Customer Reviews

Dead Like Me - The Complete First Season

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2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I am sure the people at Showtime knew what they were doing when they scheduled "Dead Like Me" to start when HBO's "Six Feet Under" was over, because the two shows are certainly complementary. However, while the deaths that begin each episode of "Six Feet Under" have their moments in terms of being rather weird (my favorite was the woman convinced it was the Rapture when she saw the a bunch of helium filled inflatable dolls floating away), they do not have the Rube Goldberg quality of what the gravelings can set in motion in "Dead Like Me."

The idea of the afterlife created by Bryan Fuller, who also created the similarly quirky Wonderfalls," is that right before you die you soul is taken from your body by a Grim Reaper. Although they are replete in the opening title sequence these are not Grim Reapers as in figures in black hood carrying scythes. In fact, they look like regular folk, although not the regular folk they were when they were alive now that they are a peculiar variety of undead. We learn the rules of the game along with young Georgia Lass (Ellen Muth), an 18-year-old sourpuss called George. Having decided to forego the college experience George has been sent out into the world to find a job and during lunch she is passed on the street by a strange man who touches her. We see a light passing from her to him and within seconds a toilet seat from a disintegrating Russian space station strikes her dead.

George is surprised to see herself looking at the big hole in the ground where she had been standing a moment ago and even more surprised to be informed that she is now a Grim Reaper. This task is done by Rube (Mandy Patinkin), who is in charge of a cadre of Reapers in this particular town. This includes Mason (Callum Blue), an English bloke who has figured out that you cannot overdose when you are already dead so indulge in drugs to your heart's contextt; Roxy (Jasmine Guy), a meter maid for the police department with ample attitude to spare; and, at first, Betty Rhomer (Rebecca Gayheart), a former beauty queen who is ready to move on to the next level. We are not quite sure what that is, because while Grim Reapers get to release souls and head them in the right direction (bright lights that assume various pleasing shapes), they really do not know what the final destination is really like for the dead.

Of course, in the early episodes of the series George is not happy with being dead and not exactly thrilled with a job when she is given a post-it note with a name, address and E.T.D. (estimated time of death) so she can go reap a soul. The latter is taken care of when she gets a couple of hard lessons about what happens when she does not (your form in the afterlife is not how you look at the moment of death, but at the moment that your soul is reaped, so it is something you would want to have done before the autopsy). The former is more difficult, because trying to reconnect with her life from beyond the grave is hampered by the fact that she looks different (to everyone else) and she cannot say anything that would convince anyone who knew her before that she was still around.

One of the strengths of this quirky series is that we do not ignore the family that Georgia has left behind as her mother (Cynthia Stevenson), little sister (Britt McKillip), and father (Greg Kean) try to deal with moving on after her death. Watching the Lass family disintegrate is almost a show within the show, capable of standing on its own, because their interaction with Georgia the Grim Reaper is infrequent and usually something indirect. We are as interested in what is going to happen to Joy and Reggie (and J.D. rather than Clancy) as we are to Georgia and her friends.

Another thing that makes "Dead Like Me" work is the actual friendship that springs up between George and Dolores Herbig (Christine Willes). Now known as Millie, George ends up going back to work at Happy Time, the employment agency that she was taking a lunch break from when the sky fell on her head (even when you are undead a girl has to eat). Dolores is extremely annoying, but "Millie" pretends to play along so long that she actually starts playing along with Dolores' weltanschauung.

The cherry on top with this show is Mandy Patinkin as Rube, who finally has a role in which he can say pretty much anything he wants, especially when it comes to what he is having for breakfast and how it is cooked. I like the way he calls George "Peanut" all the time as he imparts to her the facts of being undead. I also like the way Roxy gets mad at people who tear up their tickets, the moments of conscious that Mason has when doing his job, and the way Reggie honors the memory of her sister. But then it is a well- established fact that I like quirky.

Joining the cast during this first season is another Grim Reaper, Daisy Adair (Laura Harris), an actress who had a role in "Gone With the Wind" and makes no bones about how she got the gig before she died. She and George become roommates just to cause further trouble for our heroine (and her frog) and is most definitely the character who rubs me the wrong way. But in the end I have to say that the only thing about "Dead Like Me" that really bothers me is that the post-it notes only have the first initial of the person who is destined to die. You cannot tell a person's gender from just an initial.

A friend once told me that he was creeped out whenever an episode of "The Twilight Zone" featured a ventriloquist's dummy. Those episodes never impressed me, but recently I got chills watching an old episode about a toy telephone.

You can never tell what's going to strike a chord and resonate with a particular person. "Dead Like Me" is not for everyone. Some people will hate it. Others just won't "get" it. It's too bad, really, because they're missing out on something truly wonderful.

