Comedy
Dead Boy Detectives
Dead Boy Detectives targets teens in style and story. But it comes with very adult, problematic content.
Sgt. Hollister’s history with the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department is well known. He’s a lawman, and he believes he needs just three things to do his job: a badge, a gun and what’s in his heart. Unfortunately for him, equally well known is his history of “recalcitrance, insubordination and disregard for the chain of command.”
But none of that matters when the duly elected sheriff suddenly passes away. Due to an oversight in the170-year-old county ledger, as the “longest-serving member of his mounted posse,” the occasional horse-riding Hollister is forced to take up the mantle of sheriff.
Nobody’s happy about this—least of all Hollister. But if he’s going to do this job, he’s going to do it justice … literally.
As if Hollister wasn’t held in poor enough regard already, he starts butting heads immediately after taking office. In the first four days alone, he gives out orders to his former supervisors, speaks uncouthly to the press and manages to get himself shot. He also bans all future ICE raids, losing millions of dollars in federal grants. After all, he swore an oath to protect all the people of Los Angeles County, regardless of where they came from.
Deputy can often feel reminiscent of the Old West with gun shootouts, bloodshed and epic chase scenes (sometimes even on horses). But it also reflects the modern, ethically malleable times with several LGBTQ characters, including Deputy Bishop (Hollister’s personal bodyguard who gave up her job at the Pentagon to be with her girlfriend) and Daisy (a transgender woman imprisoned at a male state penitentiary).
Language is also an issue, and although you won’t hear Hollister utter the s-word (or anyone else, for that matter), he has an imaginative enough, and crass enough, vocabulary to get his point across. And death isn’t a topic that’s shied away from. Joseph, Hollister’s godson, chose to join the sheriff’s department after his dad was killed in the line of duty. And Cade Ward, one of Hollister’s best men, takes in two foster children after killing their father in a hostage situation.
If Hollister wants to survive until the next election, he’s got his work cut out for him. But in the meantime, Los Angeles County should prepare itself for some huge changes because there’s a new sheriff in town.
Bill Hollister finds himself as the new sheriff of Los Angeles County after the old sheriff passes away. However, he isn’t ready to give up his position in the field just yet, determined to take down the ringleader of a money-laundering scheme.
Police chase lawbreakers in their vehicles, and the chases lead to several crashes involving innocent travelers. Bad guys and sheriff’s deputies exchange gunfire, often resulting in deaths and bloodshed on both sides. Police break up a prison riot while wearing body armor. Officers find a man with a bloody nose and discover that his daughter was kidnapped. A transgender woman is stabbed with a makeshift shank. A man describes his time as a sniper in the military. Rape is hinted at.
A man is killed by an officer in front of his children after shooting at the officer with a machine gun. The man’s son later threatens to kill the officer when he is old enough.
While showing a new deputy around the prison he’s been assigned to, an older officer describes one section as “Gasser’s Alley,” so named because the prisoners spray urine and feces through the bars. Another section is called the “Gay Wing” and he mentions that several “hardcore gangbangers” pretend to be homosexual because of the more laid-back atmosphere of the wing.
A man says his teenage daughter looks like a “feral Kardashian” when she tries to leave the house wearing a belly-baring top and short shorts. A few married couples kiss. Porn is mentioned while a woman waits to be artificially inseminated. Pictures of bikini-clad women are seen in the background of a scene.
Cigarette butts litter a bad guy’s hideout. Heroin and meth are mentioned.
We hear a handful of uses each of “a–,” “h—,” “d–n,” “b–ch” and “p-ss.” The Lord’s name is also misused a few times.
Hollister is sworn into office with his hand over the Bible and is asked to repeat the phrase, “so help me God.”
Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.
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.
