#crystal palace

[ndcgalitzine]

DEAD BOY DETECTIVES 1.01 "The Case of Crystal Palace" - 1.08 "The Case of the Hungry Snake"

[calypso-mbk]

I didn't believe it at first but after watching the show, Dead Boy Detectives was so obviously crafted to be catnip for the Tumblr girlies(gn), cause like. Homoerotic ghost detectives. Sassy psychics. Weird girls. Witches. A literal cat king. Sad twink that's actually a crow. Hot goth lesbian butchers. Slowburn ft. immortal beings. Gay confessions in hell. This show was crafted in a lab for us, and I LOVE IT. Go watch it if you haven't already.

[imchoccy]

2

[koresephone66]

the ✨bestie-ism✨ of this show >>>

[samsayswhatever]

A crow and a cat like a ghost who likes a ghost who likes a person who can talk to ghosts.

[neil-gaiman]

Crystal Palace Surname-Von Hoverkraft? I love the show and want to get the books if I can source them but like why you do Crystal dirty with that name 😂

I didn't. Crystal was created (and named) by the team of Toby Litt and Mark Buckingham, in the original Dead Boy Detectives comic series.

[watercubebee]

Mixed media for lady Crystal

[comicake]

what a team :3

[thenightling]

Dead boy Detectives review

I've watched all eight episodes of Dead Boy Detectives and it was a decent show. It's not something I may obsess over like The Sandman, or The Witcher, but it was decent.

Dead Boy Detectives is the story of Edwin Payne and Charles Rowland. Edwin was killed during a Satanic ritual in 1916. Charles died from hypothermia and internal bleeding after some bullies drove him into an ice-cold lake while throwing rocks at him.

(Note: That was not how Charles actually died in the source material. In the comics, Lucifer had quit and shut down Hell (the basis for the TV show Lucifer) so many evil souls returned to Earth, including the boys that sacrificed poor Edwin. They badly burnt Charles' back on a hot stove and Charles died from his injuries.)

The two ghosts decided to dedicate their afterlife solving mysteries to help other ghosts find peace. They are aided by psychic, Crystal Palace, who is haunted by her abusive ex-boyfriend who happens to be a demon.

Both Edwin Payne and Charles Rowland originated in Neil Gaiman's The Sandman: Season of Mists, The Sandman: Volume 4. Issue 25 of The Sandman comics, and within Act 2 of The Sandman audio drama.

The Dead Boy Detectives made their TV first appearance in Doom Patrol for HBO Max (now Max). During a shakeup at Max the show was moved over to Netflix as to better connect it with The Sandman since that is where they originated.

The show features different actors from the ones that played Charles and Edwin on Doom Patrol.

The Dead Boy Detectives is a decent show but ...it feels a bit like a CW teen drama. I had been told that some of the show's writers were originally writers for the CW... and it shows.

There are some deliberately surreal elements of the show that I think are a callback to their appearance in Doom Patrol.

I love the variety of supernatural entities in the show, including the appearance of two of Morpheus's siblings. Death and Despair. The things I don't like about the show can be considered CW tropes or cliches. The angsty romances and unrequited love. The ham-fisted abusive ex metaphor between Crystal and David The Demon.

And of course the most tedious of CW tropes, the end of the episode pining and angst while a sad pop song plays in the background.

If you look past the CW-ness of it, the show is enjoyable.

The only other things I can complain about is the "connecting thread" subplot of The Afterlife: Lost and Found feels like unnecessary filler. And I wish they would openly establish that Edwin, being an innocent, would NOT return to Hell if collected by Death now. I don't think that should be left hanging over his head. Especially since we're supposed to see Death as a kind entity. Also I think Charles says "Aces" a little too much. It's very distracting and makes me feel like the writers didn't know much late 80s English slang. It would be like if he was an American and they had him say "Radical" all the time. I get that it's kind of his catchphrase but it also got a bit annoying.

The parts I don't like are CW tropes and what I'd consider to be late 90s Vertigo edginess.

The thing I liked were plentiful though. The protagonists were and are likable. The ending is satisfying enough so that if there is only one season this was still good. I liked that it appears that one can ascend out of Hell after some self-reflection as is indicated by the boy Edwin confronted in Hell. The blue light was established to mean ascension, a good afterlife.

I also LOVE the opening credits theme music and animated sequence. It reminds me of the intro to Showtime's Creature Feature movies. (See the trailer for 2001's She Creature, not the 50s version. Watch the trailer at thirteen seconds in, on Youtube, and you'll see what I mean).

That's two Gothic themed shows from Netflix in the last two years with great opening credits sequences. The first being Wednesday. That one won Danny Elfman an Emmy.

It's funny, Wednesday and Dead Boy Detectives (which is a spin-off of The Sandman) have great opening credit intro sequences but The Sandman does not. Apparently Neil Gaiman was told people don't watch the opening credits anymore so The Sandman doesn't have them.

I feel we were cheated out of what could have been a great opening sequence for The Sandman.

Episodes 7 and 8 of Dead Boy Detectives were probably the best of the series. I liked it well enough that if Dead Boy Detectives gets renewed I'll happily watch season 2.

[emziess]

George Rexstrew as Edwin Paine DEAD BOY DETECTIVES, S01E01, The Case of Crystal Palace

[foxesandcourts]

words cannot express how much i love whenever edwin verbally appreciates when niko says something smart and doesn't downplay her ideas when he doesn't dole out high praise easily to most people, even crystal. shows how much he values her as a person and not just surface level intellectualism your honor i will always love them.

[alistairlowes]

[nic-the-rat]

DEAD BOY DETECTIVES INCORRECT QUOTES!!! (CRYSTAL EDITION)

[shot-in-the-sky]

I love how all of the mortal characters in Dead Boy Detectives can see ghosts by the end of the season solely because everyone keeps going through near death experience. Anyway shoutout to Jenny the Butcher, my fav, the queen, who didn’t ask for any of it but dealt with all of it.

[daffydilled]

I feel like Dead Boy Detectives handles Crystal with such kindness. She has the ability to be cruel and... Just a terrible person. She also has a silver tongue and knows her aunties and grammies, she will suffer to save her friends in an instant, and she is better than who she was. She is the kind of person who would have brought about the death of the boys but she is working and doing better. I adore her. She spits fire and warms all around her

[fizzypineapplesoda]

Where’s the love for Crystal Palace?

That’s my bby girl,my child,my sarcastic queen.

She deserves the same love and respect as the other characters