Something can be under the radar for all manner of reasons, whether it’s because it’s unpopular, doesn’t receive a lot of press, or even because it’s older and forgotten. Dead Like Me is somewhere in between all those different things. Some of the greatest TV shows of the new millennium never caught on for more than a season or two, which was also the case for this Showtime original series. Created by Bryan Fuller, Dead Like Me starred Ellen Muth as Georgia “George” Lass, a recently deceased girl just out of high school with a bad attitude and family issues. Instead of dying, George joins the ranks of the “undead” as a grim reaper, who are not as scary as you might think. Joining a group of reapers led by the mysterious Rube (Mandy Patinkin), George is give a first initial, a last name, a time and a place of where someone is going to die. In the case of this particular group, they deal with horrific deaths like murders, suicides, accidents, etc. Also among the group (at least at the start of the series) are Roxy (Jasmine Guy) the badass traffic cop, Mason (Callum Blue) the freeloading Englishman, and Betty (Rebecca Gayheart) the free spirit with a story.
Aside from the sometimes gratuitous death scenes, George is attempting to deal with her sudden loss of life, her new identity as “Millie”, and the unresolved conflicts with her parents (Cynthia Stevenson and Greg Kean) and her little sister Reggie (Britt McKillip). The show is a dark comedy, as the deaths are more often than not done in a humorous manner. The group of reapers meets in a German themed Waffle House called “Der Waffle Haus” every morning where Rube passes out their daily reaps. Like anyone suddenly thrust into the “Death business”, George is strictly against taking lives and even goes so far as to prevent the death of a young girl on a train because she doesn’t believe it to be right. As Rube points out, there is no way around it, even if her body lives her soul is destined to die and will rot if she isn’t reaped. The show deals a lot with George’s struggle to find a balance between her new life and the inevitable death around her.
The main strengths of the show are without a doubt the brilliant writing and the chemistry between the cast members. It’s like Arrested Development except with dead people. The lines are written and delivered well and on their mark. The show can expertly navigate from a dramatic scene full of emotion to a light-hearted scene that has you laughing. I have rarely seen another show quite like it, and when I do they sadly often share the same fate as Dead Like Me; cancellation. But fear not, unlike last weeks’ post on The Pretender, this show has a definite end. Dead Like Me: Life After Death was a direct-to-DVD movie that acts as both an end to the series and what was to hopefully be a potential launching point for a continuation of the show. If you check out Dead Like Me, which I highly suggest you do, you have to watch Life After Death. Like all things, it may not live up to the high standards of the show, but it’ll leave you feeling complete.
