Customer Reviews

Dead Like Me: The Complete Collection

5 star:		(64)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

THIS REVIEW IS ABOUT "DEAD LIKE ME - THE COMPLETE COLLECTION", 9 DISK SET

So my wife and I started watching Dead Like Me on Video On Demand, and were both so caught up in it that we didn't want to wait for the second season to be made available that way... so we ordered the box set.

The box set *includes* "Life After Death", the movie MGM made in 2008.

Let me start with the DVDs of the ShoTime TV series:

Disks 1 through 4 contain the series pilot, and the 14 episodes of season 1.
Disks 5 through 8 contain the 15 episodes of season 2 and the bonus features for the series.

Up through here, that's 5 stars. If I could have give 6, I would.

Disk 9... contains the straight-to-DVD movie.

If you're interested in DLM and reading this review (and the many others), I don't have to tell much about the series - they stand firm as they always did, in high, widescreen quality, uncensored and uncut (and the bonus features contain a bunch of deleted scenes and other fun stuff about the series.

The movie, though. Oh dear lord, the movie.

The movie was made to appeal to an audience that is not in the know about what DLM is about - so the first 15, 20 minutes are an introduction (with cuts from the series), done in comic-book style, with Georgia Lass (Ellen Muth) narrating about what the premise of the story is. After the introductions are done, we're introduced to a flaky storyline about Rube (Mandy Patinkin, direly missed in the movie) having gotten his light, and having been replaced by a Cameron Kane (played by Henry Ian Cusick), who... has... some sort of agenda, plan, whatever, and uses the merry band of reapers to... cause chaos... or something, by having them mess up their reaps.

Hm.

The role of Daisy Adair was performed by Sarah Wynter, who - I'm sure - is a great actress... just not a great Daisy. The series' last episodes had gone through great lengths to turn Daisy into someone with a secret that's eating her, a seemingly callous but very human, confused and hurt woman, who warmed up with every episode, showed fear, love and understanding.

In the movie, however, Daisy is a callous, uninteresting, selfish, vulture-like and petty wanna-be actress, with no depth, no heart and no struggle. One of the bonus features actually tried to explain away the Daisy part, but regardless of the reasons, it was painful to watch, and did not do the part of Daisy Adair any justice - better they had had her "get her light", just like Rube. Callum, Ellen and Jasmin Guy could have carried it off by themselves...

... or maybe they just shouldn't have bothered at all.

The storyline about the relation between George and Reggie (Britt McKillip) was done nicely, and actually allows for some feeling of closure.

My initial plan was to get the series, and rent the movie to see if it was worth buying.

If you buy this box, the movie is included... but if you already have the series, and consider yourself a hardcore DLM fan, do not bother with the movie. It felt like it was thrown together in a hurry (and the fact that *neither* of the writers of the movie had been involved with the series shows, big time), and feels more like an extended "crap, we need a finale" episode than anything else...

Aside from the Reggie/George interaction, the only good things about the movie were:

1. We finally got to see Murray the cat
2. The very, very last scene, after some consideration (had to sink in for a moment).

My wife and I... we'll toss in the series, every now and then, for a DLM marathon session... the movie will remain in its box, though. It's part of the set, but as far as we're concerned... only to keep the outside box from being too wide for the series' DVDs.

And that's why the product gets only 4 stars... I'm not averaging (the movie would make the average be negative, and that's no good) because the series and bonus features are excellent, as expected. The movie just... takes it down a notch. Sad, but true.

This series is one of my all-time favorites, easily worth five stars.

The brand new movie, Dead Like Me: Life After Death (see my separate review there), however, is not. To say I was disappointed by it would be an understatement. As films go, it is complete junk.

However, buying the set is still very much a worthwhile purchase if, like me, you didn't already own the DVD sets for the TV series's two seasons. The series itself is great fun to watch, beautifully written and acted, with characters that have depth; for this reason, I've given a five-star rating, as this is the best way to obtain this excellent series on DVD. But the movie is a jarring contrast: badly written, with characters whose previous complexities have been thrown out the window, and a mind-numbingly, painfully stupid plot.

If you are a fan of the show Dead Like Me then you'll love the complete collection. Not only does the collection include both seasons it also includes the new movie that just came out. If you have not purchased the seasons in the past you need to invest in the complete collection. It's a really good price for this set. You won't want to miss this box set.

