Comedy
Dead Boy Detectives
Dead Boy Detectives targets teens in style and story. But it comes with very adult, problematic content.
If there’s something strange in your neighborhood, who you gonna call?
Animal Control!
Yeah, it doesn’t have as nice a ring to it, but when there’s possums and other corporeal pests running around your house, they’re likely going to be your best bet. Unless, of course, dispatch sends anyone from Seattle’s Northwest division. If that’s the case, you’re better off keeping your phone in your pocket.
The team is a mix of the incompetent and the mischievous. Sometimes, they’ll mess around with each other while they’re out on call, like when team leader Frank sticks a piece of jerky in new hire Shred’s pants just before they enter a pasture full of ostriches. Other times, they’ll just simply mess up, like when Shred nearly burns a couple’s house down while chasing a weasel.
The common theme? Maybe it’d be better for you to just accept that weasel as an unexpected new pet.
You’ve seen this show before.
It’s had many names: Blockbuster; American Auto; Superstore. Spurred by the popularity of mockumentaries like The Officeand Parks & Recreation, Animal Control is yet another comedy looking to find its place within an abundance of comedies based around incompetent employees managing chaotic work spaces.
As such, the jokes are familiar and recycled, looking to generate a few cheap jokes through references to sexual content (which includes LGBT characters)—and don’t expect the jokes to get much more complex than that. Perhaps the best joke is a network called Fox premiering a series called Animal Control. As for the show, well, it doesn’t seem to have much control at all.
Animal Control is called to dispatch amorous raccoons during the creatures’ mating season. Shred, Frank and Victoria (Animal Control’s resident lesbian Kiwi) navigate love woes of their own.
We hear some vulgar descriptions of animal mating habits. A gaze of raccoons terrorizes a bowling alley, drinking the booze (and vomiting it back up), throwing bowling pins and, in the case of one critter, getting amorous with the bowling balls.
A few couples kiss. We see some cleavage. A woman tells a man to follow her into a bedroom, implying that she wants to have sex with him, but she sneaks out the window instead.
Victoria, who is gay, is scared to lose her green card status when her “husband” (really just a guy she married to gain citizenship), Diego, asks her for a divorce. She employs Amit to share his own marriage woes (his wife is about to give birth to their fourth child and has just been put on bedrest) to convince Diego not to marry someone else. But Diego, who loves his real fiancée, chooses to go through with the wedding anyway. And this helps Amit realize how much he really loves his wife, too.
A woman threatens to hit a raccoon with a bowling ball, but Frank stops her, stating that it would cost them a lot of paperwork and is “wildly inhumane.” A man is punched in the face by a raccoon. We hear that Shred accidentally knocked down a group of toddlers at a trampoline park. Bettany, the new receptionist for Animal Control, hints that she may have damaged the vehicle of a woman stressing out her boss. There are some verbal threats from other characters, but none are followed through. And there’s a joke about suicide.
Frank tries to assert his authority over Shred with childish antics, even though he’s no longer Shred’s superior officer. A man bemoans his wife’s pregnancy, planning a trip to Hawaii that caters to his needs instead of hers. Some folks are accused of lying (though it seems they’re innocent). Someone mentions “urine-filled kiddie pools.” Emily, director of Animal Control, goes through a bit of an existential crisis when she realizes the city doesn’t consider her department to be “essential.” People take advantage of her in this vulnerable state. Some people drink wine.
Someone says the “universe” is rewarding them. There are seven misuses of God’s name and one use of “h—.”
Frank looks for a way to get rid of a new coworker while another coworker, Victoria, looks to adopt a dog.
Victoria references drugs at a party, and she says they caused her to wake up naked on a boat filled with other naked people. Victoria also complains when Fred hits it off with another female coworker, lamenting that he might get to have sex with a woman “we’ve all been trying to nail for years.” When a bathroom form needs a signature, Victoria signs a crude nickname referencing oral sex instead. Fred asks Frank if he knew that snails could have sex with themselves. A man references his wife’s libido. When Fred is chased by ostriches, Frank tells him that “they either see you as a food source or a potential mate; either way, I would just let nature take its course.” To escape the ostriches, Fred strips to his boxers, yelling about how the birds could’ve taken his genitals. A man’s name references male genitalia. Fred exposes his rear to a man, though it is censored for us.
A weasel runs into a fireplace. It then runs out of it on fire, setting a couch and ottoman ablaze. Fred falls off a ladder and hits a man in the eye on the way down. We later see that man wearing a bandage on his eye. Someone makes a reference to counselors that are used in the wake of mass shootings. A dead body is covered by a blanket, and we’re told it’s been there for three days.
Coworker Amit sings a song filled with references to defecation to help his child gain the confidence to use the bathroom. A man talks about his incontinent dog. A woman yells at her coworkers for urinating on the floor rather than in the toilet.
A man drinks wine. Someone makes a reference to cocaine.
God’s name is abused six times, and “h—” is used once. We also hear “douche” twice. Someone is called a “rube,” and someone else is called a crude name for someone who is overly obedient.
Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”
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.
