Dead End: Paranormal Park (TV Series)

Dead End: Paranormal Park is a 2022 Netflix animated show. It is based on the graphic novel series Deadandia by Hamish Steele, who is also the show's creator.

Two teens show up for a job opening at Phoenix Park, a local attraction centered around film star Pauline Phoenix's illustrious career. While Norma (Kody Kavitha) is a Pauline fan that wants to live her dream by working with her idol, Barney (Zach Barack) is seeking a new home after his parents ignore his grandmother's hurtful words during Friday dinners. He hopes that the job will give him the space he needs, that he can share with his dog Pugsley.

Only thing: the job was a lie. Courtney the demon (Emily Osment) created the notice to offer a human vessel to the Demon King Temeluchus (Alex Brightman). He ends up possessing Pugsley, forcing Norma and Barney to team up and save his dog. They succeed, only now Pugsley can talk and has many opinions about how wonderful humans are. Courtney, realizing that she needs the fragment of demon soul that allows Pugsley to talk (also voiced by Alex Brightman), decides to "hire" the humans and use Pugsley to return home to the Demon Realm. As Norma demonstrates her information of the park, Pugsley learns magic under Courtney's tutelage, and Barney works up the nerve to talk to his crush, they hope to uncover the mystery behind an employee's sudden disappearance.

Season 2 has a release date of October 13, 2022, with several preview clips released. Ratings are dependent on | viewer response. The web comic Deadendia is available both online and in graphic novel form.


