and Rexstrew and Revri are charming leads. But it’s not enough to make you want to stick with the convoluted, but somehow still predictable, plotting.