If you have already purchased season 1 and season 2 seperately then there is no need to get this set. You would be better off just purchasing the movie because there is nothing special about the box set.

This show is grim reapers at their best.

The press relese from MGM notes that this box set contains the complete series as seen on SHOtime as well as the forthcoming "Dead Like Me: Life After Death" full-length feature film. Both this box set and the individual film will be available on February 17th, 2009.

Dead Like Me is a dark comedy following Georgia Lass, an unambitious eighteen-year-old who rarely smiles and is going nowhere in life. In the first episode, George dies. More specifically she is hit by a space debris-a toilet seat-that fell from a Russian space station. You may wonder where the show can go when the main character dies, but though Lost executives turned down this idea for Jack Shepherd, this is a situation where the death was necessary, as it introduces us to the mythology of the show. Instead of moving on to an after life, George is relegated to the undead role of Grim Reaper. Her job is to collect the souls of people right before they die so that they do not feel any pain when the death occurs and then guide the soul into the afterlife.

George is slowly but surely trained in the ways of a Reaper by a merry band of reapers:

Rubin, the father of the family who doles out post it notes with the time and place where the reaping will be

Roxy, the tough mother figure with a fiery temper who works as a meter maid (later a police officer)

Mason, the teenage rebel who goofs off and has a weakness for sex, drugs, alcohol, and law breaking

Betty, the spirited wild-child who disappears midway through the first season

Daisy, the devious starlet who likes to scheme to make money with minimum effort

And the rules are for the most part well-established in this show (excluding the movie, which seems to decide it can ignore all of the rules for no good reason). George slowly but surely learns the rules and the consequences of their job, though that doesn't keep her from fighting her position as a Reaper wherever she can

The most mundane thing in life declaring the end of someone's life.

There's a catch to being a Reaper though. Two actually. The first- No paycheck. Hardly seems fair, but there it is. So everything they get is either taken from the dead or earned through side jobs, which is how George ends up at Happy Time, a temp agency where she worked for a single day before her death. As a reaper, George appears different to the world and goes by the name Millie. The second- you don't actually know who you are going to reap, you need to figure it out yourself. The post its only provide the first initial and last name, which has led to complications on more than one occasion.

Meanwhile, George's family has to deal with the loss. George's inept mother, emotionally confused father, and STRANGE sister all grieve in their own ways. (I say strange because what other way is there to describe a girl who steals toilet seats and lies to the neighbors saying her mother won't let her go to the bathroom?) Though Georgia can never come home and reveal herself to her family (there are rules and consequences preventing that) George still looks in on the family she cared little about during her first life. She occasionally leaves small tokens of comfort for the family she can't be a part of and tries to take pieces back with her whenever she can.

Part of the show's charm is that it is so different than anything out there and it didn't run for long enough to "jump the shark" (though the movie managed to do that all on its own). The writers are creative, developing not just a unique lifestyle but also unique phrases that make the plotline feel all encompassing. Everything but the movie are posted on hulu and if you're looking for something to watch, this is definitely a good option. The most unfortunate thing about the show is it got canceled before we could learn everything there was to know about this world and before we could see George finish growing up and move on.

Someone at work told me about this show. I'd never heard of it before. So...off to "that other movie site", and watched both seasons in two nites!! Fantastic humor about an "unfunny" topic! Superb cast of characters! It is a crying shame that the commercial networks won't run this show (yes, the language is much the same as your kids from the 6th grade up use at school but never at home. And truth be told, what most of you use while at work!!).
Season One - in my humble opinion - was better than Season Two...better writing, better scripting all the way around. Worth every minute of your time to watch it. Hell, if death is really like this, I can't wait!!!

Ellen Muth puts her impressive talents to work in this series that was shorter lived, unfortunately, than the main character in the series. Typical episodes covered: the required development of how an 18-year old young lady becomes a grim reaper, while other reapers at different maturity and experience stages develop; what happens when reapers break the rules, what types of people gravitate towards what types of reapers; short term gains for reapers contrasted with long term emotional costs; the inconsequential mountain of drama of a stolen bicycle in one episode compared to the deep, future changing yet underplayed heart tugs of a loved-one's life stolen from a senior reaper; light-hearted moments with deep consequences and extensively plotted plans that come to naught.
The show left me wanting more. The series premise, whimsical yet with a believable basis, only realized a small portion of its true potential. The well thought out plot twists were superbly executed. The writers presented believable characters just a little over the edge of wacky, yet the actors still managed to keep them endearing. I related to the life-like twists and turns presented and was still constantly entertained. Just as the characters became firmly established, the series died. I think this series is one that people of most ages can enjoy.