 * Action Girl: The janitor,, wields a giant axe and isn't afraid to use it.
 * Adaptational Heroism: The Watcher serves as this for the Wanderer in the comics, since both are . In the comics, the Wanderer is . The show goes an alternate route, showing that.
 * Adaptational Weakling: An in-universe example During "Night of The Living Kids" that works in the hero's favor. The party guests at a Phoenix Park sleepover summon a Night Hag with Courtney's help. When said Night Hag preys on the kids, turning them into sleep-deprived zombies, paid babysitter security guards Barney and Norma and talking dog Pugsley try to keep Barney's little brother Patrick safe. Barney remembers that Norma brought a retinue of Night Hag movies and that she's Genre Savvy; he asks her if the Night Hag in the Pauline Phoenix film had any weaknesses. Norma says no and the Night Hag won in the movies, just as they lose another kid. When it seems all hope is lost, Courtney says that you can either use another wolf bone to banish the Night Hag, or Pugsley can summon a Day Hag to counter her. Pugsley does the latter since Courtney is out of wolf bones, and the Night Hag stands down on seeing her sister Sheryl for the first time in millennia. After an awkward conversation between the Night and Day Hag, and they get affronted when learning humans call them "hags", both depart and the kids are restored to normal.
 * And Then What?: Mrs. Khan asks this in season two when.
 * Big Brother Instinct: While Barney feels guilty about ghosting his little brother Patrick, he doesn't know how to explain the complicated home situation. Then at Patrick's birthday party in Phoenix Park, the Night Hag goes after the kid after assimilating his friends. Barney pulls off his dinosaur disguise and hugs Patrick after seeing he's safe, while committing to protecting him from the Night Hag. In the season one finale,.
 * Bittersweet Ending: How season 2 ends; the latest magical threat is fended off, with.
 * Both Sides Have a Point:
 * Barney and Pugsley argue when the latter learns that Barney has been, and regularly going for sparring matches that his coach Az arranges. From Pugsley's point-of-view,
 * Regarding the teens' failing to break up demon activity revealed to be
 * Break the Cutie: Norma.
 * Call Back:
 * "Thunder Lizard"has a few to "Christmas in July":
 * Cuddles is one of Barney's sparring partners. Barney gives him a nervous greeting, and Cuddles knocks him into a wall again.
 * The episode shows that Barney is less-than impressed by Hox. Understandable considering that Hox.
 * Casual Danger Dialogue: Norma hurries her mother away from, describing it as a "work thing".
 * Didn't Think This Through: "Phantom of the Theme Park" has Barney, Norma, and Pugsley talk with
 * Does This Remind You of Anything?: It's revealed that Pauline Phoenix's modus operandi is to.
 * Earn Your Happy Ending: How season one ends;.
 * Easily Forgiven: Lampshaded when Badyah schemes to fix up Norma with.
 * Enemy Mine: "Phantom of the Theme Park" had Temeluchus convincing Pugsley.
 * Even Evil Has Standards: Hox, who we saw was willing to kill contestants on his show, looks genuinely worried when he reports on . Later in season two,
 * Forgiveness:
 * Norma believes for an episode that the mysterious is somehow responsible for Jennifer Swan's disappearance, even when all evidence points to  as the true culprit. She also accuses.
 * In the season one finale, Courtney has abandoned her human friends (again) to a magical threat, this time . While Barney is shocked and hurt, Norma snarkily says Courtney has a habit of doing this so she can believe it. . After everything is restored to normal, Courtney gives a genuine apology to the trio. She says she would understand if they never forgave her for leaving them to die. They respond by giving her a Group Hug as thanks for saving their lives, and coming back.
 * Good All Along: Turns out that, despite Norma's suspicions,.
 * Heroic Sacrifice: When the Watcher comes to bust up the demon party, Az shoves Barney behind him and tries to launch fire to protect his student.
 * Innocent Bigot: Subverted with Grammy-Gram in Barney's view. While we don't hear what she said to Barney, it was so hurtful that he refuses to talk to her. He's more furious with his parents for making excuses for her behavior, because he says he can't trust that they will have his back as a trans teenager.
 * Immortal Immaturity: Revealed to be the root of issues in season 2; part of the reason she is a jerk is that.
 * It's Personal:
 * Zigzagged when Courtney briefly allies with Yet when Courtney sings to Barney and Pugsley about her "new friend," she keeps insisting that it's Nothing Personal, that she doesn't belong on Earth with them and is destined to go back to hell where she can go home.
 * Played straight when.
 * Karmic Jackpot: spent years trying (and failing) to protect park employees from, working to get the proof about what Pauline is really like..
 * Locked Out of the Loop: Deconstructed with Swati not knowing about the park's happenings. Because Norma didn't update her mother about season one's events, Swati has no idea that Pauline and thus innocently sets up a day of self-care with Pauline-based activities on seeing that her daughter is in a funk. Norma lashes out at her, making Swati hurt and confused. Later, Swati lampshades this; she does treat Norma like a child, but that's because Norma's hyperfixations are the only way that they can connect with the way that Norma pushes people away. . They understand each other better by the end of the episode; Swati acknowledges that Norma is growing up, and Norma apologizes for not being more open with her mother.
 * The Music Meister: Pugsley has a spell that turns the whole park into a musical number. He was saving it for Barney's birthday, but Norma orders him to use it, without knowing what the spell was, to cause a distraction. It ends up Gone Horribly Right because they are also pulled into the musical number, with even The spell only ends once the episode does, as Barney and Norma sing the finale.
 * My God, What Have I Done?: Courtney has this reaction in the first season finale when.