18-year-old Georgia (George) Lass, deceased, has a new job: collector of souls of the newly departed--a grim reaper, if you prefer. She doesn't want to be a reaper. She doesn't know how to be a reaper. She gets on-the-job training. What she learns about, mostly, is life.

In life, George was too cool to care about anything. In death, she learns to care, in ways that are funny and sad together. The result is the most consistently moving television show I've ever seen. At the end of each episode, when the credits appear, I find myself shaking my head and muttering, "What a GREAT show!"

The language and some visuals are too harsh for young children. The show contains a lot of adult subject matter--no, not like cable porn--rather, like parents struggling over how to cope with an emotionally troubled 11-year-old daughter. Material for genuinely mature audiences. Very rare, that.

Not for everyone, but I couldn't recommend it more highly. What a GREAT show.

I thought the first season was very compelling and since I don't have showtime, I had to buy the first season on dvd. It was great - one of the best series ever on tv right up there with all the great shows in cable series format. For example: Nikita even though DLM it wasn't all action all the time, in it's own way it was just as good as any other hit cable show. So where's the second season my money is in my hand ready to buy? You too, should want this impressive cable series the second season of this fantastic and highly entertaining 'Dead Like Me'!

Really. It's one of the only shows I can watch over and over again; it never gets boring and never gets annoying. Each episode carries you from laughter to tears to contemplation, and I have never seen such fantastic acting. Even the minor characters give flawless performances, and the regular characters are nothing short of brilliant -- every single line is delivered just so, and you can't imagine anyone saying it better. All of the characters are given real personalities; their pasts, their lives and their dialogues are carefully-crafted. The characters (especially those who are dead) seem more real and more life-like than real people, and each show makes you think about life and death just a little bit differently than you did before. The direction and production are spotless -- colors are vibrant and intense, timing is perfect, and the picture quality and effects are always perfect for each scene. And, since each show is approximately 40 minutes, it's just enough to fit into your day, but you keep wanting more! Okay, so I'm raving, but this is genuinely my favorite show ever and I come away from every episode with the same "life, but intensified" feeling I get after watching My So-Called Life, or Almost Famous -- there are sad patches, and funny parts, but most of all you really think about life (the good parts and the bad), and it makes you want to live yours better.

Good show for making me think. I like the grim humor: dark but not depressing. I don't get Showtime, so it looks like I have to buy the DVD set. Basically, George does like many people do in a new situation: adjust by testing the limits of the rules. A worthwhile show. The audio and visual quality are very good. I definitely like the widescreen picture. There is some occasional swearing. Sex and violence is about the same as you would see on primetime tv. An episode guide, just for a reminder of what happened this season:

1. Pilot (2 hours): A young woman discovers that she has been assigned a job in the afterlife as a Reaper.
2. Dead Girl Walking: George finds that shirking her duties has consequences for the souls.
3. Curious George: George has trouble letting go of the past.
4. Reapercussions: George learns a lesson when she tries to spare a soul.
5. Reaping Havoc: A new friend jumps to the other side.
6. My Room: George gets a new roommate after losing her friend.
7. Reaper Madness: George has an affair with a living schizophrenic who can see her.
8. A Cook: George brings home a dog. Rube gets a job as a cook.
9. Sunday Mornings: Mason falls for a girl he rescues from a rape. The girl has a crush on George's father.
10. Business Unfinished: The ghost of a rich lady is the target of a money-making scheme.
11. The Bicycle Thief : George wants to buy a bicycle and leaves Happy Time for a higher paying job.
12. Nighthawks: The Reapers have their annual evaluations, which consist of clips from previous shows shown with each reaper's self-evaluation.
13. Vacation: The Reapers take the day off.
14. Rest in Peace: George wants her job at Happy Time back.

I bought this set on a whim.... I don't have Showtime, but I remembered seeing a clip on the filming of the pilot on one of those entertainment TV shows. I am SO glad that I did!!!

This is a truly great show! In an age where most TV shows are "reality" based or just another tired, been-there-done-that premise, this one grabs hold and sucks you in. The dialogue snaps and sizzles; making me wish that I could have come up with half of those lines. Each episode's story lines whips back and forth through both comedic and dramatic scences; never dwelling too long on the the sad aspects of death (But just enough to give the show some substance).

The charaters are exceptional. Ellen Muth plays the new reaper; most of the show is seen through her eyes as she learns the rules of her strange new existence, and trying to reconcile herself with those she left behind. Mandy Patinkin plays her boss, Rube. He is an excellent Antagonist for George (Muth). In fact, he comes off as a gruff father-figure for George. Rounding out the cast is Jasmine Guy (Remember her from "A Different World"? You won't here), a tough talking reaper who has a day job working as a Meter-Maid; Callum Blue, a "Trainspotting"-esque reaper; Rebecca Gayheart, the beauty queen reaper; Cynthia Stevenson, George's bitter mother and Britt McKillip, as George's weird younger sister. While there are several other recurring characters, they don't seem to be as important as the one I mentioned.

