Dead Boy Detectives Season 1 Review

00:00
This is a DynaMic Network podcast.

00:24
Welcome to the Dynamic Duel Podcast, a weekly show where we review superhero films and debate the superiority between Marvel and DC by comparing their characters in stat-based battle simulations. I'm Johnny DC. And I'm his twin brother Marvelous Joe. And in this episode, we are reviewing the Netflix series Dead Boy Detectives, which is adapted from a DC comic book of the same name, whose lead characters debuted in the pages of Sandman.

00:51
Right, and there were even some characters from the Sandman series in this season one of the show. I'm not gonna lie, I was a big hater of the show before it came out, based on the God-awful trailer that came out prior to its release, but I'm gonna change my tune 180 degrees, so look forward to that in our review. Before that, we're gonna break down the comic book movie news from the past week, of which there were some doozies. We got our first look at David Cornswett as Superman, and...

01:18
John Malkovich, Ralph Innocent, and Paul Walter Hauser have been cast in the MCU's Fantastic Four film. As always, we list our segment times in our episode description, so feel free to check out the show notes if you want to skip ahead to a particular topic. And guys, our artificially intelligent dual simulator AJ9K has a quick message for you, so listen up.

01:40
Why hello there. Do you love listening and chatting about Marvel and DC? Then become a part of the dynamic dual community on Patreon, where you can choose from three tiers. The dynamic 2-0 tier lets you listen to this podcast without ads and gives you access to its Discord chat group, where you can chat with Johnny DC and Marvelous Joe.

01:59
The Fantastic Four tier gives you that and more with two bonus episodes each month, including bloopers and top ten shows where Johnny and Joe count down your favourite Marvel and DC subjects. The X-Force tier makes you an executive producer of Dynamic Duel, where every month you help the host choose what to review and who to fight against each other. And finally, the Dynamite Podcast Network tier allows aspiring podcasters to create their own battle-focused show using this Monte Carlo simulator.

02:29
Thanks AJ9K and thanks to everyone who supports the podcast, including Ken Johnson. He was one of our very first executive producers. He's also the host of the Max Destruction

02:58
on Mother's Day, so we just want to give a shout out and say happy birthday. If I could get you a gift from DC, it would be a case of Lobo's nuclear shotgun shells. Because if I trusted anyone with the nuclear codes, Ken, it would be you. And I would give you Ulysses Claus' arm cannon, because now that you're podcasting a lot, you know, you could use the arm cannon to create objects out of the sound of your voice. What am I saying? I don't know. But yeah, you could do something with it. He'll find a way to use it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

03:27
Be sure to tune in to Ken's show tomorrow, guys, because even though Max Destruction is going on a season break, you'll be getting bonus episodes where co-host Scotty Camacho reviews the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie with his brother Gil Camacho. And on the Sendrow World podcast, host Zachary Hepburn speculates on fights between fan favorite anime and manga characters. This Thursday, we'll find out who would win between Giyu Tomioka from Demon Slayer and Takeshi Yamamoto from Hitman Reborn.

03:56
And on the Console Combat Podcast, hosts John and Dean find out who would win in fights between popular video game characters. In yesterday's episode, they reviewed the Paramount Plus television series Knuckles. Visit dynamicpodcasts.com or click the link in our show notes to listen to all of the shows in the DynaMic Podcast Network. But with that out of the way, quick to the no prize!

04:18
A no prize is an award Marvel used to give out to fans. Our version, the Dynamic Duel No Prize, is a digital award we post on Instagram for the person that we feel gave the best answer to our question of the week. Last week we asked, who is your favorite Superman villain and why? Got a lot of great answers, let's go ahead and run down our three honorable mentions as well as the no prize winner. Our first honorable mention goes to John Spees, who said, Hey boys, John Spees here.

04:49
My favorite Superman villain is Batman. I like to see those two go head to head. And I like to see Batman's brain work on how to defeat this alien that he definitely just does not trust. It is interesting to see Batman fight Superman, because it's two heroes who are battling against each other. In a way, Bruce Wayne is kind of like Lex Luthor.

05:17
and that he's this very intelligent individual with no superpowers, but somehow still finds ways to bring Superman down, as evidenced in comic books like The Dark Knight Returns. And BVS, which John called shitty, and it is, but I will contend that the ultimate edition of the movie, which I know you shouldn't have to watch, but it is better. I actually enjoy that version of the film. You should have to watch it because it's fantastic. Way better than the theatrical version, which I agree is shitty.

05:47
Ultimate version is not. Great answer John, our next honorable mention goes to Scott Camacho who said Favorite Superman villain is obviously Zod. I grew up watching the dynamics of Dragon Ball like Goku and Vegeta and Power Rangers with the Red Ranger and then the evil Green Ranger. There was always the

06:15
the Nemesis who is the same as the protagonist and Zod is that for me for Superman. Yep, most superheroes have at least one supervillain that is like a dark mirror reflection of the hero and that's always pretty interesting because it's an exploration on what would happen if the hero that you love turned evil and how the hero himself would deal against a similar power set if they went bad.

06:42
So yeah, Zod is a great foil in that regard for the character of Superman. Yeah, Superman actually has a number of dark analogs. There's Zod, there's Bizarro, there's Ultraman, but out of all of them I would agree that Zod is definitely the most interesting. Great answer Scotty! Our final honorable mention goes to Judson Batty, who said, Hi guys, Judson Batty here. If he counts I would say that my favorite Superman villain is Lobo. Though he's not really a villain, but he's an anti-hero, he's a bounty hunter, that's close enough.

07:12
I think he's a great foil for Superman, because he's really all Superman could be if he went down that path with similar powers, but not exactly the same, so he doesn't feel like a copycat. I think that the bikey bounty hunter side of things is really cool, and just really interesting to see him in stories, and obviously space dolphins. Yeah, Lobo, in a sense, is almost like a dark analog for Superman as well, and that he's just unbelievably rude.

07:38
Compared to Superman who's normally, you know, farm boy polite. He's gritty, he's dirty, he kills like no one else He's a fantastic Superman foil. Jutsson's right though. He's not technically a villain as wild as it may seem Considering how amoral the character is but yeah, he's regarded as an anti-hero in the same vein of like Punisher or Ghost Rider Those conflicting ideologies often pit Superman and Lobo up against each other. But last episode Jutsson wanted to make sure

08:06
that we knew that he was Australian, not British. And then in the notes of his voicemail, he wanted to clarify that he was Australian, not Austrian, as Jonathan and I got him confused for in the last episode. So yeah, just to clarify, Jutson is a Kiwi from Australia, known for Lord of the Rings and It's Sheep and my favorite band of all time, The Flight of the Concords. Yeah, go Australia and go Jutson.