Bryan Fuller has now created three television masterpieces that three separate networks have saw fit to cancel. There is absolutely no question that he is one of the most prodigiously talented people working on TV, up there with Joss Whedon and J. J. Abrams and Ron Moore or whoever. It is an indictment of the American television industry that such an enormously talented man who has produced three shows as incredible as PUSHING DAISIES (honestly, as good a show as I've ever seen), WONDERFALLS (one in a long string of super shows that FOX has cancelled), and DEAD LIKE ME (one of Showtime's more regrettable mistakes) have been cancelled. One can argue that the networks had to consider the bottom line, but the brute face it that networks no longer nurture shows like they used to. Hits of yesteryear like SEINFELD and THE X-FILES would have been cancelled well before they became huge hits. Bizarrely, in an era where potential viewers can catch up on shows through watching DVDs, networks have less patience with shows than ever before. The financial model that all the networks have embraced, where a show is either an instant hit or gets cancelled, is a bad one. It is bad for artistic reasons and it is bad for financial ones. The networks all need to relearn patience.

DEAD LIKE ME ended way before its time. Thankfully a new DEAD LIKE ME movie is due for release this February. There had been some hope for a revival of the series, using this movie as a sort of restart pilot, but given the current attitude of retrenchment among the networks -- ABC idiotically canceling gems like PUSHING DAISIES and NBC gutting its scripted schedule by stuffing Jay Leno into five hours of prime time programming next season, one of the most blatant attempts to create a schedule on-the-cheap in TV history -- it is difficult to imagine DLM being given life again. Although Bryan Fuller was not involved with the movie and would not be involved in a series restart (nor, for that matter, was he involved with Season Two), the cancellation of PUSHING DAISIES certainly doesn't help DLM's cause. So, in all likelihood, this could be the last we hear about George Lass. And that is to be lamented.

All three of Bryan Fuller's creations deal with the question of what it means to live a life. In two of them, that question is approached through individuals who have died only to experience unusual resurrections. In PUSHING DAISIES Chuck Charles is brought back to life after her murder by her childhood sweetheart Ned, who has the ability to bring any dead thing back to life for up to a minute without consequences (the consequence being that if he doesn't touch them again, someone else has to die in their place). Resurrected, she and Ned discover what it is to love. In DEAD LIKE ME, Georgia Lass, a sullen 18-year-old -- always called George (what is it for Fuller with women whose names could also be used for guy's? The protagonist of WONDERFALLS is a woman named Jaye) -- is hit by the toilet seat off the MIR space station as it is destroyed by earth's atmosphere during her lunch hour while working on her assignment with the Happy Times Temp Agency (in Season Two's PUSHING DAISIES premiere, Ned pretends to be a Happy Times temp in order to infiltrate a company, a nice nod to DLM). The advertising line for DLM when it was running was that death was as good an excuse as any to start living. And that truly is what the series is about. Sullen, uninvolved, prickly, uncaring George, played wonderfully by Ellen Muth, finds herself resurrected to be a Grim Reaper, and in her new role is forced to confront all the issues she refused to deal with when she was alive. As part of a team of reapers who congregate at Der Waffle Haus, she learns to be self-sufficient, learns to become emotionally vulnerable, learns to care. Sadly, her story was cut short when Showtime declined to renew the series after its second series. Thankfully, the two seasons that we got did a great job of exploring her character.

