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Page 16 Shelton-Mason County Journal Thursday, May 9, 2024
’Dead Boy Detectives’ misses details, but still fun
1 looks like liorks wont be
the only corner ofthe Ulym~
pic Peninsula to gain fame
from a supernatural entertain—
ment trz'inchise, given the criti—
cal and audience acclaim that
Netiiix’s “Dead Boy l7)etr;:ctives”
have garnered since all eight
episodes of their first season
began streaming,r April 25.
The original “Dead Boy De-
tectives” were co-created by
writer Neil Gaiman for his DC
Comics V ertigo imprint series,
“The Sandman,” and just as
Netfiix began adapting that
75-issue, 1989-96 comic book
title with an ll-episode first
season in 2022, so too have
its youthful deceased sleuths,
Charles Rowland and Edwin
Payne,just become part ofNet-—
flix’s “Sandman” shared on-
screen universe.
More locally significant, just
as the “Twilight” vampire fan—
tasy franchise started by Ste-
phenie Meyer put the town of
Forks on the map of pop culture
consciousness, so too did Nettlix
elect to set the first season of its
“Dead Boy Detectives” stream-
ing series in Port Townsend.
Those who live and work in
Port Townsend will quickly spot
that the series was not filmed
in their hometown. Shooting
took place in the city of Lang-
ley, a municipality in the Metro
Vancouver Regional District of
British Columbia, although the
show’s frequently mist-shrouded
cinematography at least makes
an effort to conceal the fact that,
by population alone, Langley
IN THE
DARKWBEVIEWS
is three times the size of Port
Town send’s 10,000 inhabitants.
In its fidelity to its comic
book source material and its os—
tensible real-world geographical
setting, “Dead Boy Detectives”
is most enjoyable if you don’t
think about it too hard. As TV
adaptations of Gaiman go, it’s
closer to the glossy but frivolous
“Lucifer” than to the operatic
and contemplative “Sandman,”
but some touches make me
wonder whether its divergences
from the real-life Port Townsend
might be intended as inside
jokes for those who know the
town.
For example, its fourth
episode, “The Case of the Light-
house Leapers,” features the
cinematic concept of people feel-
ing compelled to plummet to
their deaths from atop the Point
No Point Lighthouse.
This is fittineg Nautical
Gothic for a series that’s essen—
tially a collection ofliteral ghost
stories, except that anyone
who’s seen the Point No Point
Lighthouse knows that, while
Studious Edwin (George Rexstrew), psychic Crystal (Kassius Nelson),
temporarily fairy—
possessed Niko (Yuyu Kitamura) and impulsive Charles (Jayden Revri) visit
the Point No
Point Lighthouse (or rather, British Columbia’s nearest approximation of
it) in Netflix’s
“Dead Boy Detectives.” Courtesy photo
taking a tumble over its top rail-
ing could result in an amlmlance
ride, it’s still low enough to the
ground that one could conceiv-
ably walk otf such a fall.
Likewise, in its fifth episode,
“The Case of the Two Dead
Dragons,” no mention is made
ofthe Chimacum, Quilcene or
Brinndn school districts, but ap-
parently, in Nettlix’s “Sandman”
universe, Port Townsend itself
is big enough to warrant two
rival high schools, one ofwhich
we’re told is located in “North
Port Townsend,” which is every
bit as absurd as “South Detroit”
in Journey’s “Don’t Stop Be—
lievin’,” for the same geographi—
cal reasons.
These nitpicks make it sound
like I harbor a much harsher
opinion of“Dead Boy Detec-
tives” than the show warrants,
because while it falls into the
all-too—familiar pattern of using
coastal Canada to substitute
for Washington, on the grounds
they share climate and geog—
raphy, Langley’s urban back-
drop comes closer than most
generic Canadian locates would
to capturng something of Port
Townsend’s well-preserved Vic-
tori an seaport character.
Moreover, the curio shop
stocked with magical artifacts
owned by “Tragic Mick” (Mi-
chael Beach), a former walrus
cursed to live as a human, feels
like it would fit right in on Wa-
ter Street in downtown Port
Townsend, as would the Tongue
and Tail butcher shop’s setup
of apartments for rent above its
storefront, even ifbutcher shop
owner Jenny (Briana Cuoco) is a
bit overly aggro for a community
as low—key as PT.
Perhaps more importantly,
after “Twilight” used the damp
climate of the state’s coasts
and rainforests to justify its
washed-out-looking maudlin
melodrama, “Dead Boy Detec-
tives” tilts the scales in the 0p-
posite direction, by drawing
from Gaiman’s juxtapositions
of antiquated myth with con-
temporary culture, in ways that
recall the random, consensus
reality-defying paranormal phe-
nomena of David Lynch’s “Twin
Peaks,” and which I’d argue feel
appropriate to Port Townsend’s
quirky charm
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