Comedy
Dead Boy Detectives
Dead Boy Detectives targets teens in style and story. But it comes with very adult, problematic content.
In 1970, Victor Dantas was training to become a professional scuba diver.
Ignoring his father’s wishes for him to become a doctor, Victor insists that he can make a profession of his passion. And he leaves his father’s house in order to pursue his dream of diving and fishing.
He is soon offered a job with a special unit of the Brazilian military—one that works to prevent drug trafficking.
And before he knows it, Victor is diving deep into the ocean to track down drug drops in order to stop cocaine from entering the streets of Rio de Janeiro.
Fast-forward to 1999 and Victor’s 18-year-old son, Pedro Dom is a drug addict.
Despite Victor’s work on the front lines of the drug war, it didn’t stop his son from becoming addicted to cocaine.
Pedro parties it up in the favelas (Brazilian slums), drinking, smoking, snorting cocaine and having sex. But he soon starts crossing other lines.
He pursues the mistress of a gang leader, painting a target on his back with other miscreants around town. He starts trafficking drugs himself, making him a target for local law enforcement (including his dad).
Dom is the story of a father desperately trying to save his son. Based on true events, the real Victor was unable to do so. And after his son became one of the most notorious drug lords in Brazil, Pedro tragically died at the age of 23.
Lydia Wang wrote for Refinery 29 that Dom “is about crime, yes, but more than that, it’s about the complicated, strong, and often heartbreaking relationship between a father and son on two very different life paths.”
Though there’s no telling if the show will renew for a second season, it’s unfortunately very clear that Dom doesn’t offer much more beyond that father-son dichotomy.
People have sex and we see lots of exposed skin. Several murders take place, and we also see some domestic abuse towards women. Cursing is frequent, with multiple uses of the f-word each episode. And finally, if it wasn’t obvious already, drug use pervades the entire show, from heavy drinking and smoking to people nearly dying from snorting lines of cocaine.
In 1970, Victor works with the military to stop drug trafficking. In 1999, he tries to save his drug-addict son from a dangerous lifestyle.
That son, Pedro, has sex with a girl and we see his exposed backside. People dance and drink at parties. We see lots of exposed skin as well as grinding and groping (including some same-sex pairings). Couples make out on the dance floor. We see people in swimsuits at the beach.
A young Victor witnesses a drug deal go down and is shot at while trying to alert the authorities. People drink and smoke throughout the episode, and we also see people using cocaine. Pedro tells his dad that smoking will kill him.
While high on cocaine, Pedro nearly passes out. He attacks Victor, who hugs Pedro into submission. Victor then handcuffs Pedro to a bed, and Pedro gives up the cocaine he has on him. Later, Pedro picks the lock on the cuffs, and eventually, he searches his dad’s house for the cocaine. He winds up trading his dad’s laptop for more cocaine.
People carry guns while partying. Victor loads and fires his gun at one party to get the attention of his son. Several people point guns at him but no one fires. Pedro is carried off at gunpoint by a bodyguard and is heavily beaten in an alley. A woman is yanked away from the man she is dancing with, called a “whore” and then hit by her boyfriend. Victor roughly grabs a woman when she refuses to give him information. A man breaks a picture frame in frustration. Someone smashes Pedro’s phone. Two harpooners find a rotting corpse in the ocean. We hear a gunshot at the end of the episode as the screen goes black.
There are multiple uses of the f-word and s-word, as well as “d–n,” “d–mit,” “a–,” “a–hole” and “h—.” God’s name is misused, including a pairing with “d–mit.”
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.
