Comedy
Dead Boy Detectives
Dead Boy Detectives targets teens in style and story. But it comes with very adult, problematic content.
Waking up in a hospital with no memory of who you are is already inconvenient. Add in people you don’t recognize who want to kill you for something you can’t remember doing … now, that’s just unfair.
But that’s exactly what happens to our hero, an Irishman who’s caught in a devastating car crash while visiting the Australian outback.
When he wakes up, he can’t remember a single thing. Not where he was going, not why he’s in Australia to begin with, not even his name. His only clue to his identity is a slip of paper in his back pocket that seems to be the time and location for a meeting.
So, with the help of a plucky rookie cop named Helen, our hero sets out on a journey to find out who he is — literally. And on the way, he finds out he might not be such a hero after all. Elliot (his name, he soon discovers) made a lot of enemies before losing his memory.
And those enemies don’t particularly care if he remembers what he did to them or not.
If you find the premise of an amnesiac attempting to piece together his complex, violent past a little familiar, you could be forgiven for that. But while Matt Damon’s Jason Bourne took viewers on a nonstop thrill ride, The Tourist slows down to find the comedy in Elliot’s situation (albeit fairly dark comedy). Quirky characters and offbeat moments fill the Australian outback in this mystery series.
Of course, there’s plenty of action to be found, too — and this is where we start to hit some speed bumps. Violence and gory deaths are nearly as prevalent as witty banter. A man is buried alive and struggles to escape, creating a harrowing experience for the viewer. Characters are shot, stabbed and beaten to death with various levels of bloodiness. While no nudity is present, we’re also faced with some suggestive dialogue and situations, as well as drugs, alcohol and a constant stream of foul language.
There is, however, something to be said about the central themes presented here. Elliot is horrified as he realizes the full extent of the crimes he committed in his past, and he tries his best to atone for them. The Tourist is a story about second chances, about wiping the slate clean and seeking forgiveness, no matter the skeletons in your closet.
It’s a shame, then, that it’s held back by its content concerns. While the pilot episode seems somewhat innocent, be on guard for higher levels of violence, drug use and language down the road. They might make you wish you had Elliot’s amnesia too.
Elliot and Helen travel to Ireland to track down Elliot’s family, only to find he has even more enemies at home.
Violence and gore persist into the second season. Elliot is abducted and beaten repeatedly by his captors. He’s knocked unconscious and awakens in a dark room, where he’s forced to dig through the body of a dead pig for a key. We see close-ups of the pig’s organs, and when Elliot removes his hand, it’s covered in blood. He slices his hand on a small shard of glass and must remove the glass from the cut. Elliot’s mother stabs a man in the face; blood flies, and we see a graphic image of the knife in his eye. Elliot throws a Molotov cocktail and lights Donal, one of his captors, on fire. Donal survives, though with significant burns to his face.
While on a train, Elliot and Helen smoke marijuana (we don’t see the drug itself, only smoke filling the compartment). They use a lighter with a design that reads “Vietnamese and gay,” played for laughs. Elliot is shirtless, and he and Helen kiss in bed. Later, one of Elliot’s captors makes a sexual joke to her brother about sleeping with his father (“We have the same daddy,” the brother responds irritably). A man remarks to Elliot’s mother that she has “a big set of balls.” Slater, the detective investigating Elliot’s abduction, believes himself to be in a romantic relationship with a life-sized doll.
Elliot’s kidnappers own a whiskey business, and we see several bottles and crates of alcohol in their hideout. Donal gets drunk and points a gun at Elliot; his sister tells him to sober up, and he leaves still drinking from the bottle. Elliot asks for a drink, and Donal’s brother gives him a whiskey bottle (which Elliot later uses for a Molotov cocktail).
The f-word is said 36 times in this episode, while the s-word is used nine. God’s name is used in vain six times. “D–n” and “b—-rd” are each heard once. The British curses “b–locks” and “bloody” are used once each.
After a serious car crash in the Australian outback, an Irishman wakes up in a hospital with no memory of who he is. Helen, an eager young police officer, helps him track down clues to his identity, while the two must also avoid the mysterious people that want the Irishman dead.
The crash that incapacitates the man (we soon learn his name is Elliot) is extremely sudden and jarring. We witness it from inside the car as it turns over and over, finally stopping with Elliot unconscious and blood on the side of his head. Another man wakes up buried alive in the desert; he has bloody scratches on his face and panics as he tries to escape. We cut back to this claustrophobic and distressing situation throughout the episode. A sudden explosion takes place inside a diner, though no one is injured.
Helen lives with her fiancé, who makes subtly hurtful remarks about her weight and appearance (these are presented in a negative light, but they could be upsetting for some viewers). Luci, a diner waitress, wears a top that partially reveals her midriff. Elliot sleeps shirtless, mostly covered with blankets. We’re shown a brief image of a female nurse writing a romantic email to “Jane,” presumably another woman; the email reads “I can’t stop thinking about you.”
Elliot drinks a beer with Luci and jokes that he hopes he wasn’t an alcoholic before losing his memory. Luci drinks a beer in her kitchen after getting home from work.
The f-word is used eight times, the s-word is used three times, and the Lord’s name is taken in vain four times. “H—” is heard twice, and the British curse “bloody” is used once.
Lauren Cook is serving as a 2021 summer intern for the Parenting and Youth department at Focus on the Family. She is studying film and screenwriting at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. You can get her talking for hours about anything from Star Wars to her family to how Inception was the best movie of the 2010s. But more than anything, she’s passionate about showing how every form of art in some way reflects the Gospel. Coffee is a close second.
Dead Boy Detectives targets teens in style and story. But it comes with very adult, problematic content.
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