Comedy
Dead Boy Detectives
Dead Boy Detectives targets teens in style and story. But it comes with very adult, problematic content.
At Blackmarsh, everyone is a child of Mommy. Everyone listens. Everyone obeys. Everyone looks the same. Just like Mommy wants it.
And at Blackmarsh, no one falls out of line.
Or, at least, no one had, until 8-year-old Sara is abducted in broad daylight and adopted into the Blackmarsh “family,” called the Kindred. She is renamed Asha and, unlike the rest of her new siblings, she refuses to conform.
No matter how much meditation she’s forced to do, how much she’s bribed or threatened or nearly beaten, she will not accept that this is her new home, that she has a new name or that these people, who all look the same, are her new family.
Which creates a lot of problems. Especially for 13-year-old Amy who has been put in charge of making sure Sara acclimates.
Amy understands the way of the Kindred. And Mommy trusts Amy to perform well.
But Sara tells Amy that this is not the only way to live. She tells her that outside this false utopia is love, affection and freedom.
And with each piece of new information that Sara shares, with each act of defiance, Amy begins to question everything she’s ever known–including Mommy herself.
It’s never appealing to watch a show about children, or anyone else, being abducted, abused and manipulated. These were my thoughts as I watched Hulu’s miniseries, The Clearing.
Based on a novel by J.P. Pomare, this Australian psycho-thriller (based loosely on a cult from the ‘60s called The Family) boasts some solid acting and popular actors such as Guy Pearce, Miranda Otto and Julia Savage. But it’s also incredibly heavy and disturbing.
The series flips between the past, where Sara and Amy deal with the intense cruelty of the cult, and the present, where protective mother Freya watches over her young son, Billy, as she wrestles with her own traumatic past and constantly fears that he will be abducted.
Clearly, and we see this in later episodes, this woman has a connection with the Kindred and wants to, we think, save the children they are still trying to abduct. But the explanation of that connection, and how these two worlds collide, is doled out one episode at a time.
In the meantime, viewers are given plenty to watch and observe.
Mommy, also known as Adrienne, is the cult “goddess” who gives spiritual guidance and regulations to those who follow her. And to those who don’t, she gives psychedelic drugs and abuse of many kinds (although, rarely, is this ever done by Mommy herself).
In just the first episode, mental, emotional and spiritual abuse takes place, as well as physical abuse aimed at children. It’s horrific and very difficult to watch. There is also a constant level of shame and manipulation, which you’d expect of a series about a cult. There are also many hints that, at some point, Amy will be raped. It’s not clear at what age, but it’s hinted that 13-year-old Amy is to bear a child for the cult–sooner rather than later.
Only future episodes will show just how graphic this will be. And although there’s no profanity (in the first episode), there are enough horrors and heavy overtones to let viewers know that there’s not much hope here.
In the past, 8-year-old Sara is kidnapped and taken to a cult known as the Kindred, but she refuses to be brainwashed and longs to escape. In the present, a woman named Freya struggles with PTSD from her experience with the Kindred and longs to protect her son, whom she fears is in danger of being kidnapped by the cult.
Sara’s kidnappers put a chloroform rag over her mouth and, once they arrive at their destination, they change her name to Asha, which she detests.
The children, along with the adult women in the community “Aunties,” fear the return of “Mommy.” The children also live in constant fear of physical and verbal punishment and must be perfect at all times. They’re forced to exercise daily and they’re nearly starved each day.
One of the “Aunties” hates Sara and the punishment Sara’s rebellion brings upon the adult woman, so the Auntie tries to beat her with a belt: She is stopped before she can do so. Another time, this Auntie succeeds in using the belt on 13-year-old Amy, while the matriarch of the home listens to her pain on the phone. Amy takes Sara’s physical punishment upon herself.
“Mommy” asks Amy if she is ready to “grow up,” insinuating that she soon be raped. She then asks Amy if she wants to have a child of her own that will be raised by the Kindred.
The children are made to meditate every day and listen to recordings of “Mommy’s” affirmations. Someone makes a joke about having “negative energy.” The Aunties and other workers are told that they must “evolve” and walk into the cult’s concept of “the Awakening.”
Kristin Smith joined the Plugged In team in 2017. Formerly a Spanish and English teacher, Kristin loves reading literature and eating authentic Mexican tacos. She and her husband, Eddy, love raising their children Judah and Selah. Kristin also has a deep affection for coffee, music, her dog (Cali) and cat (Aslan).
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.
