As a kid, one of my doctors was attempting to explain something about my albinism, and I misunderstood him horribly, thinking he meant that all albinos die at the age of 25, so I was extremely depressed for a couple of days before my mother figured out what happened and straightened me out. For Ed Bellamy, however, this is a much more real and immediate scenario, as just when the young man is celebrating his 20th birthday, thinking his whole life is ahead, he’s confronted with the terrible news that he’ll be, Dead at 21. Now that’s a solid stinger. “Don’t trust anyone” was starting to become the motto of a generation, and Ed was constantly being told to his brain or lose it.
The show’s intro does a decent job of sharing the premise. Ed Bellamy (Jack Noseworthy) has always been a smart kid, but he’s about to find out that he was adopted, a part of a government project to make children smarter in hopes of forcing evolution, and probably going to die because of the microchip in his brain by his 21st birthday. This is one of those situations where they say we only use so much of our actual brain power, but this little processor lets people like Ed – called Neuro CyberNauts, ‘sibs’ or ‘cybs’ for short – do so much more. It gives them these intense dreams, which can be helpful or harmful, and I like that not everyone who has been given one of these goes through it the same way, their abilities manifest in different forms. All of that sounds bad, but it is immediately made worse when a vicious government agent who has been tasked with terminating what’s left of the project, Winston (Whip Hubley), kills another sib and blames it on Ed and the gorgeous girl he found in his room, Maria Cavalos (Lisa Dean Ryan, who played the love interest in Doogie Howser M.D.). The duo sets out on the road to find answers and evade the law, now accused of murder.
That’s a lot, and yet, somehow, not at the same time. Most of it is neatly crammed into the pilot episode, and then the story immediately becomes a little more adventure of the week while Ed tries to figure out more about the chip in his head and Winston chases the Bonnie and Clyde-esque couple across the country. Many people correctly described Dead at 21 as a newer version of The Fugitive or The Incredible Hulk mixed with elements of D.O.A. or Logan’s Run but infused with a ton of what MTV thought would appeal to Gen X at the time. This was the channel’s first real effort at making a non-animated show for the action-adventure genre, so this product bleeds everything the network thought worked in 1994. It was different, new, touching on the chic Cyberpunk appeal, but with a dirtier grunge aesthetic—cyber-grunge, perhaps.
After the premise, the most defining aspect of the show is its soundtrack. Being an MTV production, they had already paid for the rights to play the music, so why not use it in their original programs? The episodes featured a mix of contemporary tracks from several genres, with the bulk coming from the rock and alternative categories, but there is a little rap and electronica sprinkled about as well. Bands like Alice in Chains, Radiohead, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Depeche Mode, The Cure, Soundgarden, and NIN are often in rotation but acts such as House of Pain, Lenny Kravitz, Metallica, Pink Floyd, Snoop Dogg, Tool, and many others make brief appearances. The music is amazing, but it’s almost too good, becoming quite the dopamine distraction.
The producers crammed so much music in each episode that there was no time for it to sink in. I kept wanting to pause the episodes and go listen to the respective albums because some tunes only played for a few seconds before they moved on to the next chart-topper. It was a continuous barrage of hits pulsating over scenes that should have been quiet, or even like in one scene where Warren G’s “Regulate” starts up while two characters are trying to talk. Episode 2 features 12 different songs, but it honestly feels like more, especially with the way they’re broken up, which as excellent as the music choices are, could easily drive some viewers away from the series.
And since it’s a ‘90s time capsule, we have to discuss the camera work and cinematography. There are several normal scenes in here, but after two or three of those, the show feels the need to hit us with jarring angles, extreme close-ups, shaky and rotating shots, strange color or warping effects, usually against grungy and cheap locations for the backdrops–but hey, it’s real, and there are stunts. We see some excellent ‘90s décor as well, like a giant clock I always wanted to own, while the actors’ wardrobes were all provided by Aeropostale.
Also, the network couldn’t resist putting a clip from Beavis and Butthead in an episode as well as having someone play the Rocko’s Modern Life video game (since MTV had just acquired the cartoon), but with a controller that certainly doesn’t belong to an SNES. This particular style does create some interesting visuals. I remember watching the premiere and thinking how much cooler Ed’s birthday party looked than anything I’d ever been to, the wall of TVs was also amazing, and I came close to digging the dream sequences he had (usually shot by different directors). It’s all just a little much though, too similar to the music videos the network was still famous for showing at the time. It was almost sensory overload, feeling like the show was trying to fry viewers’ brains, possibly so they could relate to the main character.
