The Death of 'Dead Boy Detectives' Was Untimely

If the theme of this post feels familiar, that's because it's the second one like it we've run in the past week and a half. Second verse, same as the first: A streaming service has once again abruptly canceled a genre series with a devoted fanbase despite its obvious potential for growth and high overall quality. Last time, it was Prime Video and their historical fantasy My Lady Jane. Now it's Netflix and Dead Boy Detectives. 

At this point, none of us should be surprised. And yet, on some level, it's hard not to be. Dead Boy Detectives had a rabid online following, a long list of positive critical reviews, and a built-in connection to one of Netlix's most popular properties. If a show like this can't land a second season, what hope does something like a Renegade Nell possibly have? Was something like My Lady Jane automatically doomed before it ever launched? 

Maybe. After all, Netflix actively made an effort to acquire Dead Boy Detectives, but that still wasn't enough to guarantee the show a future. While the series is based on characters from Neil Gaiman's The Sandman, it was originally created as part of Max's DC Comics TV universe, alongside shows like Doom Patrol and Titans. But thanks to James Gunn's decision to completely reboot that entire franchise for the third time, the show was tossed in a drawer after all its sister series were ended. Netflix acquired it, reattached all the Sandman bits that had been filed off, and wham bam thank you, ma'am, a new shared universe was born. Or so we all foolishly thought. 

On paper, the Dead Boy Detectives has all the ingredients to succeed. Its cast is charming; its vibes are fun and accessible. It features a genuine connection to an established and successful genre property, but not one so deep that new viewers would find themselves overwhelmed by lore. Perhaps most importantly, it has so, so much heart. 

Its premise isn't all that complicated: The show follows the story of Edwin Payne (George Rexstrew) and Charles Rowland (Jayden Revri), a pair of ghosts born decades apart whose odd-couple-style relationship forms the show's foundation. The duo ultimately forsake the afterlife in the name of staying together and making a posthumous career out of trying to do some good for the spirits who can't pass on due to some form of unfinished business. They form the Dead Boy Detective Agency, and the show that bears their name is a mix of case-of-the-week style investigations bolstered by several larger overarching plots tying them all together. Though the two ghosts hail from different eras — Edwin died in 1916 and Charles in 1990 — their friendship feels timeless. Charles's more outgoing, charming personality effortlessly balances Edwin's fussy, occasionally insufferable nerdiness, and the pair generally feels like nothing so much as two halves of the same whole.

When a case introduces them to teen medium Crystal Palace (Kassius Nelson) and then a shy, charmingly offbeat neighbor named Niko (Yuyu Kitamura), their core group expands into a misfits-esque quartet. The family they discover together enhances how they do business — it's undoubtedly easier to interact with the living if one of your employees is alive — and the relationship between Charles and Edwin, who've spent decades existing with only their own company.

The pieces were in place for the series to run multiple seasons with rich character dynamics between the core quartet and a template that allowed for all sorts of adventures for the living and the dead. If this had been a show introduced during the heyday of The CW, it probably would have run for the better part of a decade. Alas, that's almost never a possibility in today's streaming landscape. Even the most successful series tend to come with a built-in expiration date. (Five years, max.) 

Netflix has something of a history when it comes to cutting promising genre shows off at the knees. In recent years it has unceremoniously dumped all sorts of series, from fantasy (Shadow and Bone, Warrior Nun), and supernatural (Lockwood and Co., First Kill, The Midnight Club) to sci-fi (The OA, 1899). Dead Boy Detectives is certainly joining a good company. But the fact that its main characters were part of the same universe as The Sandman makes the show's cancellation even more galling. What streamer doesn't want a franchise to call its own? The Sandman is still one of the most popular comic series ever, and Netflix is currently gearing up to drop the second season of its successful TV adaptation. 

Furthermore, if internet rumors are true, Season 2 will almost certainly reach the "Seasons of Mist" arc in which Charles and Edwin are first introduced. It would surely be nice if there was an ongoing series Sandman viewers could watch afterward, wouldn't it? Maybe one that explored the more down-to-earth everyday stories of the divine and supernatural that the more epic Sandman doesn't always have time to tell? Just spitballing here!

That Dead Boy Detectives wasn't given more time to build an audience — or a bigger promotional budget to let viewers know of its existence — feels particularly criminal because Sandman's second season would have almost certainly given the drama a needed awareness boost. 

Would that have been enough to make it a hit? Maybe, maybe not. But we'll never be able to find out in the instant gratification world that is today's streaming landscape, in which shows are expected to land vast audiences immediately. And I hate that for all of us. 

Dead Boy Detectives Season 1 is currently streaming on Netflix. The Sandman Season 2 is expected out in the coming months.