Lost Boys and Trans Time in Devs and The OA
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20252148 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Joshua Bastian Cole-Kurz (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 105-123 |
| Publication date | 2025-02-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | TSQ Transgender Studies Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2328-9252 • E-ISSN: 2328-9260 |
| Publisher | Duke University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1215/23289252-11521286 |
| OpenAlex | W7163220157 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 12 |
The streaming series The OA and Devs portray death as the only option for their trans youth characters, with cisgender figures acting as judges and saviors. Buck and Lyndon, trans masculine teens, symbolize interdimensionality: breached borders and alternate futures. While transness is often seen as movement, Hil Malatino's concept of the interregnum—a liminal state between past and future—and Cameron Awkward-Rich's “lag time” both reveal how trans time can be stuck in waiting and recurrence. Buck and Lyndon get stuck, and they also stick out as their shows’ only trans figures. They are ultimately erased when Buck becomes a missing person, and Lyndon literally falls out of frame. They join Peter Pan's Lost Boys, cycling through recurrence and displacement. Peter Pan, reframed as an inherently trans masculine figure, embodies trans time as both interdimensionality and futility. The OA and Devs deny their trans characters the most basic form of time travel: aging into adulthood. If Neverland becomes an antitrans metaphor of lostness, The OA and Devs suggest that transness can exist only in nonexistence, raising the tragic question of whether these narratives serve as cautionary tales, escapism, or a reflection of society's refusal to let trans boys grow up
DEVS · Liminality · Metaphor · Narrative · Gothic Literature and Media Analysis · Shakespeare, Adaptation, and Literary Criticism · Themes in Literature Analysis
| Highly cited | No |
|---|