On October 13th, Netflix will welcome a second season of Dead End: Paranormal Park. The animated series, based on Hamish Steele’s graphic novel DeadEndia, first premiered on the streaming service in June 2022.
Although the show only hit Netflix top 10 lists in three countries: Finland, Greece, and Jamaica, it was a much bigger success in the Netflix Kids charts, hitting the top 10 in a few dozen countries.
The show follows Barney and Norma, who work at a haunted house attraction that turns out to actually be haunted. The show was praised for its positive representation of typically marginalised characters, with Barney being a gay transgender Jewish teenage boy, and Norma an autistic Pakistani-American who is assumed to be bisexual.
Creator Steele hopes that his show can help “more trans creators getting their chance to tell their stories,” also noting that there are “multiple trans cast and crew” members.
Despite the progressive nature of the show, it was met with backlash from Republican senators who wrote an open letter to the TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board, claiming that ratings should be amended so that parents can be aware of “disturbing” content within shows aimed at children.
Luckily, the show hasn’t been greatly affected by this, and will air globally next month. Netflix have provided us with a synopsis to the new season:
“In Season 2, Barney, Norma and friends are now the park’s official demon cleanup crew. But are they ready to take a break and just be normal teens? Follow their delightfully supernatural adventures with a slew of strange new creatures, from angels to evil twins to deranged dolls.”
