Comedy
Dead Boy Detectives
Dead Boy Detectives targets teens in style and story. But it comes with very adult, problematic content.
Jane just wants to fit in.
A former New York City gal, Jane and her Italian-Puerto Rican family have just relocated to a small town. And since they moved there during the summer, Jane has a little time to adjust before entering Rydell High.
A known bookworm, Jane isn’t expecting many sparks in high school. But to her own surprise, she falls in love with popular football jock Buddy, and they have a pretty hot-and-heavy summer.
Indeed, the summer was so hot and heavy that Jane begins her first day in a new school (as a junior) with everyone believing–wrongly–that she and Buddy have “gone all the way.” And while that rumor may get Buddy many a pat on the back in the locker room, it will obliterate Jane’s reputation.
And it does. Now, instead of wearing Buddy’s jacket and dancing around in puppy-dog love, Jane is trying to figure out how to clear her name as things continue to get worse. She can’t date Buddy anymore. She can no longer be a popular cheerleader with all the “good girls,” and she certainly doesn’t fit in with the Hispanic “T-Birds.”
She wants to disappear.
But that won’t solve her problems. And it seems that the only way to fight back is to join up with fellow outcasts T-Bird Olivia, wannabe T-Bird Cynthia and fashion guru Nancy to form The Pink Ladies, and run for class president against the man himself: ex-boyfriend Buddy.
Paramount+’s spin-off of the famous 1978 musical Grease, starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. The spin-off is set in the 1950s and it’s called Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies.
This is supposed to be an origin story of sorts, telling how the Pink Ladies came to be, just with a modern day twist. And that means a few things.
First, it means that sexuality is on full blast here. Let’s not pretend that the original film was squeaky clean. But this go-round wants its audience to understand that girls won’t be made to feel ashamed for their sexual and personal choices. In fact, they will be liberated by them no matter how they may clash in the face of tradition.
This show isn’t really about a Romeo and Juliet love story the way that the original was. The beginning starts off that way, but it quickly turns into telling viewers that “a girl’s reputation is all that she has.” And, in this case, that’s used sometimes for the better but, mostly, for worse.
Any young high school girl who veers off of the path set before her (one that will inevitably include marriage, cooking, cleaning and rearing children) is demonized by vicious rumors. At first, Jane and her clan decide to ignore the rumors and play it safe within the school’s predetermined cliques. But when Jane decides to run for class president, she throws tradition out the window and forms a ragtag team of women who are all social outcasts, some even labeled “whores” and “sluts.”
In addition to this sexual slant, it’s clear that there are some gay students, although the first episode doesn’t go any further than expound upon some stereotypes. There’s plenty of teen drinking and even drinking and drug use from parents. There’s also a very clear message that women do not need men, and one scene even shows that the women who choose to stay at home, raise their children and love their families are miserable alcoholics, often addicted to pills, desperate for love and affection and oppressed.
Sure, the high school rivalries will remind you of the original film, the vocals are impressive and catchy and many of the characters are likable and even semi-funny, but that doesn’t feel like enough.
Grease is back, yes, but that doesn’t mean it’s better.
Jane is the new girl at Rydell High, but she accidentally acquires a bad reputation that she’s willing to embrace with the help of friends Olivia, Cynthia and Nancy.
Jane and her summer boyfriend, Buddy, make out. Buddy gets very handsy, fondling Jane’s breasts and reaching up her dress. Later, the two talk about how they went “pretty far” (but didn’t actually have sex). Rumors that they did, though, ruins Jane’s reputation (she’s called a “slut” and a “whore”). It only makes Buddy more popular. Someone tells the student body that Jane is seeking treatment for “nymphomania,” that she’s “knocked up” and now has a “venereal disease.”
Teen boys and girls make out and feel one another up in a few different scenes. Dancers kiss and thrust their bodies (there are other sexually charged moves as well). Rumors swirl that Olivia had sex with a teacher the previous year and that Jane and Buddy “went all the way,” which she later confirms is a lie. A group of high school boys cat call numerous girls. Jane and her female friends, along with a group of rebellious boys, expose their rear ends to the entire school. A boy gets kicked “right in the jewels.” Gay male students applaud the tenacity and fearlessness of Jane and her crew.
A group of young women at Rydell High make fun of the notion that one day they will rear children, clean a home and cook for their husbands. Nancy gets a needle stuck through her middle finger, which she then has bandaged and uses to perform a crude gesture throughout the episode.
Every student at Rydell High spreads rumors that are very hurtful, mostly toward women. Teens drink alcohol and party and mention “smoking reefer.”
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.
