Written by Steve Yockey
Directed by Lee Toland Krieger
Edwin: "We are the Dead Boy Detectives and we rescued you. You're welcome."
Crystal: "The Dead Boy Detectives?"
Charles: "It's aces, right? We're ghosts and we solve mysteries."
There was a time when this show was not only meant to be released on HBO Max but it was also meant to be a spin-off of Doom Patrol. Then things dramatically changed.
Not only did our three leads get recast from the backdoor pilot they debut in, but now this show became a Netflix series and connected to The Sandman universe. It's funny how things turned out. Oh and this was basically a do-over as well.
Present day London had ghostly duo of Edwardian posh boy Edwin Paine (George Rexstrew) and punkish cheeky chappy Charles Rowland (Jayden Revri) doing their job and trying to contain a World War era ghost named Wilfred. On top of that, they're also trying to avoid Death (Kirby Howell-Baptiste), despite leading her to their office.
Of course Death was the least of their problems when Victorian ghost Emma put the Dead Boy Detectives in the crosshairs of American psychic Crystal Palace (Kassius Nelson) and she's a girl that literally had a demon ex named David (David Iacono) that the boys managed to get out of her. However, Crystal lost some of her memory and also caused a bit of upset with Edwin and Charles dynamic.
Edwin wasn't particularly happy with Crystal hanging around and Charles was more than happy to keep Crystal around until her memories returned. The case of a missing girl named Becky Aspen however saw the trio trade London for Port Townsend in the US.
I'm a tiny bit disappointed this episode quickly changed locations but I guess it was essential for introducing three prominent characters. The characters being Jenny Green (Briana Cuoco), who owned a butcher shop where Crystal rented a room from as well as Niko Sasaki (Yuyu Kitamura), who seems to be a fan girl of sorts but got less screentime than Jenny did here.
The biggest character though was the youth obsessed witch Esther Finch (Jenn Lyon). She snatched Becky for her youth and was amused by Edwin, Charles and Crystal's attempts to rescue Becky. That was until they actually succeeded and she got rather mad about being bested by two ghosts and a psychic sad girl. Then again, a talking cat led to her defeat in this episode.
As for the rest of the episode, Crystal proved to be a needed addition to the boys club but Charles possessing Esther put both him and Edwin in the Night Nurse's (Ruth Connell) line of fire. Yeah, these boys might not be the brightest detectives out there.
- The title sequence was rather nice, playing around with the theme of death.
- Charles comes armed with a cricket bat, can access points to see his parents, has a bag of tricks that can contain everything and ghosts can travel through mirrors. Edwin's the brains of the duo and was in Hell for over 70 years.
- Ruth Connell was the only one not recast from the backdoor pilot.
- Chronology: Present day London and Port Townsend. We saw a bound and gagged Edwin sacrificed to the demon Sa'al in 1916 thanks to his cruel classmates. They died too in the ritual.
The Case Of Crystal Palace kicked things off to a modest. It's not a pilot that will grab you the same way that The Sandman did but the three leads are likable, so it's off to a decent start. I'll watch the rest of the season.
Rating: 7 out of 10
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