Ellen Muth's George was supposed by a very fine cast, none better than the spectacular Mandy Patinkin, who plays Rube, the supervisor for the reapers. His story was getting very, very interesting in Season Two when the show was cancelled. Unfortunately, because of his involvement on CSI (which, ironically, he quickly quit) he was unavailable for the DLM movie, and was replaced by LOST's Henry Ian Cusick [Desmond], who plays the new head reaper). I'm not sure I've ever enjoyed Patinkin more than in DLM. He becomes more than George's boss on the show; he becomes her mentor and surrogate father. There is a wonderful chemistry in all scenes that George and Rube have together. Callum Blue is marvelous as British punk (circa Sid Vicious era) Mason, an appalling git who is still as hapless as he was when he was alive. Many of the reapers take jobs to support their reaping activities, but Mason, very much in character, is perpetually jobless. Jasmine Guy is Roxy, a tough as nails female who in addition to being a reaper is a cop. The final reaper slot was filled first by Rebecca Gayheart as Betty and then by Laura Harris as Daisy Adair (Harris was also not available for the movie and her role filled by another actress). I could go on to list everyone who plays her family (all of whom were excellent), but will save some space by not doing so. I do, however, have to single out the wonderful work by Christine Willes as Dolores Herbig, George's boss at Happy Times. Willes is a veteran of Vancouver television (where DLM was filmed, as a stand in for Seattle, where the action of the show reputedly takes place). For instance, she was in REAPER and I've spotted her in THE X-FILES and DARK ANGEL. But this is hands down her best role.

In regards to television we live in a perplexing time. On the one hand, scripted television shows have never been better. We have witnessed a long string of absolutely stunning shows, like BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, MAD MEN, SIX FEET UNDER, THE SOPRANOS, THE WIRE, THE SHIELD, THE GILMORE GIRLS, LOST, PUSHING DAISIES, FIREFLY, VERONICA MARS, ANGEL, FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, and many others. So, on the one hand, we truly live in TV's golden age. TV has never, ever been this good. On the other hand, except for LOST none of the shows that I mentioned have attracted a large audience. Many survived merely by being on smaller networks. But the audiences have flocked to low budget reality shows like DANCING WITH THE STARS and AMERICAN IDLE. And as I indicated above, the networks seem to be embracing a cheap-is-good mentality. So NBC tragically guts their schedule by putting Jay Leno on five days a week (anyone concerned with quality TV will pray for Leno's show to crash and burn, the quicker the better). Scripted shows cost a lot more money and they attract fewer viewers. CBS has managed to attract large audiences with its unending string of mediocre cop shows and procedurals (though interestingly CBS does not have a single show that is critically acclaimed, except the half hour comedy HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, one of its least watched prime time shows). ABC has embraced mediocrity by canceling its best show in years, PUSHING DAISIES, and several other scripted series, including ELI STONE, which was quite intriguing. It has also cut back the order for nearly all of its new Spring 2009 shows to as little as 9 episodes. And NBC has simply eliminated a third of its programming by the absurd Jay Leno experiment. Paradoxically, FOX, which for years was guilty of canceling one show after another prematurely, is now under the guidance of Kevin Reilly, who at NBC kept a string of low-rated but critically acclaimed shows alive long enough for them to find success, including THE OFFICE, 30 ROCK, and FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS. So far at FOX he has not shown a tendency to kill shows with the old FOX fervor. The test case will be DOLLHOUSE this spring, easily the most anticipated new show of the 2008-2009 season, but which has been packaged on Fridays along with TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES, easily the most improved show of the year. If both those shows are back in 2009-2010, then I will officially forgive FOX for its past misdeeds. Let's just hope ABC and NBC repent and let's hope that sometime in the next two decades CBS starts making good shows again. The moral? We know that TV creators like Bryan Fuller and Joss Whedon and Ron Moore can make spectacular TV shows. But will the industry continue to make a home for them? I yearn for a time when shows like DEAD LIKE ME will be embraced for the gifts that they are.

I really loved this show...the first season was just about perfect and while the second season had some problems, "Dead Like Me" was so much better than 99 percent of the dreck that passes for television in this world.

I think two things made "Dead Like Me" great. One was a very original concept: what if there really were "Grim Reapers" but unlike the spectral figures we imagine, they lived among us and sort of were like the "civil servants" of the afterlife? And what if we got to see this strange existence through the eyes of George (Georgia) Lass, an eighteen year old slacker who met her end by being struck by the toilet seat of the de-orbiting space station "Mir"? How would George cope? And how would her grieving family cope?

The second thing that sold this show was top notch performances from Ellen Muth (who played George), Mandy Patinkin (Rube), Mason (Callum Blue), and all the rest. And the writing of the shows was superior and managed to blend humor, insight, and sadness in a charmingly off-kilter package.

