Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Dead End: Paranormal Park’ Season 2 on Netflix, Where Angels Are The New Demons

Netflix’s Dead End: Paranormal Park, the animated show based on Hamish Steele’s DeadEndia graphic novel series, is back for Season 2. The children’s show about two friends, Barney and Norma, who work in an actual haunted house in a quirky theme park is a witty, fun show for older kids. While it is, at its core, a show about keeping demons from taking over an amusement park, it also quietly integrates all manner of diverse, inclusive stories into every episode.

DEAD END: PARANORMAL PARK SEASON 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: In a flashback, Pauline Phoenix, voiced by drag queen Miss Coco Peru, records a video will (one that requires many takes). “If you’re watching this, then that means, sadly, that I have passed on. In which case, watch your back, ’cause if you ever crossed me, you can bet your booties that I will be haunting you from the grave,” she begins. As the shot pulls back, an audience of Pauline’s close friends is shown, and they’re stunned to learn that she has left her entire estate, including her money and her namesake theme park to her stunt double, Barborah.

The Gist: For the uninitiated, here are the basics of Dead End: Paranormal Park: Barney Guttman (Zach Barack) and Norma Khan (Kody Kavitha) are employees of Phoenix Parks, where they work at the park’s haunted house. Their first day on the job back in season one, Barney’s dog Pugsley was semi-possessed by a demon named Temeluchus and gained some of the demon’s powers, including the ability to talk, and Barney and Norma realized that this was no ordinary theme park. A demon named Courtney (Emily Osment) who helped them banish the big bad demons last season is now living inside the haunted house and this season, all of them are working together to prevent other demons from using the haunted house as a portal to the “neutral plane,” a.k.a. Earth. Along with Barborah and the rest of their crew, Barney and Norma have to try and trap any demons they can in the house’s elevator. And that’s where the trouble begins in the first episode of season two.

Norma and Barney have dates with their respective crushes, Badyah (Kathreen Khavari) and Logs (Kenny Tran). The foursome meets at the bowling alley in the park, entrusting the un-trustable Courtney with minding the elevator and trying to keep demons at bay for the evening. Unfortunately, Courtney is overpowered by some sort of giant disembodied arm that travels up through the elevator and heads straight for the bowling alley. Norma attempts to greet the giant hand with a high five, but ends up literally slapping the hand in the face, angering it and causing it to sprout wild, uncontrollable vine-like extensions out of its fingertips, and appears ready to squeeze the life out of all of our protagonists. That is, until Courtney steps in to save them, and we learn that this hand is not a demon but an angel Fingers The Angel, actually. What’s more, Fingers is there to congratulate Courtney for protecting the inhabitants of Earth as well as his fellow angels from the last season’s demon kings and plans to stay on Earth to watch over them all.

What is made clear in the final scene though, in a callback to the previous season finale, is that there’s a being from the realm “upstairs,” where Fingers is from, who has plans for these humans. We just don’t know what those plans are, or whether our friends are in danger.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Two sweet kids need to tame a town’s mysterious supernatural demons? Dead End: Paranormal Park feels like it’s filling the void left by Disney’s Gravity Falls.

Our Take: Dead End: Paranormal Park season two picks up where season one left off, and it’s a seamless continuation of the story and characters we’ve come to know and love. That doesn’t mean it’s stagnant though, at the end of the first episode, there’s a new mystery unfolding as we learn that whoever Fingers the Angel is working for upstairs has some mysterious plans for the humans in the theme park.

The plot moves along quickly and while there are definitely demonic forces at play, the light tone means we never feel like our heroes are in peril, which can be the difference between some kids wanting to watch a show like this or not. The demons are tempered by jokes about sneezes that sound like farts. I mean, find me a child that won’t be entertained by that idea.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: The whole gang bowls together and makes friends with Fingers, their new angel friend. But as Pugsley, who still has the ability to talk but has lost all of his other demonic powers, plays with Fingers, Fingers looks him in the eye, and his image is uploaded to… wherever Fingers is from, and a higher being acknowledges, “Yes, that’s the one.” So whoever the man (robot demon?) upstairs is, he doesn’t just want the humans, he wants the little dog, too.

Sleeper Star: As the dearly departed Pauline Phoenix, Miss Coco Peru gives the beloved movie star campy charm with an evil streak. Though she’s, you know, dead, her voice is used throughout the amusement park, in rides, at the bowling alley, all to great comic effect.

Most Pilot-y Line: “Can’t keep roaches out of New York, rats out of London, or demons outta Phoenix Parks, it’s just a fact,” says Courtney, who knows a thing or two about demonic infestation.

Our Call: STREAM IT! Dead End: Paranormal Park is a fun series that features a lot of subtle but positive messages of acceptance, in addition to being something of a “monster of the week” show. Having said that, the first episode of season two is billed as “Chapter 11” in the story, and it helps to have already watched the first ten episodes in season one to understand a lot of the context of what’s going on.

Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.