Netflix cancels excellent Dead Boy Detectives show after just one season

Netflix has pulled the plug on Dead Boy Detectives, a fun show with a lot of promise and a passionate fanbase, according to Variety. Such is life on the world's streamer.

In all seriousness, it's not too surprising that the show has been canceled. Dead Boy Detectives, about a pair of dead boys who became detectives, stayed on the list of Netflix's Top 10 most watched shows for three weeks before falling off. It amassed millions of views but not millions enough. Still, considering the positive reception among fans and critics both — it has a 92% score among critics and 90% among fans on Rotten Tomatoes — it's a shame that it's ending this early. The good ones go young...again.

The show was based on a comic series of the same name, which itself was a spinoff of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman comics, which Netflix is also turning into a TV show; the second season of The Sandman is still on the way. Dead Boy Detectives starred George Rexstrew and Jayden Revri as the title characters, with a supporting cast that included Kassius Nelson, Yuyu Kitamura, Jenn Lyon, Briana Cuoco, David Iacono, Lukas Gage and Ruth Connell. Also, Caitlin Reilly showed up as a miniature sprite fairy person, which I mention because she makes YouTube videos that make me laugh. Where's her Netflix show?

I can't help but wonder if Neil Gaiman, who was a producer on the series, was a factor. He's been accused lately of numerous sexual improprieties, so at a minimum, he wouldn't have been in a position to fight for the series if he'd wanted to. But I suspect it mostly comes down to the numbers not being where Netflix wanted them.

So RIP, Dead Boy Detectives. One more funeral won't hurt.

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