08:32
Great answer, we want to give a special thanks to Miggy Methengyan and Travis Herndon, who also took the time to call in with their answers. But the winner of this week's No Prize is Christopher Minotti, who said, Hi guys, Christopher Minotti. My favorite Superman villain has to be Brainiac. I love this character. Not only is he an alien super genius, but he also collects worlds, and he even let Krypton die. I love that, I think that's great.

09:02
I think he looks really cool, honestly, as well. His ship is really cool. And I especially love his look in the Injustice games. Yeah, there was something really cool they did in those games with Brainiac having the tentacles like Doctor Octopus. I wish that was his look in the comics like that needs to be canon because it's just really cool. But even without the tentacles, Brainiac is just a top tier villain. He's also my favorite villain for Superman and that he's just a strong.

09:31
but he's also world smarter and has the technology to back that up. Yeah, it's an absolute crime that Brainiac has not been in a live-action Superman movie yet and so I thought I would try to remedy that by writing a pitch for Jonathan on what a sequel to Man of Steel should be. And I called it Man of Tomorrow and you can listen to my pitch that I gave to Jonathan on our Patreon. Yeah, that was heartbreaking. I'm still thinking about that pitch. That was a fantastic pitch. They should have made that movie. Idiots!

10:00
Not you, Christopher! You're a genius, great answer! You win this week's note prize. If you the listener want a shot at winning your own note prize, stay tuned till later on in this episode when we'll be asking another Question of the Week. But now that that's done, on to the news!

10:19
Okay, so this past week we got our very first look at actor David Cornsweat in the Superman costume, which I've been waiting forever for. I was super pumped for this. And when it finally came, I felt the way that I usually feel upon seeing first looks of characters in their costumes, a little underwhelmed. I would agree. The costume itself is pretty solid. I'm just a little bit confused as to the execution.

10:47
of the image that they chose to present in that instead of this heroic Superman pose, we're getting what appears to be Superman getting dressed after the condom broke. It's really what it looks like. Yeah, it looks like he was about to knock boots with the low slam, then saw the big laser in the sky. He's like, damn it, put my boots back on. But yeah, it's a strange image to release for your first look at Superman. You would imagine.

11:12
that it would be something much more majestic considering the nature of Superman and him being almost like this god-like figure. But they really decided to focus on the man rather than the super in this. And I don't quite know why I wouldn't have done that. I definitely wouldn't have shown him looking as tired as he looks considering the fact that this giant eyeball is lasering like half of Metropolis behind him. You know he could hear that.

11:40
Yeah, I think the image is supposed to evoke Alex Ross's art of Superman sitting in his recliner chair, which was a really humanizing image for the character of Superman, if you guys are aware of the painting. This definitely calls back to that, but by including the danger in the background, it makes Superman seem apathetic, which is not a good look. I mean, just overall, the whole image is not a good look. Even if the outfit turns out to be incredible, it's not really showcased in this image, considering he's sitting down and it's folded.

12:10
and bunches up in weird places. Yeah, the costume is definitely a departure from what we've seen in the past in terms of like skin tight costumes that Superman can wear under his shirt. You know, when he rips it open, he has a suit already on. This outfit is not going under any clothes. If anything, it's almost like a jacket that goes over a shirt. Yeah, unless Clark can't wears nothing but chunky sweaters. There's no way we're going to get that, you know, rip open the shirt to get the Superman costume reveal. You're absolutely right.

12:39
I also wish they would have gone with a suit that was a little bit more clean. This one definitely looks battle worn, to put it nicely. Well, it probably is. I assume that whatever scene this shot was taken from happens later in the movie. Well, if it's battle worn, he needs to throw that thing in the wash after the battle because you don't want to go into a battle looking like you smell. All right. It's just not impressive. It does look stinky, doesn't it? It looks like a stinky Superman suit.

13:08
I honestly don't hate the suit. It's very different from what I was expecting. I'm actually really looking forward to seeing this thing in movement and maybe, you know, with him standing up without it being so wrinkled and dirty. Because otherwise, I think it's a pretty good shot. I love David Cornswett's hair. Not loving his jawline, but I'm also assuming that's just from him, you know, like, looking down and not like off into the horizon with this hopeful demeanor. He definitely has bulked up.

13:36
I was recently looking at photos of him and how much bigger he's gotten since being cast as Superman and the guy's almost as big as Henry Cavill. It's insane. Definitely doing steroids. Hopefully that doesn't affect him long term, but it's a thing. I think he looks tired here, but again, it's not the shot I wanted. I'm sure I would have a better impression if they chose a better pose for the character. He actually reminds me a lot of Henry Cavill, which brings us to our question of the week.

14:09
Which actor wore your favorite Superman suit, and why was it your favorite? Record your answer at dynamicduel.com by clicking on the red microphone button in the bottom right hand corner of the screen, which will prompt you to leave us a voicemail. Your message could be up to 30 seconds long, and don't forget to leave your name in case we include you on the podcast. We'll pick our favorite answer, and award that person a Dynamic Duel No Prize that we'll post to Instagram. Be sure to answer before May 18th. In other news, we received word this past week that

14:38
Three major actors have joined the cast of the MCU's Fantastic Four. We have John Malkovich, Ralph Innocent, and Paul Walter Hauser in roles for that upcoming film. That also stars Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Yvonne Moss-Bachrock. Still not sure if I'm pronouncing that correctly. The only actor here that was announced that is attached to a specific role is Ralph Innocent, who's going to play Galactus, and holy shit, that is a fantastic casting choice for Galactus.

15:08
Yeah, I'm not familiar with the actor at all, but once I saw his face, I was like, yeah, that's Galactus. Yeah, I guess his face kind of looks like it. I don't think it'll be, you know, Ralph Innocent in a purple rubber suit or anything like that. I'm sure they'll go some kind of CG route or motion capture type thing. But, you know, it's better than a cloud. We know that Galactus will actually have a voice. And what a voice to have in Ralph Innocent. The only movie that I've ever seen, Ralph In, was The Vavitch. And he was.

15:36
really good in that movie. It was that was a scary movie. Jonathan, you should watch it. Yeah, that's not going to happen. His voice is deeper than the Marianas Trench. Damn. Out of all the human beings on Earth, his is probably the only voice suitable to portraying this world devouring godlike character. Yeah, I think it's solid casting along with John Malkovich and Paul Walter Hauser. No idea who these guys are playing. Of course, John Malkovich could play.

16:03
friggin any role he wants and he would just nail it. But also Paul Wachterhauser, I only know him from the Cobra Kai series, but I'm really hoping he gets to play Mole Man. Yeah, that would be good for Mole Man. Also on the Discord, I heard someone suggest John Malkovich for Puppet Master and that would be absolute perfection. I think it would be surprising if we got Galactus and Puppet Master and Mole Man in the same film, but you never know, you never know. Marvel may be putting all their chips on the table in order to make sure this is the ultimate.

