Comedy
Dead Boy Detectives
Dead Boy Detectives targets teens in style and story. But it comes with very adult, problematic content.
Gabi is an unconventional hero–a woman dedicated to finding the missing. The underrepresented.
When she was a child, Gabi was kidnapped and kept in a basement–serving as a sort of slave for a man she only knew as Sir.
One day, an 8-year-old girl named Lacey joined her in that basement of horrors. Gabi knew she had to protect Lacey. And at the opportune moment, she did just that: Gabi beat their kidnapper with a cast-iron skillet and she and Lacey ran for their lives.
That was years ago, but the authorities never found her kidnapper. And the memories of her time in that basement still haunt her. Still, she’s trying to turn the evil that happened to her into good.
Which is why she now runs her crisis management firm as a recovery specialist, working alongside her team to find those who have fallen through the cracks and return them safely to their homes.
Gabi is the team lead–the brains of the operation. She uses her traumatic kidnapping, tenacity and, yes, desire for revenge to bring evildoers to justice and save vulnerable people.
Lacey, the same girl who shared that basement with Gabi, now works for her as a sharp-witted lawyer, specializing in helping Gabi stay out of jail when her zeal for justice crosses the line of legality.
Margaret Reed holds the office’s superpower: acute attention to detail. She honed that skill when her own son went missing when he was a boy. And it’s something she’s mastered to clue in on key details others miss.
Zeke Wallace is the agoraphobic tech expert who uses his computer skills to track down the enemy … from the safety of his own space.
Dhan Rana is a fellow detective, pulling from his own traumatic past that included abduction, to help his team.
And, finally, Mark Trent is a police officer who helps Gabi and her team. He knows Gabi’s doing good work, and he wants to brings perpetrators to justice, too. But he may also help because of his feelings for Gabi.
This team is unbeatable. And although the media can’t seem to get enough of these vigilantes, their behavior and one-step-ahead-of-the-law luck drives the cops crazy.
If only it were luck.
See, Gabi has a secret: She’s hiding her childhood kidnapper hostage in her basement. And the only way he’ll stay alive is if he helps her uncover each demented case from the perspective of a psychopath.
NBC’s show Found is sort of like the psycho-thriller Secret in Their Eyes, featuring Julia Roberts and Nicole Kidman. But it focuses on minority and underrepresented groups and is less demented in some ways and, so far, less graphic.
I read a lot of reviews on this show, with many critics calling it “shallow” and saying that it makes light of trauma. And to a degree it does. Yet, it presents horrific acts and nightmarish scenarios in a way that’s … digestible?
That’s not something I could say for Secret in Their Eyes when I saw it for the first time. I was horrified and I can still recall specific details I’d rather forget.
This show likely won’t get to that point because of its TV-14 rating and network standards keeping it just a wee bit less problematic. And for that, I’m thankful.
Still, it’s filled with fast-paced issues.
There’s mild violence that hints at further violence to come. There’s some smattered profanity, and characters wear revealing outfits that are typically used for undercover operations. Gabi mentions that her next case involves a trans woman. There’s also the potential for Gabi’s horrific past to reveal sexual abuse.
And perhaps the most disturbing elements of all are the details of the kidnappings (which will vary per episode, driving this show) and the fact that a man is kept chained in Gabi’s basement–offering his demented advice to find victims.
Clearly, that disregard for the law is a big problem. But Gabi is a strong leader who cares for those who have been through trauma, including her staff. She believes in people and encourages them to work until there is a positive resolution.
Thankfully there’s resolution for one case at the end of the first episode. But who’s to say that will keep? We know in real life that is, dishearteningly, not always the case.
Gabi and her team of recovery specialists work hard to find a teen foster girl; Gabi has an illegal secret weapon that nobody knows about.
Flashbacks show Gabi as a teen, abducted and forced to live in the basement of a man’s house. This same man, whom Gabi calls Sir, also abducts another young girl and forces her and Gabi to read from a script and role play during dinner. Gabi hits Sir in the head with a frying pan and she and her young friend escape to freedom.
Gabi and her team investigate foster parents who are accused of locking their foster children in their rooms with deadbolts on the outside of the doors. A pedophile, we hear, was on a sex offender registry. A woman nearly jumps to her death but Gabi’s team saves her.
Gabi wears a cleavage-baring top and tight shorts, an outfit that helps her get into character to distract a kidnapper and save a missing boy, whom she finds huddled in a warehouse. Gabi punches this kidnapper with brass knuckles, causing him to bleed. Gabi mentions once that she “scratched an itch” with a male police officer with whom she occasionally works.
Gabi and her team break the law to find kidnapped persons. A senator’s son is found to be a drug addict, and his dealer kidnaps his sister and another young woman and holds them for ransom. Gabi says that a trans woman has been kidnapped.
Men and women alike use words such as “a– ,” “b–ch,” “d–mit” and “d–n.” A young Gabi tells her kidnapper “screw your script.”
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.