Several notable guest stars pop up, they may not be instantly recognizable, but many of them are there doing fantastic work. Most people are surprised to learn that this was one of Adam Scott’s (Parks and Recreation, Madame Web) first roles, but he doesn’t seem too thrilled about his work here. The acting here definitely exists across quite a range, and I question how many takes some of these scenes could have had. Most of the main performers do fine but then will have one or two interactions where they seem wildly different.
The relationship between the two main characters is very ‘will they, won’t they’ and a bit tenuous in those middle episodes, while in some moments, the actors line up perfectly. Noseworthy said he chose Ryan because of their dynamic, something similar to the Taming of the Shrew, and that does come across. The sexual tension starts off rough while growing into something quite nice, but it’s made odd by having most episodes feature other potential love interests for either of the main leads. Maria is stunning, and it is hard to imagine Ed not trying to foster the potential coupling more until we hear some of his horrible flirting, or like when he compares her breast size to those of her comic book counterpart. He’s just a normal horny man with foot-in-mouth disease that can’t read a sign, I can relate.
There are scenes where I feel like the dialogue legitimately hurts the stronger aspects of the characters. I can’t be too harsh on the deliveries because I’m not sure how most actors would have worked with this stuff. The word choice is almost clever in spots, but every other line feels like it is trying too hard, and in a show where everyone is either written as being ‘too cool’ or just overreacting to tiny events, the character writing simply has a dull edge.
Dead at 21 was created by Jon Sherman, but he didn’t originally get that specific credit, as he wasn’t a part of the Writer’s Guild, so he was mostly listed as drafting the teleplay the series was based on. Not only that, Sherman makes it sound like he wasn’t involved in writing most of the episodes, even though his name was showing up alongside P.K. Simonds and Manny Coto. Even when he submitted ideas for the two-part finale, it was executive producer Roderick Taylor and his son Bruce who were directing the path of the program, rejecting outside influence.
Most of those who worked behind the scenes on Dead at 21 said that the show was demanding and expected to be finished quickly, but the production was rocky and came away feeling like a much lower-budget project being run by people who didn’t know what they were doing. Most seem to think this was an issue of leadership, Sherman said there was no “cohesive vision or trajectory,” claiming that it seemed like the idea was to just get the show finished first and worry about the other stuff later, probably in editing considering the finished product. Instead, a bunch of new creatives and people who probably didn’t care about the longevity of the series made something that looked pandering and amateurish. He also stated, “MTV was looking to “reverse engineer” a hit,” by deconstructing all of the music videos that were proving to be a success for them and shoving all those elements into a stylish bucket, before shaking it around, convinced the mess that came out would work. As with many shows that had potential, the idea was corporatized into the ground before it was even fully born. The network also didn’t help by moving the Wednesday timeslot around for the last few episodes, causing some fans to miss out on the weird trippy cyberspace ending and unsettling dramatic cliffhanger.
Yes, for as many goofy and strange things as we see in Dead at 21, I think there were some genuinely good stories being attempted here that were, unfortunately, all crammed into 22 minutes with little ground to stand on. Like many shows that would come later, had they stretched things out a bit, done more episodes that tied directly to the main plot, and answered a couple of extra questions, this show could have worked. Some interesting ideas are being touched on here, sensitive social issues intertwined into the plot, broaching the subjects of teen runaways, animal cruelty and testing, as well as police brutality, it tries to use subtext, when there isn’t a ton of noise drowning that out. Sure, there are a few stereotypes that don’t sit right now, but those things are definitely a product of the time.
I have no trouble imagining this as a gritty HBO reboot, ramping up the violence and sex with some much better writing. Though I guess we’ll never find out if the sibs were Y2K proof or not.Dead at 21 is mostly sizzle, with the steak buried under too much of what MTV thought was its secret sauce at the time. Maybe that station never truly understood what made it work. There was never a home release, possibly because of how the music rights were handled. They had permission to play it on TV, but distribution can often be tricky, so I wouldn’t expect a surprise drop of this show. Thankfully, there are places online where it can be found. I’m so glad I re-watched this little time capsule, such a wild swing for quality content that I loved, but the show was always destined to die at a young age.
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