16:32
Fantastic Four movie. Well, if it's an alternate universe, maybe they can do all of these characters and then just kill them off and reintroduce them at a later point. Perhaps, perhaps. But yeah, super excited for this movie. I can't wait to get our first look at the costume reveals of the Fantastic Four. I guess we kind of got them as a drawing of these characters, but I'm not sure if those were the final outfits for the FF. We'll see. The movie is slated to hit theaters on July 25th, 2025. So a little over a year from now.

17:01
Wait, that's the release date? Yeah. That's like only a week after Superman is released. Good. Superman's being released on July 11th, 2025. Well, I can't wait for the Fantastic Four to take all of Superman's money. That'll make me smile. If you think the Fantastic Four are more popular than Superman, you have another thing coming, my friend. It's not about who's more popular. Look at how much money BVS made. You seem to think it's about popularity when in fact it's about what's a better movie. OK, Superman. Yeah. OK.

17:38
That does it for all the news for this episode. Now let's move on to the main event, where we review season one of the Netflix series, Dead Boy Detectives.

18:03
Dead Boy Detectives is an 8 episode Netflix exclusive television series with Steve Yawkey as the showrunner, who is also the lead writer on The Flight Attendant for Max. Dead Boy Detectives is the second Netflix series in their Sandman universe, the first being the acclaimed series The Sandman, which we gave 4 and a half stars in our season 1 review. I'm a big fan of Sandman, the Dead Boy Detectives are only a tiny part of that universe, but

18:29
But I enjoyed their appearance on the Doom Patrol series in season 3 for that show. The Netflix series was originally going to be produced as a spin-off of Doom Patrol for the Max platform, but Warner Bros. decided to allow Netflix to make the show instead as part of their Sandman universe, which makes sense considering the titular characters made their debut in the pages of the Sandman comic. The characters are admittedly pretty obscure.

18:55
So if you don't know anything about them or don't want to know anything about the show prior to watching it, I suggest you hit pause now and watch the show because it's pretty damn good. And then come back and listen to this review. Yeah, I highly recommend watching it. I concur that it is very good. I didn't actually want to watch this show at all. I didn't want to review it. And that is all based off of my feelings about the first trailer that came out for Dead Boy Detective season one, which was an atrocity. I actually went back.

19:24
after I watched this show and then rewatched that trailer and I totally feel like the trailer editor should have been fired because in no way shape or form captured the coolness that was this show. I totally take back everything I said, including my initial gripe that the two main actors looked too similar to each other. Oh yeah. Now, when you actually watch the show, it's highly apparent that they're not even, you know, the same race. I think the cast was just phenomenal for this show across the board.

19:54
hands down. The cast is definitely one of the highlights of the series by far and I'll get into that later on. But I agree with you, Netflix is notoriously not great with marketing. I kind of feel like they don't feel like they need to be because they're churning out so much content all the time. They tend to not want to focus on one particular thing, especially when it comes to series like these where people aren't really familiar with the characters or there isn't a really big name attached to it. Again,

20:23
These characters are obscure, even for comic fans. Now in the comics, the Dead Boy Detectives, namely Edwin Payne and Charles Roland, are only 13 years old, but because they've lived for decades, their stories in the comics tended to be a bit more mature in terms of horror and violence, and they were often published by DC's mature imprints such as Vertigo or Black Label. This series, for the most part, matched that same kind of mature tone. It's TVMA. And in my opinion,

20:52
The tone was a terrific blend of quirky, dark comedy and weird supernatural horror, very much in the same vein as Doom Patrol, a show I loved and will miss, so it's nice to have this as somewhat of a replacement. Absolutely, yeah. When Doom Patrol finished up its last season, it kind of left a void out there in the superhero television genre. I think Dead Boy Detective Season 1 filled that niche perfectly. Which is high praise because I really liked Doom Patrol. Yeah, same.

21:22
I think fairly high ratings in the course of its run. But one thing I think this series definitely has over Doom Patrol is its production value. I'm not sure if the show is actually more expensive, but it would not surprise me. Dead Boy Detectives doesn't look as expensive as Sandman, but in terms of the special effects, the cinematography, it's all an upgrade from Doom Patrol. And in that regard.

21:46
I'm actually glad the show made the jump to Netflix because it seems like they really aren't afraid of investing in the Sandman universe. Now, the cast of the Dead Boy Detectives on Do Patrol, I thought, was terrific. They were originally supposed to be in the Max show, but that changed in the transition to Netflix, at least for all of the cast members, except for the actress who played Night Nurse, strangely enough. Yeah, I thought that was strange. She is a good actress, so I don't know.

22:14
My impression was that the actors who played Charles and Edwin in the Doom Patrol series were much more comic book accurate because I know the characters like one's a blonde, one's a brunette. And on this Netflix show, they're both brunettes who look like they're 18 years old. In the Doom Patrol series, they looked a lot younger. But that's not to discount the Netflix cast. They were less accurate to the source material, but they were still phenomenal. They're their own thing.

22:41
The Doom Patrol cast is absolutely more comics accurate in terms of look, but I think the new cast definitely captured the spirit of the characters pretty well. And also considering, you know, it is a mature show, it's not surprising they went with a slightly older cast, even though they keep calling them kids in the show and boys. And I'm like, dude, you look like you're 21. Yeah, I've never seen such a independent group of 16 year olds in my entire life. For real. Like going out and like.

23:09
Yeah, like renting rooms and stuff like that. I wasn't doing that at 16. When I first saw the trailer for this, I was pretty sad that they didn't go with a Doom Patrol cast. That didn't survive very long once I started watching the show, because, as I mentioned earlier, one of the major draws of the Netflix show is its charismatic cast and their chemistry. Charismatic is the perfect word for sure. Yeah, and the charisma goes even beyond the leads. Like even with.

23:35
basic filler, you could say superfluous characters such as Nico and Jenny, it's kind of hard to imagine the show without them because the actors gave such endearing performances. While the show's major drawback is that it's loaded with story threads and subplots that lead nowhere, such as Nico's parents or Jenny's stalker, there's still enough to enjoy there that you wouldn't mind if the characters returned for a second season with how well they work with the main characters of Edwin, Charles, and Crystal.

24:04
Yeah, I think this is the only show where I didn't mind getting sidetracked a little bit. I don't know why. I don't know if it was due to the serial nature of the show, kind of where they were working on a different case every episode. But I just enjoyed the world building, I guess. And the more they expanded on that, the more I felt like I was immersed into the small Washington town. Yeah, I don't know if I would describe the show as serial. I would probably describe it as procedural. It had this procedural nature, almost like.

24:30
You know, a NYPD blue episode where there's like a new case to solve each week, a new mystery for the detectives to solve each episode. I loved that. Yeah, it was fun to watch. That's what I was hoping She-Hulk would be, where it would be a new law case every week. But that didn't quite pan out. Yeah, that would have made She-Hulk so much better. And that show had like a lot of side characters as well. You know, I feel like Dead Boy Detectives is a perfect template for how She-Hulk should have gone. Exactly. I would have loved that.