I recommend this show to any one who enjoys the quirky and unusual, as well as fans of "Tru Calling", "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", "Joan of Arcadia", "X-Files" and "Twin Peaks".

I just wish this show was on regular TV. Now I'll have to wait for season 2 to come out on DVD. Looks like it will be a loooong wait.

"Dead Like Me" proves that cynicism, humor, depth, and even compassion can not only co-exist on a single television series, they can actually flourish together. With sharp and witty writing and directing, "Dead Like Me" explores the bizarre world of our working-class grim reapers, the good folks charged with escorting human souls to the afterlife. As the second-lowest level group of bureaucrats in the afterlife system (best not to ask about the lowest), grim reapers must trudge along "popping" the souls of the soon-to-be-departed before they meet their grisly (and, dare I say, often hilarious) ends. And they must also survive, and pay rent, in the living world.

The chief protagonist on the series is George (a.k.a. Georgia), a recently deceased, uber-cynical, 18 year old who just can't seem to resist rebelling against the whole "death" system. Her fellow reapers include an unapologetically opportunistic drug-smuggler, a meter-maid who does a lot more than write parking tickets, a happy-go-lucky pragmatist who has developed a truly macabre taste in photography, and an actress whose resume is surprisingly out of date. And then, of course, there is Rube.

Rube is the would-be foreman of this somewhat strange assemblage of reapers. He is also, arguably, the most sympathetic, complex, and mysterious character on the show-thanks in no small part to the superb acting of Mandy Patinkin. As with the other characters on the show, no amount of space here can really hint at the depth alloted to Rube by the writers and directors of "Dead Like Me" or the skill with which Patinkin explores that depth. Suffice it to say that Rube plays a lot more like a real person (or real undead person) than any mere television contrivance. Rube is more alive as a dead man than any television character from the living world.

The very essence of "Dead Like Me" is, in fact, its willingness to explore not only the bizarre world of the reapers, but also the lives and personalities of the reapers themselves. Undead life has had (and continues to have) some pretty strange effects on these formerly-living reapers, and watching their individual responses to the problems of their bizarre occupation provides much of the humor of the show.

And, not to leave out the living world, the creative minds behind "Dead Like Me," also frequently turn their attention to living characters on the show, from the "soon to be referred to the past tense" reaper clients to the families they leave behind (most notably George's grieving family). Just about any character is subject to being fleshed-out on this show (even dogs and frogs). A minor character named Angus Cook makes a more memorable impression in one epsiode of "Dead Like Me" (appropriately titled "A. Cook") than most TV series regulars will make in an entire season.

Some have compared "Dead Like Me" with shows like "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and similar, more pedestrian, fare. But about the only thing Buffy and George have in common is youth and blonde hair. And the only thing the reapers have in common with television vampires is that they've both been around a while. Of course, one of the problems with television vampires is that they never seem to *realize* they've been around a while. They are also generally kind enough to join up with either the "good guys" or "bad guys" teams of the Buffyverse and its ilk, teams which don't exist in the universe of "Dead Like Me."

But you might want to visit the universe of "Dead Like Me" for yourself, and form your own impressions. Just don't stay too long. You might end up with a post-it note and a new job.

My partner and friends think I'm perverse, but I love Dead Like Me and find every episode hilarious. I suppose one could take it seriously and then perhaps be sad or offended, but it would be pretty tough to actually think that someone could be killed by a toilet seat falling from space or that Death has minions who go around taking the souls of people whose names are doled out to them on Post-It notes.

Yet Dead Like Me does work as a "straight" plot (more or less) and that's one of the things I love about it. The fact that the shows cast and crew offer this stuff up with a straight face just makes it all the more funny. And it's what gives the characters enough depth and credibility to make the viewer care about them. From the lead "reaper," Georgia, to her dweeb mother, Joy, to her fellow reaper, the former actress Daisy, the characters are both unique and believeable.

My favorite is Delores Herbig, Georgia's boss at Happy Time Employment Agency. Check out the episode where George visits Delores at her apartment. Even though it's a studio, Delores proudly shows George around the place, stopping at the "scrapbooking" area and showing her the cat's "feeding station." The satire rolls down the walls. And some of the other character's at Happy Time are also hilarious, like the creepy receptionist, Crystal. Trust me, you will choke with laughter.

Meet George. Your typical 18 year-old recent High School Graduate that doesn't know what she wants to do with her life, but knows that College isn't part of it. So after her mothers persistance she takes a job as a file clerk, only to die on her first day by having a toliet seat from out-space hit her on the head.