The things I liked best:

1. Ellen Muth and Mandy Patinkin

2. The concept of "gravelings, gremlin-like creatures that cause the accidents for the grim reapers usually in a "rube goldberg style"

3. The hilarious character of Delores Herbig, George's boss at "Happy Time Temp Agency and the way she sort of played a substitute mother for George

4. The way the show managed to be poignant but upbeat most of the time.

The show was not perfect. Like I said, there was a bit of a slump in season two in terms of plotting, but I recently watched it again, and I found myself wishing it had lasted longer than two seasons and a rather uneven movie "Dead Like Me: Life After Death" that tied up some loose ends.

Dead Like Me: Life After Death

I do find myself wishing the show or its creators would have explained a couple of things:

1. How did the reapers manage to interact with dead people when they were amongst the living without looking like a bunch of schizophrenics?

2. What happened to the character of Betty, a reaper who they had follow a departing soul into his "lights" (the gateway to his final reward)? I understand that they originally were going to bring her back but the actress playing her had caused a car accident that killed someone and the people behind the show were uneasy with having someone like that play one of death's minions.

3. How did reapers handle incidents where huge numbers of people died all at once (like the tsunami in Japan or something like 9-11)?

4. Did the writers decide it was a mistake to have the character of Roxie be a meter maid (which would explain how she suddenly became a police officer)?

5. What was the story behind Crystal, the rather creepy looking worker at Happy Times (but with a good heart)? Was she involved in the death business herself?

6. Did George really see gravelings when she was a little girl and in danger of drowning when she was in the deep end of a swimming pool? Why would she have?

7. Why weren't they able to get Mandy Patinkin and the actress who played Daisy back for the movie? I thought the movie was okay and worth watching, but I really missed those two.

8. Why did we never see any of the souls of people who died in the show really lose it when they realized they were dead? I have a feeling that a lot of people would have gotten hysterical or enraged.

9. Why did some of the people who got reaped after they were killed (instead of just before) show signs of the way they died on their souls but other times did not?

10. Did the writers create the graveling concept because they were concerned that if they had George and her fellow reapers actually do the killing, they'd become much less sympathetic characters?

11. Was the Mason character initially envisioned as a love interest for George? I initially thought --based on the way George cooed over his name when the character was first introduced-- that he would be. But he instead evolved into a sort of goofy older brother figure for George instead.

12. When George's father Clancy is introduced, she informs us that he's having an affair with a graduate student. But then in the episode "Sunday Mornings," we see George inadvertently trigger an affair between her dad and a student she befriended. I found myself wondering if again, this was a bit of revising on the part of the writers.

I would have loved to have seen the show's "bible" (where the general arc of the series and character development would be).



None of these things impaired my appreciation of the show. I just would have liked some explanation.

This is a great collection. It includes the two seasons of Dead Like Me, as well as the movie, Dead Like Me: Life After Death. It also includes a lot of commentary and behind the scenes featurettes.

So, the show is amazing. It only lasted two seasons, but that's just what happens sometimes. It aired on Showtime, so be prepared for both swearing and, on a few occasions, naked guy butt. Oh, well. At least it's comedic naked guy butt. The show ends on a great note, with major character development for all of the main characters. Daisy Adare, especially, makes great strides in her evolution by the end of the show.

As for the movie...

SPOILER ALERT

The movie is...kind of weird. Not weird in a good way, just...weird. It feels thrown together somehow, and Rube - the stable patriarch of the group - is gone, replaced by some sleazy guy named Cameron. The actress that plays Daisy has also been replaced (you can get explanations for those changes in the featurettes on the DVD) and they seem to have yanked out all of her character development. The Daisy Adare in the movie is the Daisy Adare that appeared in the middle of Season One, NOT the Daisy Adare that we saw at the end of Season Two. The continuity just feels off. However, the best thing about the movie is the relationship between Reggie (thank god they kept the same actress) and her mom, and Reggie and George. This feels like the main plot of the movie, and is handled well, especially the end.

I have to say, though, the movie isn't really worth it. I'm not sure why they made it. It provides no more closure than the last episode of the series, and seems like something done for financial reasons rather than a decision made by the writers. So I'm giving it 4 stars because the series is fantastic, while the movie is kind of pointless. Seriously, if you don't want to watch it, you don't have to. You won't miss anything.