Comedy
Dead Boy Detectives
Dead Boy Detectives targets teens in style and story. But it comes with very adult, problematic content.
“Nothing bad ever happens at the Riviera Grand.”
Except that it does—a lot. It just so happens that Santiago and Gigi Mendoza are really good at covering it all up. Of course, money and influence probably have a lot to do with that. Too bad their luck (and money) are both starting to run out.
Alicia Mendoza, Santiago’s daughter, has returned home from college after earning her MBA from Cornell. She’s been preparing to run the Riviera her whole life, and she is full of ideas on how to improve it.
Unfortunately, shortly after arriving, she finds out that her father is selling her beloved hotel to her stepsister’s new fiancé. Turns out, Santiago has been borrowing money from “not-the-bank,” and he can’t think of any other way to repay his debts. But Alicia’s not letting it go without a fight. The Riviera Grand is her home: It holds all the memories of her dearly departed mother, and the staff adores her (including a new waiter named Danny).
But sweet Alicia doesn’t have time for romance, at least, not yet. And she’ll have to get a lot more conniving if she wants to save her family’s hotel. For one, there’s the “evil” stepmother and stepsisters. “They’re harmless if you just ignore the hideous things they say,” she says. But are they? We already know that Gigi is helping her husband cover up a missing line cook, Sky. Not to mention whatever secret Sky was threatening to expose about Santiago.
Alicia’s brother, Javi, hates their new stepfamily as much as Alicia does. Alas, he isn’t much help. Javi has a bionic leg (which Santiago is apparently responsible for) and spends his days feeling sorry for himself and picking up female guests by the pool. To be fair, he recognizes that he’s a bit of a screw-up (at least he’s in rehab) and praises his sister for her hard work at college, but his playboy ways are definitely going to cause him trouble.
The staff of the Riviera is dedicated and hard-working, but they have their own issues as well. Helen Parker, the seemingly innocent manager, practically raised Alicia and Javi alongside her own son, Jason. But if the hotel is sold, she and everyone else will be out of a job.
Meanwhile Jason, who’s been working there since high school, is obviously in love with Ingrid. But she’s pregnant with coworker Mateo’s baby. And remember how I said that Javi’s playboy ways are going to cause trouble? Well, they already are. When Mateo doesn’t step up the way Ingrid had hoped, she tells Javi that the baby is his. So it’ll be interesting to see how that plays out. Especially when Ingrid finds Javi sleeping with her mother. Awkward.
And we can’t forget new hire, Danny. Helen doesn’t like him – especially when she finds out his resume is fake. But the Riviera is desperate for good workers; and after Danny helps break up a fight at Carolina’s wedding, he has the boss man’s approval. It won’t be that easy, though. He’ll have to keep up this façade if he wants to spend more time with Alicia, and more importantly, if he wants to find out what really happened to his sister, Sky. It’s been a month since her mysterious disappearance during a hurricane, and even Alicia thinks her father’s silence on the matter is strange.
If all that sounds pretty soapy, it is. This TV-PG ABC drama is drenched in lewd behavior (albeit at network TV levels): drinking, greed, sex, betrayal, vengeance and possibly murder. And even the “good guys” here don’t always play nice. Alicia and Danny are painted as the protagonists, but neither is above lying and manipulating. Likewise, Helen and Jason are the arguably the most morally grounded characters here. But even they share dark streaks.
Grand Hotel may have some more shocking twists and turns locked away in secret rooms. But overall, the content issues in themselves are anything but shocking, but rather predictably problematic.
Alicia Mendoza and her ex-boyfriend, Danny, search for Danny’s missing sister, Sky. Gigi Mendoza works to hide a devastating secret from her husband and hotel owner, Santiago Mendoza. Hotel manager Helen Parker works to keep a dark secret hidden from her dying husband.
A man is shot in the stomach and left for dead. Two men get into a fistfight. A husband covers up a murder for his wife after he finds her covered in the victim’s blood. A cook is threatened at gun point, hit over the head and killed. Members of the hotel staff attend the funeral of a beloved worker.
A couple lies in bed together after sex (the man is shirtless and the woman wears a bra). A young woman wears a revealing dress and cleavage-baring top. A woman kisses her girlfriend on the neck. A husband learns his wife had an affair early on in their marriage and that she has an estranged son.
A man struggles with staying sober, referencing his former use of “pills and bourbon.” Men and women alike consume hard liquor and wine. An elderly woman jokes about using cocaine.
God’s name is misused once and “h—,” “b-lls” and “son of a b–ch” are each used once or twice.
Alicia arrives home from college for stepsister Carolina’s wedding only to discover that her father is selling the family hotel to Carolina’s fiancé, Byron. As she tries to convince her dad to not sell the family’s hotel, she falls for Danny, a new waiter at the Riviera. When she finds out who he really is, she immediately tells him that nothing can happen between them, much to Danny’s disappointment. But he’s got bigger problems to deal with, since he’s investigating the disappearance of his sister, Sky, who went missing from the hotel just one month before.
Gigi stands nude on the balcony of one of the hotel’s suites, but only her bare back visible. Her husband comments that she is giving the whole city a “show.” She dons a skimpy robe and kisses Santiago. Elsewhere, Javi is seen in bed with a young woman. (He’s in his underwear, she’s wearing a nighty.)
Multiple references are made to his sexual escapades throughout the episode. He convinces another female patron at the pool to lie to her boyfriend and come up to his room. Upstairs, they start kissing passionately, and we see their undergarments thrown onto a chair. When she tries to remove the sock covering his missing leg, he flips her over on the bed and ends the encounter. Carolina kisses a celebrity regular at the hotel named El Rey, and it is implied that they have sex. Alicia comes to El Rey’s room to talk and catches Carolina coming out of the shower in only a towel. Some women wear revealing outfits.
Danny sees a woman lying facedown in the pool and “rescues” her only to find out that it’s just Alicia relaxing. The camera lingers on him as he removes his shirt to continue swimming. At the pool and beach, men are shirtless and women wear bikinis. Ingrid is pregnant out of wedlock to a coworker named Mateo; when she tells the father, he tells her he will pay for the “appointment,” referring to an abortion. She then lies to Javi, telling him the baby is actually his. During a hurricane, Santiago assures his guests that the hotel will still be there tomorrow. He then crosses himself and jokingly prays to God amid laughter from the guests.
Sky is threatened by Gigi and then chased by an unseen assailant through the hotel and into the winds of hurricane raging outside, where she is knocked unconscious and dragged off. El Rey almost fights Danny after Danny accidentally spills a tray full of drinks on him. El Rey continually calls Yoli “Gordita” and says he likes women “thick and juicy.” She tells El Rey that if he calls her that again, she’ll break his face. Byron body slams El Rey at the wedding, and his groomsmen join the fight. Byron punches Santiago in the face and then Danny throws him down and flips another groomsman on his back, essentially ending the fight. Yoli pushes Carolina into the pool for sleeping with El Rey.
Adults drink alcohol throughout the episode, especially at parties. Santiago tells the bar to stop serving Javi when he has had too much to drink. “D–n,” “p-ssed off,” “shut up,” “a—” and “crap” are all used once. We hear a couple crude references to the male anatomy. A woman is referred to as a “vulture,” and Helen rudely calls Ingrid “completely useless” to her face. Byron also comments on how “hot” Carolina is. A woman is called a “slut.” God’s name is taken in vain seven times.
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.
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.