25:00
Now in terms of smaller characters such as Cat King, Tragic Mick the Walrus, and the foul-mouthed Dandelion sprites, who I'm sure some people found annoying, but I found hilarious, they also seem to blend themselves into the overarching story and the episodic nature seamlessly almost. There were a few cameos that didn't quite work I think, but may later on in subsequent seasons, including Despair and

25:26
I don't know if you remember him. He was the ringed man inside of Angie the sea monster. No idea who that guy is. I don't recognize him from the comics, but to be fair, I haven't read all of the Dead Boy Detective graphic novels yet. If I had to guess though, maybe he's a character we'll see appear again in Sandman, though that's just a shot in the dark. I actually liked the despair cameo. I thought that was just a very surreal scene when Edwin meets her among the floating mirrors.

25:55
Yeah, that was interesting. And I guess it also kind of fit with the whole nature of how Edwin and Charles are able to traverse the world by going through mirrors. Now, that's something that they took from the Doom Patrol show when they traversed the mirror into the underworld. They don't do that in the comics. They can teleport naturally wherever they want, although it's like uncomfortable for them to do so. The whole mirror play was interesting. And I wonder if they did that with the intention of playing upon despair, because her whole realm.

26:24
is mirrors in the comics. Interesting. Well, she did tell Edwin that, you know, they were friends now and that she would be seeing him again later. I'm assuming maybe in Sandman season two. I hope so. I would love to see these guys make an appearance, because actually they're due for one in the next season if they're following the comic books. It was like issue 25, I believe, of Sandman, which would fall in season two of where the characters were introduced. Nice. But let's talk more about the characters in the character breakdown.

26:53
starting with Edwin Payne. Now he was played by George Rexdrew, and this is basically his first performance ever on screen. As you mentioned, he definitely didn't look like the character from the comics, but he gave a fantastic performance, I thought, for sure. As this brainy amateur magician of the group, you know, one who died as a ritual sacrifice to a demon at his school, and whose soul was traded amongst the demons in Hell, which he eventually escaped. When he returns to the mortal plane,

27:22
in the same place where he died, the attic of his school, he found Charles there dying and he stayed with him. I'm not sure if he did that out of sympathy for someone else at the school who was bullied and killed, like in the comics, or from romantic attraction to Charles, which has only recently come out in the comics, or because he wanted to start doing good to avoid hell should he ever be caught by death. It may have been all of the above, but motivation wise,

27:50
Being good and doing good to avoid hell is definitely what drives Edwin in the series. A truth that was revealed to him by the Cat King. You know, Edwin helps ghosts because he loved detective stories when he was alive and because it's the right thing to do. I am still shocked that you said that this was his first performance because I thought the actor as Edwin did a phenomenal job. I totally bought him as this like young...

28:16
gay Sherlock Holmes with some like Constantine-esque magic tricks at his disposal. And I think he did a really good job of not only selling him as this like closed off character who's actually been through lifetimes of misery, but also I think he sold the romantic aspects too. You know, this pining for someone that is unattainable just felt very tragic and there's a lot that's tragic about Edwin and it all just came across expertly.

28:42
Yeah, the romantic angle was a slow build, but it felt very natural. I think they did a terrific job with that. Yeah, there was a huge payoff when he finally admitted his feelings to Charles. And I think I remember that from the Doom Patrol series too. I think they said that Edwin was attracted to Charles. But yeah, that felt like such an epic moment, not only because they were escaping hell, but because the emotional stakes were so huge as well. So you just had a lot going on there. It felt very climactic. Oh yeah, absolutely. That was one of my favorite episodes, actually.

29:12
But for as much as he has romantic feelings for Charles, you could also see Edwin continuing his magic studies and detective work without him if it ever came to that. Whereas Charles definitely seems to be more attached to Edwin, interestingly. He's protective over him because he is a good friend in that way. Yeah, exactly. Now, one difference from the comics that I wanna point out that I thought they did really well in the show was the reason that he went to hell. Now, that's never explained in the comics.

29:41
He was sacrificed by bullies in the school, but like, why would that send someone to hell? The reasoning for him to go to hell in the show is, you know, because he was a sacrifice to a demon, so the demon took him, I thought was much better. You never see that in the comic. That was a horrifying but quirky scene in that, you know, the demon showed up during the sacrifice and killed everybody. But kind of, it seems like he knew that Edwin was being sacrificed unethically or something, because he's like, Yeah. Sorry, mate.

30:10
Gotta take you cause you're a sacrifice. Let's go, you know? It's a technicality. What are you gonna do? Yeah, yeah, it's interesting. Moving on to Charles Rowland, he was played by Jaden Reverie, who is a veteran actor, but I thought his chemistry with George Ruxrew was perfect. They're both fantastic actors. Yeah, I remember during the trailer that like I did not wanna like this show, as I think I've mentioned before. I think my fear of the show was that it would be too-

30:38
Gen Z for me because just the look of the actor who plays Edwin seems very of the current time, you know, of the current young generation of people. And the show itself, I thought would be unapproachable because I wouldn't get a lot of it. But if anything, it helped me feel a little bit more connected to Gen Z. It's pretty interesting. It is interesting because his look actually isn't, I guess it is Gen Z, but that's just circling back to the time, the 80s, when Charles died, which was the late 80s.

31:08
Yeah, it's fascinating how style kind of revolves like that. Now, Charles is the muscle and feisty gadgeteer of sorts for the group. He's equipped with a bag that can hold an infinite number of items, including a badass cricket bat that's kind of like Mjolnir. Charles is also motivated like Edwin to do good, not because of where he'll go in the afterlife, but because he always tried to please his abusive father in life. And now he likes to please his friend Edwin, who was there for him when no one else ever was.

31:36
and of course, Crystal, his love interest. We were talking about how tragic Edwin's character was. I think that Charles is just as tragic. That was so heartbreaking later on in the series when we actually see how Charles died. It made me angry because he didn't deserve that. You know, neither of these boys deserve to die and it made you want to root for them in the afterlife, especially when you get those speeches from Edwin, I think in like episode two, where he was like, no one cared about our murders. Like they weren't.

32:02
bothered to be solved or anything like that. So we have to solve these cases for the people like us. And the whole abuse thing with Charles specifically just broke my heart. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. His origin is interesting in that it's another example of how this show borrowed elements from the Doom Patrol, specifically him being stoned in a river where he also caught hypothermia. In the comics, Charles was burned and stabbed by the same bullies

32:30
that sacrificed Edwin 70 years earlier. When they died, they went to hell, but in the comics, Lucifer gave up on ruling hell, so all of the denizens of hell came back to the mortal plane. That's how Edwin came back, that's how his bullies came back, and the same ones who killed Edwin were the same ones who killed Charles. Interesting. Yeah, I don't know if I like that as much. No, this show was a perfect adaptation in that it improved the source of material, in my opinion.

