Comedy
Dead Boy Detectives
Dead Boy Detectives targets teens in style and story. But it comes with very adult, problematic content.
None of us are scared of the dark. Not really. It’s the stuff in the dark that freaks us out.
Take the Fold, a huge mass of magic shadow that bisects the land of Ravka. People who dare enter the fold might make it through. Then again, they might not. Flying critters called volcra haunt its inky domains, which makes it rather inconvenient to cross from the east side of Ravka to the west.
The Fold was created by a Grisha (a sort of element-bending sorcerer) a few hundred years ago. And no man or woman, soldier or Grisha, has been able to find a guaranteed safe passage through in all that time.
Well, not until Alina Starkov, that is.
For most of her young life, Alina was nothing all that special. In fact, many were prone to take an instant dislike to the woman, given that the orphan bore the ethnic characteristics of someone from the nation of Shu Han, Ravka’s hated enemy. Even though she worked as a cartographer in Ravka’s own sprawling army, her friends were few: She’s known her best friend, Mal, from childhood. And they’ve been inseparable ever since, especially now that they’ve decided to take their relationship in a romantic direction.
But that was before Alina’s curious gift manifested itself on a trip through the Fold. While most Grisha have the ability to manipulate fire or air or even the beating of a human heart, she can actually conjure light itself—a super-helpful skill to have in the shadowed Fold against its dark-loving creatures. In fact, such a Grisha had only been prophesied before now, which makes Alina in some people’s eyes a literal saint.
Unfortunately, many saints become martyrs. Several people see Alina more as a tool: to gather wealth, to wage war or perhaps bend the entire land to someone’s will. General Kirigan, leader of the Grisha in Ravka’s army, is one such user.
Kirigan doesn’t want to destroy the Fold, he wants to control it. That’s because, as it turns out, he’s the Grisha who created it hundreds of years ago—the Darkling, they call him.
Alina wasn’t able to stop him—at least, not entirely. She weakened Kirigan in Season One, allowing him to be dragged off by his own volcra. Unfortunately, the battle weakened Alina, too, and she wasn’t able to eliminate the Fold. So now, in Season Two, she’s on a hunt to find a mystical creature that will allow her to bolster her own powers (by killing it and embedding its bones into her skin, I might add) and wipe out the Fold for good.
But it won’t be easy because Kirigan is back, too–stronger than ever. He’s expanding the Fold on a daily basis, commanding the volcra to kill Ravkan soldiers and citizens alike. And many people blame Alina since she was originally in cahoots with the mad Grisha.
It’s a race against Kirigan and the bounty hunters hoping to collect the huge bounty on Alina’s head. And if she fails, the whole world will be consumed by the Fold.
Netflix’s Shadow and Bone is based on Leigh Bardugo’s young-adult Grisha trilogy (the series bears the title of the first book), and some have compared the show to HBO’s Game of Thrones—only more teen friendly.
And that’s true—to a point.
Keep in mind, Game of Thrones was famous for its violence, gore and multitude of unclothed bodies, and the sexual content it showed (even in scenes featuring mainly plot-setting dialogue) was so extreme that it coined a new word: sexposition.
Netflix seems mindful—initially, at least—that Shadow and Bone will be mainly embraced by teens and young adults, and it adheres to Bardugo’s relatively clean-ish tomes in spirit, if not always in substance. And again, in comparison with Game of Thrones, the first season was comparatively well-mannered.
But Netflix originally rated the series TV-MA for nudity (a female character is briefly shown naked from behind). The streaming giant has since done some editing, so the series lands, barely, in TV-14 territory; you see some sensuality, and suggestive references are occasionally made, but not nearly as much skin is shown.
Even without the skin, Shadow and Bone comes with some issues to be aware of: One of our heroes is Kaz Brekker, leader of a gang that attempted to kidnap Alina. The gang isn’t after her anymore, but it’s still perfectly willing to lie, cheat, and steal its way to the prize.
Characters drink and gamble, often losing most of their money in the process, and a male performer is shown in heavy drag before his show. Romance is definitely in the Ravkovian air, and characters kiss and make out. Sex is in the air as well, with brothels and even sexual enslavement being part of the story’s mix. A same-sex couple is also depicted; the pair kiss and are shown in bed after a romantic encounter.
Language can be an issue. And violence? In this war-torn land filled with soldiers, wizards and monsters, it’s a given. And it can get pretty bloody at times. (For instance, the dismembered head of a soldier is tossed at his commander’s feet by a volcra.)
And then there’s the show’s spirituality.
Certainly, any fantasy yarn is going to contain anywhere from a dollop to a huge helping of magic. But Shadow and Bone takes a step further, giving us religion, too. As in our own world, Ravka contains atheists, agnostics and believers. Often, the latter focus their devotion on “saints,” building shrines and altars to these powerful people.
And for some, the mere presence of these so-called saints also points to a higher power—though that power here is rather non-specific. Oh, and for those so inclined, one need not squint very hard to see a hint of divine duality in the show’s most powerful Grisha, those who can summon shadow and light, respectively, which seem strangely drawn to one another.
Netflix’s new show offers a fresh story for fans of fantasy yarns. It’s not as gratuitous as Game of Thrones. But perhaps fittingly for a show predicated on dark and light, Shadow and Bone still packs plenty of gray.
Alina and Mal search for the mystical Sea Whip to make Alina’s powers stronger while avoiding the people trying to collect a bounty on Alina’s head.