 * Noodle Incident: Logs apparently had an Emo phase that he vlogged about, according to season two. Barney watched the vlogs and said he understood, given how long Logs has worked at Phoenix Park.
 * Not So Above It All: While most characters under the singing spell are either oblivious to it or complaining about being forced to sing,.
 * OOC Is Serious Business: Norma hates doing normal people stuff, like socializing or presenting herself onstage. She's more comfortable using her Phoenix Park knowledge to improve the rules and park quality. In "Phantom of the Theme Park," she suggests that, shocking Barney. She also delivers one hell of a showstopper in "My Frankenstein" by using.
 * Parents as People: This is basically the situation with Barney's parents. They supposed his transitioning, using his preferred name and pronouns and getting him a binder as we see in the bathing scene. The problem is that his father holds it over his head as an obligation, and Barney points that out using their restaurant meal as an analogy. His mother pretends that everything is fine, including when her mother makes transphobic remarks towards Barney, and sweeps problems under the rug. You would think that when he ran away to stay in Phoenix Park that they would have called the cops and reported him as a runaway, since Barney is Norma's age and still a minor. Instead, they apparently did nothing, with his mother telling a disguised Barney that her son is just doing an act. Season one ends with them . Season two shows that they've gotten better about this.
 * Pet the Dog: When.
 * Poor Communication Kills: Norma never told her mother Swati about the fallout from season one, namely learning that.
 * Reality Ensues:
 * Pauline was a powerhouse in Hollywood since she was a child starring on Dead End, and later a "rich white lady" in Badyah's words. Two things stymied her career: she was getting older, too old to do her own stunts as Barborah pointed out, and Norma mentions that she got blacklisted from Hollywood. That's why she's.
 * After spending two episodes in denial, Norma realizes that she has to face.
 * Hilarious one in "Evil Twins Are People Too." Barney's Evil Twin keeps switching places with him during a date with Logs, as Barney tries to act natural. When Barney gets frustrated and reveals both of them, Logs says, "Finally!" Of course he realized that the two had different outfits, hair colors and mannerisms. He was just waiting for Barney to be ready about explaining the situation.
 * This is why Barney prefers working out in a demon gym. He says that people get weird about him being a trans boy and asking questions about his binder. The demons don't care about gender or body type.
 * Reasonable Authority Figure:
 * when she is given ownership of the park proves to be this. She puts Barney, Norma and Pugsley in charge of guarding the Dead End demon door, since they were the most competent about the . Her goal is to make the park safer, especially after that event. With that said, when Az goes to talk to her about staging a demon wrestling gig,.
 * Az is also pretty reasonable as a wrestling coach. He keeps it quiet that his new student is human in a demons-only gym, signs up Barney for regular sparring matches and corrects his technique.
 * Red Herring: Given the elevator to the Demon Realm is in Dead End, where Jennifer Swan ran in the show's first scene, one could reasonably assume that Temeluchus had something to do with her disappearance..
 * The Reveal:
 * Barney ran away from home because his grandmother made transphobic remarks about him at an awkward family dinner, and his parents didn't stand up to her. His mother keeps saying that she doesn't know better, but Barney calls bullshit.
 * Pauline Phoenix.
 * The Runaway: While Barney's initial plan is to get the job, save up for a place of his own to live with Pugsley, that changes when Courtney gives him a security guard position off the books. She shows him where he can stay in the Dead End house, welcoming him as her new roommate. As Norma and his little brother Patrick point out, this means he ran away from home.
 * Ship Tease: While Barney crushes on Logs and, there are hits that Courtney also nurses infatuation for Barney. She's thrilled about him moving into Dead End; when he tries reconciling with his family, she steals a dummy to make a Barney replica and have tea parties with it..
 * Taught By Experience: Season 2 shows that when Barney decides to
 * Token Evil Teammate: Deconstructed with Courtney. She is Obviously Evil as noted when she made up the job to lure in a new human vessel for Temeluchus. Yet the teens feel sorry for her, even as they discuss that they can't trust her. Courtney is more pathetic than threatening when eating garbage and watching demon TV.
 * Tomato in the Mirror: Courtney has a breakdown when learning that
 * Unreliable Expositor: Courtney keeps longing for home in the demon realm. She says that she applied for Hox's Castle millennia ago. Then she starts singing in "Phantom of the Theme Park" about the places in hell that she's never seen. Zagan then reveals that . It's highly likely that . Indeed, Courtney's good twin reveals that.
 * The Un-Reveal: The season one finale doesn't explain why . Season two's premiere muddies it up further when.
 * Wants a Prize For Basic Decency: Barney accuses his parents of doing this when they try to clear the air at an awkward dinner. They say that they supported him during his transition and gave him what he wanted. Barney says that parents are supposed to support their children, no matter what, and they're ignoring the bigger issue in the room.
 * Wham! Line:
 * Seems all's well that ends well at the end of the first episode; Courtney hires both Barney and Norma as security guards, and shows Barney a space where he can stay. He and Pugsley tuck into coffins, as Barney sleepily wishes his dog good night. Then Pugsley responds, "Night night, Barney." Barney's eyes shoot open as he realizes that his dog just talked.
 * Zagan drops on a bomb on Courtney in "Phantom of the Theme Park": "". This line creates a whole new inquiry of questions about
 * Whole Plot Reference: The first season finale is a reference to the Weirdmageddon series finale in Gravity Falls: demons invade Earth using a portal and . With that said, the similarities end with.