32:59
Moving on to Crystal Palace, she was played by Cassius Nelson. I don't know too much about her other than she's a Brit who can pull off a hell of an American accent. Oh, my God. I didn't even know she was a Brit. I liked the Crystal Palace that was in Doom Patrol. I remember thinking after watching the trailer that I don't understand why they cast this new Crystal Palace, and I could not be more wrong. So wrong was so good in this series.

33:26
She was so good, she blew me away with almost every line delivery. She's phenomenal. I could totally see why she was cast. And I think I judged her way too harshly based off of just simple lines like, that's a fucking stupid name, just because I didn't want to agree with what she was saying. But you know, her whole arc is that she was kind of an asshole back in the day. This is her redemption arc, as it were. It's also your redemption arc, apparently. It is my- yeah. Absolutely.

33:53
She was phenomenal. Yeah, no, the actress who played her, Cassius Nelson, Cassius, I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing her name correctly. But yeah, she's definitely going places. I will be learning how to pronounce her name as I'm sure everyone will be because yeah, she's fantastic. She's definitely the breakout star of the show. Dude, everyone, everyone is the breakout star of the show. Her, Nico, Jenny, the boys, everyone. That's true, fair enough. No, Crystal is the psychic human of the group who proves her value to the boys.

34:22
through her psychic visions and ability to interact with other humans to get easy answers. Her motivation in the show is twofold. One to find out more about her past and eventually return home, but also to prove that David, the demon who possessed her and continues to torment her throughout the series, is wrong about her nature and that she is in fact a good person capable of doing good things. So it's interesting how the three main characters sort of have the same motivation in the series of simply to do good.

34:52
She has less strong feelings for Charles as he does for her, but the love triangle between the three results in some decent tension for the story that I thought worked really well. In the comics, Crystal's parents were jerk performance artists who simply let her do whatever she wanted, but she was always a nice person and to my knowledge she was never possessed by a demon named David. That's an original character, but I thought a strong one and it's like a great ghost for the character, like this haunted past for her.

35:21
that worked really well with the story. And again, another example of how the show plusses the comic. Plus that exorcism scene was just really cool. Oh yeah, when David runs out underneath the sheet out of the subway. Yeah. That was cool. Now there's a ton of characters. I do want to touch on the two villains before we get into the plot breakdown, starting with Night Nurse. She was played by Ruth Cornell. Again, she was the same actress who played a very different version of Night Nurse in the Doom Patrol show.

35:49
Now she's not to be confused with Asa, the Nightmare Nurse from Justice League Dark, though I think she may have been an inspiration for the character. Night Nurse is original to Doom Patrol and the series. Now Night Nurse is a strict, by the book, caretaker of the children's nursery in the afterlife. A limbo of sorts that tracks the souls of dead children and ushers them where they need to go. I didn't really like her character initially, like her scenes were the most dull to me.

36:18
even though I understood she represented the stakes of Edwin and Charles being hunted by death. I did get her motivation, however, that she felt Edwin and Charles were cheating death and I also liked how she ended up helping the boys in the end, even being assigned to be their handler. That was fantastic. I loved that reversal because, you know, she is charismatic as well. You didn't really root against her because you kind of understood where she was coming from like you said. So to all of a sudden have these characters

36:46
working together by the end was a nice turn of events. Moving on to the other villain, Esther Finch, she was played by Jen Lyon, who was fantastic and effortlessly charismatic in her performance. It's kind of hammy, but in the best way, and it looked like she had a ton of fun with the role. This was another actress that I was hating on in the trailer because just like the weird line delivery that she gave when she was like, Monty, I'm trying to...

37:12
threaten some boys or something. I was like, this is so fucking stupid. But then when you actually see it in context of who the character is, yeah, it looks like she had a blast with the role. It was perfect casting. It's like she was born to play that role. Exactly. Actually, I felt that way about most of the characters in this cast. Like I'm sure I'll see a few of them in other roles down the line, but I'm always gonna remember them for these specific roles because a lot of them are unknown to me.

37:38
and they did such a fantastic, iconic job with their performances. Cannot say enough good things about the cast. Now Esther was a woman who turned to witchcraft to punish her cheating husband during the pioneering days of America's Pacific coast. After being granted immortality by Lilith, the patron of wronged women, Esther was forced to feed on the souls of young girls to her pet snake in order to maintain her youth and beauty across the centuries.

38:04
She's motivated by revenge against the boys for rescuing a young girl that she was going to feed on. It takes a while for the show to reveal her teeth-face mushroom monster plan, but I could see why due to the procedural nature of the show. And despite the lack of reveal of her plan early on, she was still like a credible threat whenever she appeared in the background. Yeah, fantastic villain. I thought they were, you know, over and done with her by episode one.

38:31
And I thought even in the final episode, she made for a fantastic climax. Yeah, she did. Like the way she beat the shit out of the cat king, you know. Oh, there was any cast member I didn't like. It was probably the cat king. He was just really sleazy. Yeah, I could get that. I didn't want to like him. But honestly, the actor also just nailed the performance in a way that didn't make it feel as cheesy as it should have been. So I was just impressed by that fact alone.

39:04
Where fantasies collide and heroes clash, one podcast network rises above the rest. Prepare yourself for the ultimate showdowns in comic books, video games, movies, and anime. The DynaMic Podcast Network presents Console Combat, where video game legends brawl every Monday.

39:24
Smash every Tuesday, Max Destruction, where TV and action heroes battle every Wednesday, and Sendro World, where anime champions clash every Thursday. Join us as we speculate on the matches and, armed with the power of mathematical simulations, discover who will emerge victorious. Visit dynamicpodcast.com where we settle the debate and settle the score.

39:49
Moving on to the story highlights, the first episode was called The Case of Crystal Palace. After British ghost detectives Edwin Payne and Charles Rowland help a ghost soldier from World War I cross into the afterlife, avoiding death in the process, the duo takes on a new case to help a young demon-possessed amnesiac psychic named Crystal Palace. After exorcising her demon, Crystal convinces the friends to travel with her to port towns in Washington in America.

40:18
to find a missing girl named Becky that Crystal psychically deduced was still alive after touching the boy's mail. After getting lodging above a butcher shop, the trio learns that Becky is trapped in a witch's house. After a flashback to Edwin's death in the 1910s, Edwin uses a magic string to trap a cat and learn more about the witch, after which the trio makes a plan to break into her house. Before they escape with Becky,

40:42
The witch, named Esther Finch, confronts and injures them, forcing Charles to possess her and rescue the team. After Becky is returned home, the Lost and Found department in the Netherworld is notified of Charles' act of possession, bringing Kim and Edwin to the attention of the Night Nurse. I will admit that the first episode I think was actually my least favorite, even though it was really good and I was compelled to watch more. I think it just had too much load to bear, basically.