Volcra, controlled by Kirigan, attack Ravkan soldiers, beheading one and tossing the head at their commander’s feet. Grisha use their powers for a variety of tasks, including escaping police custody and knocking people unconscious. Alina learns that her dreams of the Fold expanding are actually visions. Some people call Grisha “blessed” and talk about praying to saints.
Alina and Mal make out on a bed, and dialogue suggests they want to do more. They kiss in other scenes as well. We see women standing outside a brothel. Some women wear cleavage-baring outfits.
Kaz, a gang leader, uses a bomb to blow up his old gang headquarters, now controlled by a rival. The rival, Pekka, shoots an officer in order to frame Kaz for murder (and we hear Pekka killed another person for the same reason). People are held at gunpoint. Warriors threaten violence. Several fistfights occur. Dead fish are chopped up at a market. Kaz has triggering flashbacks of when a plague killed his family. A man is held down by prison guards while they tattoo “murderer” on his back. Several soldiers kidnap Grisha and chain them up in cages for the volcra to consume when the Fold expands. (They are rescued.)
Thievery occurs. People talk about drinking and gambling. There’s a single use of “b–tards.” A prison is named “Hellgate.”
After soldiers break a vase while chasing Mal, Mal returns to pay the merchant for the loss. Several citizens blockade soldiers wrongly chasing after Alina and Mal.
Alina, along with stowaways Mal, Kaz, Inej, and Jesper, is taken deep into the Fold to demonstrate her sun-summoning abilities, and a battle is waged for control of her powers.
The final battle is here, and a battle it is—characters brawl and wrestle, fire guns at each other, and stab each other with knives. Heartrenders (Grisha with the power to physically control a person’s heart) use their abilities to crush people’s bones and either incapacitate or kill them. Alina has a crown of stag antlers melded with her collarbone, a result of amplifying her powers in a previous episode, providing a rather grotesque image. Since our characters are deep within the Fold, the volcra (clawed, flying creatures that prey on anyone who enters their domain) are very much present, flying around and attacking those on the skiff. Blood flies and splatters, and by the end of the fight, very few people are left completely unscathed.
Nina, a Heartrender stranded in a strange country with a Grisha hunter named Matthias, references a foreign tradition where participants get drunk and ride naked through the streets. She and Matthias almost kiss but are interrupted. People drink beer at a pub. Foul language is fairly sparse, with one use of ‘d–ned”, and characters use the word ‘saints’ as a replacement for taking God’s name in vain.
[Spoiler warning] General Kirigan, who we’ve learned at this point is the infamous Black Heretic and maker of the Fold, uses his creation to engulf the town of Novosibirsk. We hear screaming and watch from a distance as the volcra pick up helpless citizens and carry them away.
In a flashback, we see Alina and her best friend, Mal, in a Ravkan orphanage. As adults serving in the country’s army, they’re still as inseparable as their duties allow. So when Mal is drafted to take a skiff through the perilous Fold, the cartographer Alina figures out a way to join him—by burning a number of maps of the other side of the fold that cartographers like Alina will have to replicate. She gets her wish. But when the monstrous volcra attack their vessel, Alina discovers a power that may lead her in a new direction. Meanwhile, Kaz Brekker and a group of fellow scalawags called the Dregs try to snag the rights to a lucrative, under-the-table job—one that his much more ruthless rival, Pekka, also covets.
Pekka attacks the proprietor of a brothel and gambling hall, storming in with a bevy of heavies and smashing the guy’s kneecaps. He brandishes a knife as he talks, threatening to kill the owner. And when we see his muscle mop the floor clean of blood, it’s suggested Pekka made good on his threat. (He also killed the owner’s bodyguard, as well.)
The volcra do even more damage to the men and women they come across—snatching several off a ship to kill offscreen. (One person is pulled away with such force that she smashes a hole through a wooden wall.) Volcra are shot and cut with knives, too, and many meet their end through a sudden display of magic. Mal engages in organized fisticuffs with another man: fists fly, a head is butted and Mal’s opponent eventually lies on the ground. (The two later walk out of the fighting tent together, showing no hard feelings.) Someone is shot in the head. Grisha literally play with fire. We hear that Alina’s parents were taken by the Fold. Alina and Mal joke about shooting the other in the foot.
We hear someone reference a legend of a “saint who can summon the sun and destroy [the Fold].” Saints are mentioned elsewhere, too, and someone is called out for her faith. References are made to miracles.
A worker at a brothel is hired for an hour—but only to talk with someone. (We hear references to women who are essentially enslaved in that place and in other brothels.) A brothel owner says that there are “fine girls there. Fine boys, too.” Someone shows a bit of cleavage. A couple of men fight without shirts. Someone steals a bit of fruit from a tent, and then is propositioned by the inhabitant. (We see her show off some modest undergarments as she suggests to her visitor that she likes to “have a tumble with a stranger” to take the edge off. (“Tumble” is the series euphemism for sex.) Someone discusses nude artwork.
Characters drink on occasion. We also hear the s-word and several other profanities, including “b–tard,” “d–n” and “h—,” along with a possible f-word during a battle.
Lauren Cook is serving as a 2021 summer intern for the Parenting and Youth department at Focus on the Family. She is studying film and screenwriting at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. You can get her talking for hours about anything from Star Wars to her family to how Inception was the best movie of the 2010s. But more than anything, she’s passionate about showing how every form of art in some way reflects the Gospel. Coffee is a close second.
Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.
Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.
Dead Boy Detectives targets teens in style and story. But it comes with very adult, problematic content.
An elf mage contemplates on connection and regret as she watches her human friends grow old and pass away.
