ATLANTA — The darkly atmospheric, often comedic Netflix series “Dead Boy Detectives” is, in Atlanta native and co-showrunner Steve Yockey’s words, a bit like “‘The Hardy Boys’ on acid.”

“For anybody who has seen my plays, this is very much up my alley,” Yockey said in a recent Zoom interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Yockey is a University of Georgia grad who was an intern at Actor’s Express more than two decades ago. The company recently produced his bloody revenge thriller “Mercury.”

Based on the DC Comics of the same name, “Dead Boy Detectives” focuses on two teens, bookish Edwin (George Rextrew) and gabbier Charles (Jayden Revri) who died decades apart but chose to stay on Earth, evade true death and help out other spirits as detectives. It is now available on Netflix.

“Their unfinished business is to help others finish their business,” Yockey said.

They team up with a live teen medium Crystal (Kassius Nelson) and Niko (Yuyu Kitamura), a cheery teen who can also see ghosts. The result: a quartet of “Scooby Doo”-style investigators.

The eight episodes of Season 1 he notes, have a deliberate psychedelic feel, growing darker by the episode.

“I wanted the show to have a sense of disorientation,” Yockey said. “Things turn upside down. There are unexpected dimensions and big falls where there shouldn’t be any falls. I like to keep it visually exciting.”

There is also a case of the week for them to solve so “it’s a procedural where you may want to take mushrooms before you watch,” Yockey said.

At the same time, he added, “the audience that watches ‘Stranger Things’ should get a kick out of this show. It’s YA but dealing with adult material.”

...continued

©2024 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Visit at ajc.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.