41:09
We had to get through all these introductions and whatnot. And while eventually the show ended up getting its bearings starting in episode two, when we started getting a more procedural formula for the show, it did kind of stumble out of the gate, I think. But still good. I agree with you. But honestly, it was one of my favorite episodes just because of how well it set up the premise of the series, I guess. Yeah, and it was successful in the setup. I'll say that, especially with the tone and the characters. I guess it was less successful in terms of plotting.

41:38
as an individual standalone piece. I really liked the action of this first episode, like right off the bat. You see Edwin and Charles running from this World War One ghost, and they're like hopping through mirrors and like casting spells and getting like blood dripped on them and stuff. I really enjoyed it. I also really enjoyed seeing death. I was like, oh, shit, it's death from Sandman. It's Kirby. How about East? She's too nice. I want to see her like get angry once, you know, dude, you like never see that in the comics. Really?

42:08
Yeah, that's too bad. Moving on to episode two, the case of the Dandelion Shrine. As the trio attempts to leave Port Townsend, they're confronted by a cluster of cats that take them to the Cat King, whose angry Edwin used magic on one of his cats and traps him in Port Townsend with a magic bracelet. While the boys go to a shop of magic artifacts owned by a man named Tragic Mick, Crystal encounters her new neighbor, a young girl named Niko Saki, who's emitting colorful lights and faints.

42:37
After Charles uses a mirror to return to their detective office back in London to collect magical reference books, the boys learn that parasitic dandelion sprites have infected Nico and she's in danger of exploding. While following a map through the forest to where Nico was infected, the boys learn that the sprites can be trapped in an enchanted vessel. Just before Nico explodes, Crystal uses herself as bait for the sprites new host while Charles traps them in an enchanted jar they procured from the magic shop.

43:07
After the ordeal, Nico's hair turns white and her near-death experience allows her to see ghosts, and the boy's ghost mailman informs them that all the ghosts in town have heard about them. Meanwhile, Esther turns her pet crow into a human boy named Monty to seduce Edwin. I just want to say that I love Nico. She was so fantastic in this. We should all strive to be more like Nico and Charles because as far as I'm concerned, they're the best people in fiction.

43:36
She was fantastic, and while this case was probably one of the least interesting cases out of the entire season, I think the actress is the one who made it endearing. Yeah, absolutely. I agree with everything you said. What's interesting is that Nico is an original character. She's not in the comics. So I think including her is just a stroke of genius for the writers. I'm not surprised that she's an original character. She just seems too unique and special to not be conceived of on the spot in the making of the show.

44:05
I think one interesting thing they did in this episode is trap the boys in this town with the bracelet that Edwin is forced to wear. It was a smart way to keep the show cheap, I think. Yeah. Well, it did a lot of things. I mean, the whole trapping them there addressed, you know, Edwin's burgeoning sexuality. It addressed a lot of their individual character arcs. It did things like made Nico a main character in this season. And Esther a villain.

44:33
Yeah, I was initially annoyed that they actually got trapped there because I think I wanted the show to take place in London, but, you know, by the end I was perfectly happy with the setting. Yeah, and who knows, maybe season two will take place in London. Yeah. Episode three was titled, The Case of the Devlin House. After meeting with dozens of ghosts, the boys decide to accept a case involving a grisly murder slash suicide that happened in a neighborhood house a couple of decades prior.

44:59
After learning more about the notorious Devlin murders from Jenny the Butcher and the library, Edwin and Nico meet Monty, while the night nurse is prevented from going to find the boys on the mortal plane due to afterlife bureaucracy and red tape. While visiting the Devlin house hours before it's scheduled to be demolished, Crystal and the boys witness a repeated loop of the ghosts of the Devlin family reliving their grisly deaths at the hands of their father. Emotionally traumatized, Charles attempts to stop the father.

45:27
but gets stuck in the loop as well. After discovering a VHS recording of the murders in a hidden room in the house, Edwin manages to erase the tape while Crystal is meanwhile tormented by David, her former love interest and a demon. With the tape erased, the Devlin ghosts are able to move into the afterlife, and Charles becomes unstuck from the loop. While Monty meets up with Edwin once again, the Night Nurse learns the location of the boys from the Devlin children. Now, like Charles,

45:56
And I guess all three of them, this was kind of a hard episode to watch. It was it was horrifying. Yeah, I mean, you see repeatedly the father murder his wife and daughters with an axe. It's definitely TVMA, right? But there's this almost not a true crime appeal, but it's the same kind of appeal where you see these horrific things being brought to justice. Yeah, true. Yeah. Am I the only one that was super annoyed by Monty? Yeah, he's probably my least favorite character in the whole show. I think he's kind of supposed to be.

46:26
supposed to get on people's nerves and then kind of redeem himself in the end. And I think he did kind of become this tragic figure. But until he got there, I was just super annoyed by the kid. Like, I didn't want to see him. He was dumb. I think it was partly because of how uncomfortable he made Edwin as well. That just bothered me a little too. He was like so forward with him when Edwin was uncomfortable with who he was necessarily at that point.

46:51
Exactly, yet you saw how uncomfortable Edwin was with the cat king, and to see some other character just kind of being real pushy in that regard just made you want him to go away. Moving on to episode 4, which was called The Case of the Lighthouse Leapers. After Crystal and Nico question Jenny about anonymous love letters she's receiving, a ghost lightkeeper arrives and requests their services to help stop people from jumping off of his lighthouse. Crystal, Nico, and the boys arrive at the lighthouse just in time to see a woman jump from the top and become a ghost.

47:21
insisting she heard from a loved one that told her to jump. While several other ghosts tell Charles and Crystal the same thing, and Crystal nearly succumbs to jumping herself after hearing her mother's voice call to her, Edwin is visited by the King of Cats who accuses Edwin of having romantic feelings for Charles, and Nico learns in a nearby gift shop of the local legend of the Washer Woman, who lends guidance to those in need. Nico finds a red shard of sea glass on the shore,

47:47
allowing them to meet with the washerwoman who tells them the Jumpers are being lured to their deaths by a sea monster. While Night Nurse confronts Jenny about the location of Crystal, she, Nico, and the boys visit Tragic Mix's shop, who informs them that their monster sounds like a giant anglerfish named Angie and sells them a musical device that will put her to sleep. After getting meat from the butcher to use as bait, the group returns to the lighthouse where they are confronted by the Night Nurse.

48:15
who torments Charles with visions of how he was bullied, abused, and killed. Enraged, Charles beats Night Nurse with the musical device, knocking her into the sea where she's swallowed up by Angie, who leaves the lighthouse. Back home, Charles and Crystal share a kiss. This was actually probably my favorite episode because we finally got a chance to see Charles' origin. And though it was tragic, it kind of cemented Charles as my favorite character of the show.

