Hulu’s “Darby and the Dead,” which premiered on Dec. 2, offers a charming, if somewhat safe, look at the different ways grief impacts people.
“Darby and the Dead” follows Darby Harper (played by Riele Downs), a teenager who discovers that she can see ghosts after losing her mother at a young age. Harper helps the ghosts, whom she lovingly calls “Deados,” move on to the afterlife. But one spirit she doesn’t want to help is that of Capricorn “Capri” Donahue (Auli’i Cravalho, playing against type here), the school’s queen bee and her archnemesis.
Having planned an elaborate Sweet Seventeen party for herself, Donahue enlists — or more accurately, blackmails — Harper into persuading her friends to keep it going so that she can move on. Along the way, Harper learns a valuable lesson about the dangers of popularity.
The greatest feat of “Darby and the Dead” is making Donahue likable. The ex-cheerleader ghost goes from purposefully ignoring Harper and calling her “freak show” to actually empathizing with her. Throughout the film, you can tell that Cravalho is having fun here, dialing up the dances and smirks to hide the isolation beneath.
Harper is more obviously isolated, having delved into the world of the dead to escape the living, so much so that she doesn’t know how to react when her teacher tells her to escort new student Alex (Chosen Jacobs) around the campus. Donning the school’s mascot costume, it is Alex who produces some of the best lines of the film, namely: “Do you know the donut?” and “Stay away from the donut.”
The uneasy bond between Harper and Donahue is at the emotional core of “Darby and the Dead.” The two were childhood friends but drifted apart after Harper threw herself into her new “side hustle,” as she calls it. Donahue, whose death in an electrocution accident left her with electrokinetic powers, is quick to lash out, but you can tell that she is genuinely happy when Harper decides to follow in her mother’s footsteps and take up cheer.
Though “Darby” never drifts into boring territory, there are some elements of the script that come across as slightly predictable. Even though it was her plan, of course Donahue would accuse Harper of stealing her life and her boyfriend (Asher Angel). And naturally, in all of this chaos, Harper would forget about her actual love interest, Alex.
Aside from Alex, there are a couple of standouts among the supporting players. Kindhearted ghost Gary (Tony Danza) offers sage advice to both Harper and Donahue when they most desperately need it, while dimwitted Piper (Nicole Maines) barely conceals her adoration for Harper.
“Darby” so badly wants to be a dark comedy, but isn’t quite as edgy as it thinks it is. It makes up for it, though, with more dramatic elements. Harper spends much of the film avoiding the thought of her mother, but when Donahue forces her to confront this, it results in great character development for both of them.
Overall, “Darby and the Dead” is a nice, CBS’ ”Ghosts”-by-way-of-“Mean Girls” teen flick with a decent message.
Tyler D’errico is a junior geomatics major at Fresno State. You can read his movie and television reviews at tylerdreviews.weebly.com.