We continue our Alex Brightman celebration by looking at a musical episode of a short lived Netflix series he was in and unlike Goosebumps where he played an extremely minor character, here he is in a supporting role that appears in just about every episode and is even a focal for the show’s second season. Dead End: Paranormal Park was adapted from a series of graphic novels known as DeadEndia. I’ve not any of the books but from what I understand, it seems the show was toned down from its source material.
I do see the books at work all the time, so I might check them out. One big thing I love about this show is it’s inclusive nature and how it serves the story, our leads are an autistic girl of color and her hyper fixation will serve as a big song number in this episode and a trans man living at the park as his parents are having a hard time accepting him post transition. Oh and the autistic girl is bi like me.
This honestly might not have been the best episode to choose to review as it the second to last episode of season one and some major plot points are tied up that you’d be confused by if you hadn’t seen the show before but we are in an age of story driven animated series. I’ll do my best to cover them each as I go along but my main focus is on the songs. Much like our previous entry, this one also pulls from Phantom of the Opera. Much more heavily influenced in the music as you can hear a take on iconic riff in some of the songs.
The Plot/Songs
As I mentioned, I want to look at the plot of the episode by looking at the songs and much like last time, here’s a playlist
At Dead End
Our opening number is cute and sets up how this episode becomes a musical episode as our main characters, Barney and Norma are trying to sneak back into the theme park they work at after being banned. They need a distraction and our Alex Brightman character, a dog named Pugsley who has been possessed by a demon casts a spell that causes everyone to start singing.
Down There
This is our big I Want song and I love it as a parody of Disney Princess songs. Here we have a demon, Courtney voiced by Emily Osment singing about how much she wants to be in Hell and is tired of being stuck on Earth.
My Frankenstein
This is a big song for me and a lot of autistic fans of this show, Norma as I mentioned is autistic and movies by Pauline Phoenix were her hyper fixation but throughout the season, she comes to see Pauline for the awful person she was. It always hurts when someone that created something you hold so close is outed as a monster. We see that with how Norma responds to Pauline because as she says in the song, this is a breakup. She’s taking back ownership of her life from her hyper fixation.
The Phantom of the Theme Park
Our titular song of the episode and you can really hear the influence of the stage musical here. All of our characters are set up with a big conflict and it is when everything seems to be splintering.
Just Some Guy
Such a cute gay love song and oh I adore it so much. Barney as I mentioned is a transmasc and yay for normalizing that in kids media and he’s singing about the guy he’s been crushing on all season and oh I just love it so much.
Seal the Body
This is the start of the end as if Pauline is successful and is able to possess the clone body that Norma had been using. It’s all over. Oh, fun fact, Pauline is voiced by drag queen. Miss Coco Peru
Driver’s Seat
Alex Brightman doing a duet with Alex Brightman, how fun. In this number, we hear him sing a number as both Pugsley and the big bad of season one, Temeluchus. Which for the latter, he seems to be using a variation on his Beetlejuice voice. It’s a fun number especially hearing Alex Brightman go back and forth between these two different voices as they make a deal that Temeluchus is the only one who can defeat Pauline and save Norma but we all know what they say about making deals with the devil.
Driver’s Seat (Reprise)
Yeah, things have gone from bad to worse now that the true big bad has taken over. And it’s only gonna get worse.
At Dead End/Down There (Reprise)
We get out big closing number as Barney and Norma sing a reprise of the opening number as they agree they’ll do anything to save Pugsley. It feels so triumphant and hopeful. Meanwhile, Courtney sings of finally returning to Hell.
My Final Thoughts
Again as I said, you should probably watch the rest of the season before watching this episode as you’d get more out of it that way. As a musical episode though, it does his job pretty well. It’s enjoyable and My Frankenstein as I mentioned is a very personal song for me as an autistic person.
Our next entry in the Alex Brightman tribute will be a bit different as we go from a kids series to an adult series and do a Villains Profile on the main antagonist of Hazbin Hotel.
Adam
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