Tag: Lukas Gage

Private Eyes

I loved this show. 100%.

I wasn’t familiar with the characters before I started watching the show, but you can never go wrong with anything that comes out of Neil Gaiman’s classic run on The Sandman, which is where these characters originally came from, and once I’d heard that, I knew it was going onto my “must watch” list. (I also believe the Netflix adaptation of The Sandman was one of the best television shows of the last decade, and I cannot wait for it to return.) Anyway, the characters were spun off into their own comics series, and that series has now been adapted for Netflix.

I wasn’t sure what to make of Dead Boy Detectives going in–I wasn’t familiar with the characters–but I’d seen a preview so I knew it was about two ghosts who solved cases, which was an interesting idea that I rather liked (and wished I’d thought of myself). The first episode wasn’t great, in all honesty, but I rarely judge a show based on its first episode as they are generally having to do a lot of story and character introduction and set up for the show, which is not easy to pull off. It wasn’t bad, I just had hoped for better, if that makes sense, and didn’t stop watching.

And it hit its stride in episode two, with each episode building on the one before as the series went on–and of course, when we reached the end, we were sorry it was over and wanted a second season immediately.

The show focuses on the ghosts of two very young men, Edwin and Charles, who somehow have (by choice) become trapped on Earth rather than moving on their afterlife; Edwin died as a result of a hazing ritual gone wrong and his soul was sold to the devil by his schoolmates, who didn’t realize what they were doing. He spends numerous decades in hell before managing his escape, and he appears to Charles when he is near death, and comforts him as he dies. Charles is also the first human who’s been able to see Edwin, so he is charmed by that as well. They become friends, Charles dies and rather than moving on, stays with Edwin–and the two decide to become detectives…helping other ghosts trapped on this plane by finding who they are, why they got stuck here, and resolving the issue so the ghost can move on.

In the first episode, they take the case of a young psychic who is possessed by a demon, Crystal, and they exorcise the demon from her but she has memory loss. They decide to let her stay with them until she gets her memory back, and she helps them with their cases. Two other characters, Nico and Jenny, who also start helping them with their cases. There are also any number of recurring characters that are an absolute delight–Lukas Gage as the Cat King is a particular standout, as is Ruth Connell (whom I loved on Supernatural) as Night Nurse, who is responsible for getting recalcitrant souls who haven’t moved on to their proper afterlives–so Edwin and Charles are also in her sights. Each episode is a case, which also moves them forward on their personal through-stories, as well.

Edwin is gay, as is the Cat King, and Edwin is a bit in love with Charles–who has chemistry and an attraction to Crystal. However, this potential “love triangle” is headed off perfectly; Edwin confesses, and Charles–not gay–doesn’t rule it out but certainly not right now, and it doesn’t change how Charles feels about him–he loves him and they are best friends. Sensitively handled and brilliantly welcomed by this viewer, to be sure.

And the Cat King’s barely concealed double-entendres and attraction to Edwin steals the series.

Bravo and well done.

Along Came Jones

Our power went out last night, around 5:45 a.m. per the email from Entergy (if our power is out, how do they expect me to read an email? I guess my cell phone, but still), but for whatever reason, somehow Paul got up to wake me up at the time I usually rise (my Cat Alarm, aka Sparky, also failed this morning but once Paul got up, he started), but I slept so well last night that it took me awhile this morning to get up and going. Not sure what that’s about (thunderstorm, no doubt), but my coffee tastes good and it looks like the kitchen roof didn’t leak last night, so that’s a good thing. We’re supposed to have heavy weather this morning with off and on showers all day (at least that was the forecast yesterday). A quick glance at my phone, however, has let me know that later this morning it will get sunny and it will stay that way the rest of the day. That’s nice. In fact, the sun is out already so I think that forecast may be off. I know there were tornado warnings west and north of the city last night, and most of the truly bad weather missed us.

I’m not going to lie, I felt very off-balance at work yesterday. It started raining in the early afternoon, which certainly didn’t help (damp air and rain always makes me sleepy), and there were some other things that went on in the early morning after I arrived at the office that had me wondering why the hell didn’t you call in sick this morning, dumb ass? But it all worked out in the end, and the rest of the day went swimmingly. I ran my errands once I was out of the office, and then came home. I was a little tired by then, so didn’t get much of anything done last night other than bonding with Sparky (i.e. being a cat bed). We started watching a new British show called After the Flood, which looked really interesting, but I also noted that only the first two episodes (of six) were up on Britbox, which is…odd. We really liked the show, so I am going to have to figure out how to watch the other four episodes. But that’s peculiar, isn’t it? I think I may have let my subscription go, which is probably why we can only access the first two episodes. Heavy sigh. I really need to get a handle on the streaming services I pay for, don’t I?

I am trying to get a handle on easing back into my normality again–a week off is so disorienting, but nice at the same time–so I figured this wasn’t going to wind up being highly productive, either. I need to at least stay on top of things, though, so I am not buried this weekend trying to get caught up. I need to get the dishes done tonight when I get home, and there’s some laundry and other straightening up to do, and I need to get back to reading my book, too. I managed to get all the book posts done yesterday, but still need to get the one for Dead Boy Detectives, which I loved, finished as well. If you’ve not watched, you really should get cracking on it; it’s definitely one of my favorite new shows of the year. It’s been so long since I finished watching that it may be difficult to write about it now (I finished before I left on the trip), but it pleased me enormously, and I loved all the queerness, especially the Cat King (Lukas Gage, who is fantastic in the part). Of course, you can never go wrong with Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman, or anything that comes out of it.

I didn’t read last night when I got home, either, being tired. But I am looking forward to spending some more time with Where They Wait, which I was really enjoying reading last week in Kentucky. I also kind of feel a bit off with the writing stuff, too–it’s been a hot minute since I’ve written anything other than the blog, so the muscles, already rusted, have kind of tightened up on me again, but I also need to deal with things I’ve been putting off because I didn’t want to deal with them and that’s really not a good way to deal with anything. I need to make a to-do list, too.

And on that note, I am heading back into the spice mines. Have a lovely day, Constant Reader, and I hope to be back here at some point later on.