Comedy
Dead Boy Detectives
Dead Boy Detectives targets teens in style and story. But it comes with very adult, problematic content.
Welcome to Grimsburg–where a sign introducing people to town says, If you lived here, you’d be dead.
It’s sort of a weird way to welcome someone into your town. Good thing most people don’t really visit Grimsburg.
Turns out, back in the 1600s, a virgin sacrifice went awry and the entire town has been cursed ever since.
That’s one reason Marvin Flute doesn’t want to go back.
He wishes it were his only reason.
But he has an ex-wife he still loves and he’d like to win her over. (Or at least get her back in bed.) And the only way he can do that is to connect with the son he’s ignored up ‘til now.
Oh, and he misses using his “crime mind”–his uncanny ability to see exactly what happened in any violent event–as a beloved and begrudged detective.
It would come in handy in Grimsburg, where people seem to die every single day, be it by a cannibalistic clown, an unhinged lacrosse coach or maybe just a jealous employee at a no-name warehouse.
He doesn’t really care what the case involves, as long as his cyborg partner leaves him mostly alone and he has his badge-y, his cuff-ys and a stiff drink (cough syrup or hard liquor, he isn’t picky), he has all he needs to do the job.
And with every cracked case, he’ll uncover a little bit more about his past in Grimsburg and what it means to be less of a deadbeat dad and more of a family man.
At least, that’s the goal.
Adult cartoons are not my jam. I find them to be crude, crass and not worth my time. And my opinion hasn’t been swayed by reviewing Fox’s latest, Grimsburg.
This TV-14 show is a mix of many things. It has wit, sarcasm and outrageous-but-intelligent writing. And while we’re adding to the few positives that exist, the main character, Marvin, finally realizes that in order to put his family back together, he needs to start by getting to know his son and winning his affections.
That’s sweet. But that’s where the sweetness ends.
Most of the characters, minus Marvin’s young son, are crude, crass, have a bleak outlook on life, drink a lot of alcohol and exchange sexual jokes. There’s a reference to a lesbian couple and, in the first episode, Marvin walks around pantless and his exposed rear is blurred out.
And the majority of the characters, with perhaps a pass for Marvin’s ex-wife, are selfish. Sure, Marvin’s working at being lest selfish–but that’s a discipline he won’t master easily, if ever. And everyone else isn’t really trying.
Oddly enough, there was very little profanity in the first episode. But the violence made up for the lack of language.
A guy’s head gets sawed off (animated, but still); a man loses the majority of his body in an accident; Marvin punches a mirror and his hand is left bloodied; and a psycho killer takes out his victims then sticks them in blocks of ice. A cold touch, you might say.
Am I going to recommend this for your family? No. But you’ll have to decide for yourself if this is the sort of grim show you’ll want streaming in your living room.
Marvin is called back to Grimsburg to solve a violent murder case, and he commits to reconnect with his son and ex-wife while he’s there.
A teenage guy and girl make out in a car. The guy tells his girlfriend he’s been cheating on her with her best friend and practicing his kissing skills on his mom’s throw pillow. Shortly afterward, the guy’s head is sawed off and lands in the girl’s lap, and they have a conversation while he’s decapitated.
Marvin punches the mirror, leaving a shattered mirror and a bloodied hand. Marvin’s cyborg sidekick shares that he lost 72.4% of his body in a bloody accident (part of which we see on screen). A dead body lies on a stretcher at a morgue with a flute in his back.
A wealthy father doesn’t care that his daughter was abducted and is now missing. Bloodied pictures hang on the wall of a criminal investigation.
Marvin misses the “father-son dance” at his son’s school. A lesbian couple talk to a teacher about their daughter.
Marvin walks around pantless with his rear blurred out. Marvin kicks a tree and it exclaims that it has been hit in the “tree-nis.” A man looks at a risque magazine. Marvin’s boss lewdly refers to himself as a “work daddy and mentor.”
A police officer asks Marvin why he’s Friday drunk on a Tuesday. Marvin says that the only thing he’s good at is drinking himself to death.
Marvin tells a friend that Grimsburg has been cursed ever since a virgin sacrifice went awry centuries ago. Marvin’s son has an imaginary skeleton friend named Mr. Flesh.
One character exclaims “oh my God!” Marvin’s ex-wife wants to know why he wants to “face fudge” their entire family again.
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.
