Dead Boy Detectives (TV Series) The Case of Crystal Palace (2024) User Reviews

If Sherlock hunted Ghosts.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 8/10 · 5 May 2024]

Best friends Edwin and Charles run The Dead Boy Detective Agency, they're asked to come to the aid of a medium named Crystal Palace. The trio end up travelling to The US, to hunt for a missing girl.

Ten minutes in, I absolutely hated it, I felt as though I was watching a kid's show with bad language ... however, I stuck with it, and I found myself putting my phone down, and engaging with it, by the end of it, I was keen to watch the second episode.

This has somehow slipped through the net, the kind of show I would watch, I just wasn't aware of it, it popped up randomly on Netflix.

Very much like a cross between Sherlock and Ghostbusters, fun and entertaining.

It's very camp and over the top, The Witch for example was hilarious.

Way better than expected.

8/10.

Not The Sandman

[cmthomps-28253 · 6/10 · 25 April 2024]

I love The Sandman and was hopeful that this would be in the same vein.

It's very Netflix - if you've watched Sabrina, you'll get similar vibes. It's not bad but as a 33 year old I don't think I'm the right audience for it.

It's pretty bad about telling you instead of showing. It also spells things out even when they're super obvious - eg Death is about to come to claim a ghost and one says "We have to hide before Death comes to collect him" followed by "or she will take us too".

This kind of overly explanatory stuff might be ok if you're a pre-teen or teenager but as an adult it gets tiresome.

The Case of Crystal Palace

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 28 April 2024]

A spin off from Neil Gaiman's The Sandman. This is camp crossover of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) and Ghostbusters.

Edwin Paine and Charles Rowland are the Dead Boy Detectives. They are dead (in different time periods) but have avoided the afterlife to they can solve supernatural cases on Earth.

The first episode see them come to the rescue of a psychic called Crystal Palace. She was possessed by her boyfriend, a demon who took her memories.

Only Crystal has a vision of a missing girl, Becky Aspen. Crystal believes that Becky is alive but surrounded by death.

They all go to America to look for Becky.

This was a breezy opener with enough appropriate flashbacks. It was a jolt to see Charles going to see his elderly parents from outside their home. He was killed in the 1990s and his parents are still alive. While Edwin was meant to be a sacrifice by his public school chums back in 1916.

There was an inherent cheapness to the production. Although the main actors are British, it is shot in Canada. No wonder the story quickly moved to the USA.