48:42
Yeah, he was probably my favorite character of the show too. This was a fantastic episode. The latter half was definitely better than the first half. The first half posed a lot of questions that never really quite get answered throughout the rest of the season, such as who is the gift shop owner? What's the deal with the riddle talking, washing woman? How the hell does Anglerfish get that big and nobody notices things like that? I think it was a supernatural anglerfish. Sea monster. Obviously. I don't think it was a real anglerfish, Joseph.

49:10
But yeah, the latter half of the episode was actually extremely powerful. And then you got that kiss at the end, which felt like an oh shit moment because you knew all the emotional stakes that were going around. Right, exactly. Episode 5 was titled The Case of the Two Dead Dragons. While the boys are approached by the ghosts of two murdered high school jocks to find out who murdered them, Nico identifies Jenny's anonymous love letter scribe as the local librarian, Lindsay. After investigating the area in the woods where the jocks' bodies were found and finding nothing,

49:39
Crystal and the boys visit the local high school in disguise to question the students. There, they are directed by a boy named Richie, who is bullied by the Jocks, and informs them that one of the Jocks' ex-girlfriends, Shelby, killed herself months after the Jocks were found dead. After using a spell to summon Shelby's ghost, Shelby tells them that the Jocks were jerks who ruined her life. When Crystal gets a phone call from Marin, one of the Jocks' girlfriends at the time of their death, Crystal goes to visit her house.

50:06
where the boys deduce that Marin was the one who poisoned and killed the jocks and was about to kill Crystal as well. When confronted, Marin confesses to poisoning the jocks after they threaten to send nude photos of her to everyone on their football team. While Marin turns herself into the police, Jenny has dinner with Lindsay at the butcher shop, only to learn that Lindsay has been stalking her at night. When Lindsay is asked to leave, she becomes violent, but slips and dies via brain impalement while attacking Jenny.

50:35
After the jocks learn who killed them, they cross over into Hell, and Crystal is once again tormented by David. When Monty kisses Edwin, Edwin confesses that he has feelings for someone else. This was actually probably my least favorite episode, and I think a lot of it has to do with just the jocks being jerks. Yeah, the jocks were assholes. They deserved to burn in Hell. That was actually a pretty cool special effect when they got dragged there. I actually really liked this episode.

51:01
To me, one of the things that sticks out in my mind most when thinking about the show overall is how uncomfortable the scene was between the stalker librarian chick and the butcher lady when the librarian mentioned that she thought she was so cute in her pajama oversized t-shirt. And just that moment, that like, oh, shit moment. And then like just fucking went crazy. Like I know this whole scene had no bearing on the season as a whole, but it was my favorite like side plot by far.

51:31
just because how fucking bonkers it was. Like she started chasing her with a butcher knife and then she fucking tripped and fell onto a spike. Holy shit, man. My jaw was on the floor. Yeah, I agree. Like this was definitely my favorite part of an episode that I didn't really care for. The actresses just totally pulled off everything. Again, the cast, so good. Even minor characters like the librarian. Right, believable as a total psycho all of a sudden. Totally, totally. Episode six was titled, The Case of the Creeping Forest.

52:00
When Crystal and Niko visit Tragic Mick to find something that will get David out of Crystal's mind, they learn about Mick's past as a walrus before they're given an artifact known as the Light of Heart, which, when used, causes Crystal to accidentally remove her powers of psychic insight as well. After Esther grows a magic mushroom, she orders Monty to lure Crystal and the boys into the forest, where her trap awaits. Making up a story about a missing ghost friend named Gladys, Monty successfully gets them into the forest,

52:30
where they find traces of ghost fungus, which is deadly to ghosts. Despite Edwin developing a formula to kill the fungus, it continues to grow and the boys realize it's coming from an interdimensional creature. When the team splits up to locate the creature, Edwin and Crystal are attacked by David, but manage to defeat him. Monty, despite still being hurt over Edwin's unrequited feelings, has a change of heart and attempts to get Edwin out of the forest and Esther's trap.

52:57
but not before the Cat King appears, who outs Moti as Esther's crow and reveals the boys are falling into a trap set up by Esther. Moti leaves in shame only to run into Esther who kills and converts him back into a crow. Just as Edwin finds Charles and Crystal to warn them of Esther's trap, Esther attacks with her mushroom creature, Teeth Face, who attempts to eat the boys. Meanwhile, Crystal discovers within her the magic spirits of her ancestors, reawakening her psychic powers and then some.

53:27
which allows her to defeat Teethface and Esther, burying them both in the forest and saving the boys. Back home, Night Nurse finds the boys and threatens to take them into the afterlife when suddenly a demon erupts from hell and steals Edwin, who loses the Cat King's bracelet in the process. This was a great episode except for one thing, and it was actually my least favorite moment of the entire season. And it was when Crystal defeated the fungus monster. She basically stuck her hands into the ground and was like...

53:57
Hey, leave them alone. And the monster was like, oops, sorry. And then like left. It was like, it couldn't have been that simple. I understand that it was, I guess, supposed to be this great psychic feat or whatnot. But to have the mushroom monster just kind of like apologize and leave undersold the stakes that I think it was supposed to pose. Yeah, it was pretty anticlimactic. I'll agree with that.

54:21
But I also liked the original aspect of Crystal and how she was a descendant of this ancient line of sorceresses. I almost got the impression that she was a descendant of Lilith herself, though I may just be making that up. It felt very Black Panther, you know, on the ancestral plane. Okay, Black Panther does not have a monopoly on African culture, my friend. Well, that seemed like it was Jamaican culture, but the purple tree and everything, come on.

54:49
I liked this episode overall. It definitely had the most shocking moment to me when all of a sudden at the very end of this episode, a demon snatches Edwin to go back to hell. I was like, holy shit, next episode, next episode. Yeah, that was horrifying. The next episode, episode seven, was titled The Case of the Very Long Stairway. Now Esther emerges from the ground pissed and confronts the cat king about revealing her trap, beating him to death and taking one of his nine lives. In the process, she learns that Edwin is in hell,

55:18
but has escaped before, which inspires a new plan for Esther. Meanwhile, Charles pleads with Night Nurse to open a portal to Hell for him to save Edwin, and after seeing how the two boys first met, Night Nurse is moved into helping Charles. Using Edwin's notes, Charles navigates Hell, while Edwin finds one of the boys who killed him and despair of the Endless. Crystal meanwhile seeks out her demon ex-boyfriend for her own way into Hell to help Edwin after Charles refused to let her come with him.

55:47
Jenny follows Crystal, however, and she ends up being possessed by David, who then attacks Crystal, though Crystal easily overcomes him. As Esther visits Tragic Mic for parts to a device that will torture Edwin and convert his pain into power, Charles finds Edwin in Hell and the two manage to escape, with Edwin confessing his love for Charles and Charles responding that though Edwin is his very best friend, he's not in love with him back.

