Netflix Gets Rave Reviews On Rotten Tomatoes Over New DC Series

There were a lot of obstacles to getting Dead Boy Detectives made, but it seems like the effort was worth the wait. Robert Lloyd of the Los Angeles Times said, “If there’s nothing groundbreaking here, it’s all uncommonly well done — cleverly written, smartly cast, sensitively played, marvelously realized.” Meanwhile, Liz Shannon Miller from Consequence said, “Dead Boy Detectives shows us a new and improved evolution on the old CW brand, delivering something unapologetically queer, funny, sad, and engaging (with the added bonus of visual effects that feel like a definite step up).”

And those are just some of the critic reviews, who have so far been harder on Dead Boy Detectives than audiences. Overall, it seems like the series is a fun supernatural show that fans of DC Comics, along with fans of shows like Supernatural, Lucifer, The X Files, and other supernatural procedurals, might appreciate. It also seems like the series has some YA leanings, which means it could definitely bring in an expansive audience. 

Dead Boy Detectives is a supernatural detective series that follows Charles Rowland (Jayden Revri) and Edwin Paine (George Rexstrew), who stay on Earth to investigate supernatural crimes rather than go on to the afterlife after dying. Along with stars Jayden Revri and George Rextrew, the cast includes Kassius Nelson, Briana Cuoco, Ruth Connell, Yuyu Kitamura, and Jenn Lyon.

For those unfamiliar with Dead Boy Detectives, the two characters were actually introduced in the Season of Mists storyline in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman #25. Gaiman would then bring the characters back for appearances in other comics before they eventually got their own four-issue mini-series in 2001 titled Sandman Presents: Dead Boy Detectives written by Ed Brubaker and penciled by Byran Talbot. The characters have also made appearances in other series as well.

Neil Gaiman himself confirmed that Dead Boy Detectives is set in the same universe as Netflix’s Sandman series, and you might even get to see some characters from that series pop up. Of course, it wasn’t easy for this arrangement to come to pass since Sandman is a DC property and Warner Bros Discovery originally green-lit a series for Max. The series was set to be a spin-off of Doom Patrol after Sebastian Croft and Ty Tennant played Rowland and Paine in that series. 

However, the Dead Boy Detectives series got moved to Netflix, reportedly because it didn’t fit with James Gunn and Peter Safran’s new DCU plans. Eventually things got ironed out and Netflix was free to pull from the Sandman universe for the series.

Dead Boy Detectives should also make the wait for Sandman Season 2 a little easier. There’s no word yet on when we can expect that series to return, but at least we know we’ll be getting more episodes. Stay tuned and we’ll keep you updated on Sandman, Dead Boy Detectives, and all things DC.