When George Wakes up she finds out that fate has chosen her as a Grim-Reaper. She must help people to the afterlife, until her time comes to go on herself. It might take 2 weeks, it might take 200 years to get to whereever she's suppose to go, but shes doing a job that she has to do.

Over the course of the first season George meets many very interesting "Grim Reapers" including: Mason, your typical out-for-a-buck reaper, Betty the fashionable reaper, Daisy the once movie "star" that blew everybody from John Wayne to Luke Perry, and Rube the leader of the pack.

The Story also follows the effects of George's death on her family, that she thought never liked her only to realize that she was the backbone that held them together.

Now collected for the first time is the complete first season of the showtime series. This is a great series, and desearves to be seen by everyone that likes the bizarre, yet comedic that don't have showtime. Or for fans that want to watch this great season again.

Highly Recomened.

I don't buy television series' to keep in my DVD collection. Especially series that have just been released after their first season. I don't own any Buffy the Vampire Slayer DVDs (although the show has some great acting and dialogue), nor do I own Six Feet Under or The Sopranos or any other form of long term television viewing. So what makes this one so different?

Simply put: everything!

In a time where most of what we see and understand comes through that little lighted box with a remote control near-at-hand, it is refreshing to see something different. Something unlike what Hollywood would normally put out there. I can almost hear the arguments against this show before it was released (probably similar arguments that got Wonder Falls cancelled...another excellent show with the same production crew, so I understand). "Death! Who wants to hear about the afterlife of an 18 year old girl?!" and "This family is too dysfunctional!" and "Comedy. We need more comedy!" Let's hope some do-gooder never get's his/her hands on this excellent story concept and tries to change it to a light-hearted, feel-good series or some other ridiculously overdone theme.

So what is this series about? The focus is on Georgia "George" Lass, played perfectly by Ellen Muth. She's like millions of other post-highschool graduates out there; she has no idea what she wants to do with her life, or whether she wants to do anything at all. Her mother, Joy (Cynthia Stevenson), is fed up with her daughter's attitude and forces her out of bed one fateful morning with harsh words and orders for her to "find a job and become a productive member of society." Little does George's mother know, but these harsh words will be the last she ever speaks to her eldest daughter. On George's first day in the workforce, she takes a lunch break and, as she stand on a street corner, gets snuffed out by a zero-G toilet seat that comes crashing into our atmosphere from the disintegrating Mir space station. But before she's killed, a nice black man asks her name and touches her on the back ever so slightly. George has just been Reaped. The toilet seat kills her, but her soul lives on. Rube (Mandy Patinkin) greets her as her new boss. George is to become a Grim Reaper, taking souls from the lives of those that are about to be violently ended.

The irony is smackingly wonderful: a young girl who couldn't have cared less about her own life only moments before is now in charge of the end of lives of god knows how many people. Leaving behind her family is tough, though. And it is poignantly portrayed without getting heavy-handed in the dialogue department. Her mother retreats into herself and becomes an angry woman who likes very little. George's kid sister, Reggie (Britt McKillip), tries to contact George in the afterlife by acting out (she steals toilet seats from her school, uses a Ouji board on top of her own toilet seat in an effort to hear anything coming from the `beyond', and collects dead things like birds). George's father, Clancy Lass (Greg Kean), has an affair with one of his graduate students.

What George hadn't anticipated either was the fact that her life has/had actual meaning. She witnesses her family falling apart but is unable to do anything about it. She also has to work a regular job now (Reapers don't get paid by some surreal agency), as well as do the reaping assignments handed out to her by Rube.

Within this little grouping of Reapers are some outstanding personalities, too. Callum Blue plays Mason, a Reaper who died while drilling a hole into his head in the 1960's in an attempt to reach "the ultimate high." He'll do anything not to work, including stealing from those who he reaps and carrying "illegals in his bottom." Jasmine Guy plays Roxy, a tough and roughshod Reaper who doesn't take anything from anyone. She'd been murdered over money. No wonder she wants to be cop. Laura Harris plays Daisy Adair, a pretty, young actress who knew and had sex with almost all the early movie stars. She's been around the block, trying to find love and acceptance. It's a funny and sad character that comes barreling off the screen.

The thing that'll pull you into this series is the dialogue and the characters. The death of an 18 year old girl and her subsequent enlistment into Reaper-ville can sound rather heavy. And it is. But the writers let that seep into the story and don't force it upon us (not an easy thing to do). The comedy is spot on and never slapstick or inappropriate. I let my teenagers watch a couple of the series and they were laughing out loud many times, and reaching for tissues at the more poignant moments; a testament to a great show if ever there was one (being able to hold the attention of the instant gratification age).

I cannot recommend this series highly enough. I pray that Showtime keeps getting the go-ahead to continue the show. So far, season 2 has been outstanding too. Bravo!