56:12
The two continue into the living world amicably, and before Night Nurse can take the two into the afterlife, Nico points out that Night Nurse needs to fill out a specific form before she can transfer the boys into the afterlife. Angry, Night Nurse promises to come back for them before Crystal, having obtained her memories back from David in the form of marbles, swallows one to regain her memory. This is my favorite episode. It was by far the best-

56:37
It was so good, it could have been the season finale. Everything about it was executed really well, especially the unique depiction of hell that we got here. It was just horrifying, but in its own quirky dead boy detective's way, I think. Yeah, like the different levels where people were being punished for their various vices felt very like Dante's Inferno, but you're right, in a very different, kind of more modern, quirky way. The fact that Charles really didn't experience it until he was getting Charles out,

57:07
felt very much like a haunted house of sorts. And it was just creepy. One of the best things I think about this episode was that it kind of subverted expectations as far as formula goes, because my expectation was that Crystal was going to find another route into hell and she was gonna rescue the boys out of hell. And Charles was gonna be proven wrong that he didn't need her to help Edwin. But Crystal's demon.

57:29
didn't have a way into Hell. And so she had this own little arc on her own where she actually tapped into her full potential and got her memories back and everything on her own and had nothing to do with the Hell adventure. And I'm kind of glad it turned out that way because it was nice that the boys had time to themselves. And it was also good that Crystal had that as well for her to kind of face David without the help from the boys. Right, yeah, I made them a stronger characters individually. Absolutely. In the final episode, episode eight titled The Case of the Hungry Snake,

57:59
After remembering her past crimes and abuses of power, Crystal calls her parents to check in, only to learn they didn't even realize she was gone. After Esther finishes and tests her pain-to-power generator, Crystal and Nico reveal to Jenny that she had been possessed and introduced her to the world of the paranormal. When Crystal starts off to leave the team, Esther bombs Jenny's butcher shop with magic and binds Edwin and Charles' souls into lanterns. Crystal returns and together with Nico, visits the Cat King to learn of Esther's past,

58:29
including a pact she made with Lilith for immortality, and her weaknesses, which includes black salt, which they get from Tragic Mick. As Esther activates her machine, consuming large quantities of power, Crystal and Nico sneak into her house and help Charles escape from his iron shackles in order to kill Esther's pet snake, which keeps her young. Crystal and Nico, meanwhile, attack Esther head on, though Esther manages to kill Nico. When Crystal reaches into Esther's mind,

58:57
She convinces Lilith to rescind her bestowal of immortality on Esther. After Charles successfully kills the snake, Esther rapidly ages and is carried off by Lilith for the harm she had done to young girls. After agreeing to have Crystal stay on as a teammate and saying goodbye to Jenny and the Cat King, the boys return to their London office only to be confronted by the Night Nurse and her supervisor, who recognizes the dead boy detective's beneficial work helping ghosts receive closure and cross over.

59:25
and she transfers Night Nurse to Earth to oversee the boys' work. Before the final end credits, we see a hidden figure and an igloo with the dandelion sprites holding a lucky charm that had been owned by Nico. Just when I thought that the story had nowhere really to go after the previous episode, which was so good that I said it could have been the season finale, the show goes and wows me with everything that happened in the final episode. Moments like the butcher shop getting blown up,

59:53
fun moments like Nico and Crystal speaking with the cat king and moments like Nico dying. There was just so much that this last episode delivered on and I was really pleased with it. Yeah, it was nice to see them combat Esther in a way that was much less anticlimactic than the whole mushroom bit. Yeah. It was very much like a bare-knuckle brawl with magic. It was gritty like that, which was pretty cool. And yeah, I'm really happy with how the show ended. I'm...

01:00:21
excited for a second season. I hope we get one. I really hope we do too. I have no idea how the show is performing on Netflix, but I'm sure it has a wide audience. I just hope it reaches them. Yeah, I'm kind of nervous about it because it was in the top 10 Netflix television series for a couple of days, but then it like completely fell out of the top 10. I'm really hoping that word of mouth spreads and more people watch it because I think it's worth watching and I think it's worth the season too.

01:00:47
It's getting good reviews, not only by us, but by a lot of the critics on Rotten Tomatoes. Well, you don't know how I'm going to review this. You don't know a score I'm going to give it. OK, all right. I'm pretty sure it's going to be a good score. Yeah, I mean, I can't lie. It's a terrific show. You know, it's charismatic cast and offbeat charm made for a whimsical mystery horror series and a frighteningly good addition to the Sandman television universe. I'm giving it four out of five stars.

01:01:15
a fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It's not perfect. There were, as I mentioned, some superfluous characters and subplots that were never resolved, but overall I had a blast with the show. It's like my cup of tea. Two a tea. In the same way that Doom Patrol was. Yeah, I would agree that this season was not quite as good as Sandman season one, but you know, just below that and a really enjoyable time. I'm really hoping we see these characters again, whether it be in season two of the Sandman series or, you know, a second season of this show.

01:01:45
The best thing that I can say about it is that, kind of like my adventures with Superman, how I was not excited to review that show and then ended up being completely blown away by it, I feel the same way about Dead Boy Detective Season 1. Yeah, I'm glad you saw the light. I'm glad that DC stuff is impressing you. Yeah, DC's been killing it with their television series lately, for sure. I don't know what to say to that. Why are you being so nice? It costs nothing to pay a compliment. I still in my heart know that Marvel's better in every way. It's just that Charles and Nico have robed off on you. I get it. I see.

01:02:15
I strive to be more like Charles in my daily life, so here's me starting to do that. Awesome. Well, that does it for this review. Let us know what you thought about this show by writing to us at dyna or by visiting us on Instagram, which you can find a link to in our show notes or by going to our website at dynamicduel.com. And on our site, you can also find a link to our Patreon page where you can join our dynamic 2.0 tier and chat with us and fellow listeners. Our fantastic 4 tier, which gets you bonus content each month. Our X-Horse tier.

01:02:44
that makes you an executive producer of this podcast or our newest tier that lets you join our DynaMic Podcast Network. Please don't forget to rate the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podchaser, or on our website. In our next episode, we will be doing a duel and lead up to our review of the X-Men 97 animated series. We're going to be pitting Amazo versus Bastion. Yeah, two highly adaptable Android characters going up against each other. It's going to be a lot of fun.

01:03:13
Get into that matchup as well as the review of X-Men 97 the following week. But that does it for this episode, we want to give a big thanks to our executive producers Ken Johnson, John Strosky, Zachary Hepburn, Dustin Balcombe, Miggy Mathengian, Brendan Estregard, Nathaniel Wagner, Levi Yeaton, Austin Wazilowski, Adrian Dunkerley, Scott Camacho, Adam Spies, Andrew Schunk, Dean Molesky, and Devin Davis for helping make this podcast possible. We'll talk to you guys next week. Up up and away, true believers. I see dead people.

01:03:43
on TV.