Comedy
Dead Boy Detectives
Dead Boy Detectives targets teens in style and story. But it comes with very adult, problematic content.
Ever found yourself taking on responsibilities you’re not entirely sure you’re prepared for? Well, probably not in the same way Adam has.
Adam Lawrence is a husband, father, and deputy to the chief of British intelligence agency MI6. He’s young for the job, but no one can deny his track record; he’s got a knack for seeking out and busting anti-British activity.
Sort of.
Adam soon receives a rather nasty surprise: the intel that has made his career comes almost exclusively from Kara, a Russian operative who wants Adam in power so she can use him for her own agenda. Oh, and she also happens to be his ex-girlfriend.
As if that wasn’t complicated enough, Kara decides it’s time to get Adam a promotion. She bumps off the chief of MI6, thus bumping Adam up to the command of all British intelligence. And then she threatens to reveal his unwitting treason if he doesn’t do what she wants.
With the eyes of the world upon him, our new chief is faced with a dilemma: If Adam does his job and arrests Kara for her crimes against Britain, he’ll lose the intel that got him through the ranks in the first place. If he protects himself and his career by going along with Kara’s mysterious plans, he’ll be committing treason.
Just another day at the office!
Treason exemplifies the intrigue and backstabbing that make crime thrillers so popular. Upstanding characters worth imitating are few and far between. Our hero may be a loving husband and father, but the lines he’s willing to cross to protect himself seem to become more blurred by the minute. And he’s hardly alone in dirtying his hands. Even the chief of MI6 is shown committing blackmail before being rather inconveniently poisoned.
Corruption runs deep in Treason’s fictional government, but you can be sure that it touches the heart of the show as well. Foul language is prevalent, and though sexuality and gratuitous blood are absent early on, the show is rated TV-MA for language and violence. Expect the latter—and potentially more provocative content as well—in future episodes.
But the central issues here are mostly with the characters themselves. Adam is dishonest with everyone, including his wife, to cover up the illicit nature of his career. MI6 agents blackmail, lie and cheat for political gain, causing the viewer to question whether they’re really all that better than the criminals they’re chasing. Even Adam’s wife, Maddy, secretly records her husband’s conversations in the hopes of uncovering the truth behind his strange behavior.
While not all of the problems with Treason are immediately apparent on the surface, there’s a rottenness eating away at its center. And if the escapades of MI6 have taught us anything, it’s the threats you can’t see that are the most dangerous.
After the chief of MI6 is hospitalized by an assassination attempt, deputy Adam Lawrence is forced to step up and take command, and he soon discovers an ugly truth behind the success of his career.
Sir Martin Angelis, head of MI6, is poisoned by a Russian spy, Kara, who slips something into his drink. He begins to choke and falls to the ground, struggling to breathe, before an ambulance arrives to take him away. Angelis survives, but the same can’t be said for Kara’s accomplice, whom she poisons in the same way. (He reacts similarly to Angelis, only he’s not lucky enough to receive help.) Kara and her driver accidentally hit a cyclist with their van; he flies over the windshield and onto the road, where he lies motionless, but no blood is shown. It’s unclear whether or not he survived the impact.
Adam’s children, tween Callum and teenager Ella, are each put into life-threatening situations. A sniper hiding outside the Lawrence’s house aims at Callum, though the scene ends before we learn whether the gun is fired. Ella is followed by a mysterious woman on her way home from school; she calls her father, frightened, but loses the signal and is forced into a van by mysterious kidnappers.
Angelis attempts to blackmail a politician by threatening to reveal his extramarital affair with a 26-year-old woman. Photos are shown of the couple talking and laughing together while the woman wears a low-cut dress. Adam and his wife, Maddy, kiss passionately in bed, but are stopped from going any further by his phone ringing.
Both Angelis and Kara’s driver are shown drinking (poisoned) whiskey. Maddy and her friend laugh about times when they used to party and drink tequila together. The f-word is used seven times, while the s-word, “d–n,” “b–tard,” “d–k” and “h-ll” are each heard once. God’s name is taken in vain six times.
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.
An elf mage contemplates on connection and regret as she watches her human friends grow old and pass away.
