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Georgia
Lass is an 18-year old who is killed when a toilet seat from
the Mir space station hurtles to Earth and hits her in the
head. Lass is
surprised to discover that an afterlife does exist, and that
she's already been assigned a position with the Pacific Northwest
chapter of grim reapers. She eventually comes to terms with
the ghoulish duties with which she has been assigned. She
must, however, reconcile certain unresolved issues which still
linger from her life among the living before she is allowed
to move on...
Dead
Like Me is a series in the same league as Buffy
and Angel. However, where this differs is in its more
realistic portrayal of the world around us. Characters use
four letter expletives and there are many ongoing themes that
weave complex story lines throughout the episodes. George
having to face the fact she must move on with her life and
not revisit her old home is one theme that the writers keep
going back to. Another is George's attempts to not let the
living die. On more than one occasion she tries to change
the future - and she's not the only reaper to do so.
The
Gravelings, creatures that help to cause the death of humans,
are a pretty neat idea - not original, but still very amusing.
As the series progresses, we get to understand more about
them. Anyone whose seen Twilight Zone: The Movie, or
the original Twilight Zone episode staring William
Shatner, Nightmare At 20,000 Feet, will see where the
writers of Dead Like Me got their inspiration.
It's
not long before the cast gets a shake up and Rebecca Gayheart's
Betty Rhomer is replaced by Laura Harris's Daisy Adair. If
you're trying to place Harris, by the way, she played Marie
Warner in Season Two of 24. While Betty was a more
likeable character, Daisy does add some much needed spice
into the episodes. She's vain, self-obsessed and a total snob...
but then she constantly contradicts this image with her wild
stories of which famous actors of Hollywood's Golden Age she's
performed folatio, and other sexual acts, on - she claims
to have been an actress who died on the set of Gone With
the Wind.
The
regular character of Delores Herbig (played with just the
right amount of subtlety by Christine Willes) really helps
to inject some great humour into the episodes. Delores means
well, but is a bit of a nightmare. She runs the office scrapbook
circle and has a website, Getting Things Done with Delores,
where people can watch her going around her house doing chores
- very funny.
As
the first season progresses, we get to see how each of the
reapers (apart from Rube) died and whether or not they have
any ties still to the living. Probably the saddest reaper,
which makes you realise why her character is so hard faced,
is Jasmine
Guy's Roxy Harvey. Her back story is really sad, but the writers
add a hint of reality. Guy was actually a regular dancer in
Fame and her character, Roxy, was a dancer in the '80s
- although her death was not an accident. It's 21 years on
and still she's having trouble letting go.
This
season has a clips show - which is really poor considering
this is the show's first season. While the writers have really
tried to make it not stick out like a clips show, it's still
very obvious. Thankfully, it's not all that bad - the clips
being kept down to a minimum and only in very brief snatches.
In truth it doesn't really detract from the episode that much.
Eagle-eyed
viewers will also spot Gary Jones, who plays the technician
in Stargate: SG-1, in a cameo role. And I was most
amused (the schoolboy that I am) that Callum Blue slipped
in a rude British word that American's have no idea of the
meaning of: "w*nk."
Extras
include an audio commentary with the cast - a bit of a love-in
more than anything really informative about the show - although
I did learn that George's mother is called Joy for a very
good reason - Joy Lass (Joyless); 30 minutes of deleted scenes
- which are worth watching. One scene explains how George
gets her new identity (driving license etc) and another scene
shows George's mother at the wake swearing at the guy from
Happy Time that got George the sack. It also explains why
George is with the accidental death group of reapers; Behind
the Scenes featurette (6:30) with interviews with the
main cast; The Music of Dead Like Me featurette (4:00)
which doesn't really look at the music in any depth; and Dead
Like US Weekly which lists the top 10 deaths in season
one as well as the most eligible single dead people in the
show.
Sadly,
this show only ran for two season. I say sadly, because this
has some of the best writing of any show in its field. Funny,
touching and great character developments make Season One
of Dead Like Me a must own collection.
 
Pete
Boomer
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