Dead Like Me, season 1
Friday, 4. January 2008, 18:16:03
Hm. Interesting. Created by Bryan Fuller ("Wonderfalls") though he dropped out early in the first season after a quarrel with the studio, this series is about yet another young, sarcastic girl with a somewhat peculiar ability/life. Or in this case, ability/unlife. That's right. Georgia Lass is a Grim Reaper.
The pilot, as well as several other episodes throughout the season, is quite sombre, dealing with death, loss and acceptance. Sometimes in poignant ways, sometimes in silly ways, sometimes in insensitive ways and sometimes in cozy ways. Some episodes are funnier and lighter, but Georgia ("George", as she's called) deals with death in some capacity in most of them. A side-plot following those she left behind after her death in the pilot - a well-meaning but horribly poor at parenting-mother, a push-over father, and the little sister who looked up to her but she always ignored - as they cope with her death always serves to ground and make serious the few episodes where George's main plot isn't sad enough.
That being said, the show is frequently funny and silly in individual scenes, even if the general tone isn't the happiest. As mentioned, George dies in the pilot - in a very funny and surreal way, true to the tone of the show - and she's introduced to some other Reapers. She gets assigned to the division for external deaths by acts or events of sudden violence, meaning they get murders, accidents, suicides and that kind of thing, other forms of death being handled by other divisions of reapers. Smart way to keep her reaps interesting from episode to episode.
Her division consists of Betty the daredevil, Mason the drug-using (English) corpse-pillaging wreck, Roxie the aggressive parking officer, and Rube. Rube, Mandy Patinkin, is the leader of the division, and as such somewhat more mysterious than the rest of them - because of course, even to the Reapers, what lays beyond for other people is just as unknown as to the souls they reap. Later the division is joined by Daisy, a self-loving has-been actress.
At average, George has to reap one soul per day, meaning there's lots of time left over. And the job doesn't pay. She's not allowed any contact with her friends and relatives from when she was alive, so, she has to go get herself a job. Something she never got around to in real life. And the job, of course, comes complete with a wacky superior and mind-numbing boredom. In many ways, the show deals with George growing up post-mortem, experiencing things and responsibilities she always avoided in life, and a growing affection and longing for the family she ignored while alive. This first season is stuffed with instances of her doing tiny things for her little sister without actually meeting her or letting her know she's still, sort of, alive.
The main weakness of the season is somewhat episodic plots - the main season-arc concerns her family, not George and the reapers despite their much larger chunk of screentime, and the only character-arc of importance is in George herself, as she very, very slowly and gradually comes to term with her new existance. There is also, however, some plotholes. Mainly dealing with the rules of the more fantasy parts of the show, the technical details around the reaps, etc, but also, sometimes, even more annoyingly, with the actual plots, like when George's roommate in one particular episode apparently, out of nowhere, isn't her roommate, before their situation being back to normal in the next. Still, they're not so big or numerous to provide a serious problem. A nuiscance, though, that it is.
The dialogue is entertaining, and so are the characters, especially George's co-Reapers and her regular work-boss Delores (same actress who plays the demon recieving the vessels with the souls in, ironically, "Reaper", by the way).
While the show was cancelled after its second season, apparently, a direct-to-DVD-movie is on the way, so there is some hope for a fullness of story here still.
I like this show, it's strong and it's decent, but I've yet to love it. It's also a little too much on the sombre side for me - I'm very delicate when it comes to sadness in my entertainment, it gets to my mood a little too easily. Still, I will without a doubt watch the second season as well. In fact, I'm four episodes in, and so far I have a tiny little suspicion that this season is going to be better than the first.
The pilot, as well as several other episodes throughout the season, is quite sombre, dealing with death, loss and acceptance. Sometimes in poignant ways, sometimes in silly ways, sometimes in insensitive ways and sometimes in cozy ways. Some episodes are funnier and lighter, but Georgia ("George", as she's called) deals with death in some capacity in most of them. A side-plot following those she left behind after her death in the pilot - a well-meaning but horribly poor at parenting-mother, a push-over father, and the little sister who looked up to her but she always ignored - as they cope with her death always serves to ground and make serious the few episodes where George's main plot isn't sad enough.
That being said, the show is frequently funny and silly in individual scenes, even if the general tone isn't the happiest. As mentioned, George dies in the pilot - in a very funny and surreal way, true to the tone of the show - and she's introduced to some other Reapers. She gets assigned to the division for external deaths by acts or events of sudden violence, meaning they get murders, accidents, suicides and that kind of thing, other forms of death being handled by other divisions of reapers. Smart way to keep her reaps interesting from episode to episode.
Her division consists of Betty the daredevil, Mason the drug-using (English) corpse-pillaging wreck, Roxie the aggressive parking officer, and Rube. Rube, Mandy Patinkin, is the leader of the division, and as such somewhat more mysterious than the rest of them - because of course, even to the Reapers, what lays beyond for other people is just as unknown as to the souls they reap. Later the division is joined by Daisy, a self-loving has-been actress.
At average, George has to reap one soul per day, meaning there's lots of time left over. And the job doesn't pay. She's not allowed any contact with her friends and relatives from when she was alive, so, she has to go get herself a job. Something she never got around to in real life. And the job, of course, comes complete with a wacky superior and mind-numbing boredom. In many ways, the show deals with George growing up post-mortem, experiencing things and responsibilities she always avoided in life, and a growing affection and longing for the family she ignored while alive. This first season is stuffed with instances of her doing tiny things for her little sister without actually meeting her or letting her know she's still, sort of, alive.
The main weakness of the season is somewhat episodic plots - the main season-arc concerns her family, not George and the reapers despite their much larger chunk of screentime, and the only character-arc of importance is in George herself, as she very, very slowly and gradually comes to term with her new existance. There is also, however, some plotholes. Mainly dealing with the rules of the more fantasy parts of the show, the technical details around the reaps, etc, but also, sometimes, even more annoyingly, with the actual plots, like when George's roommate in one particular episode apparently, out of nowhere, isn't her roommate, before their situation being back to normal in the next. Still, they're not so big or numerous to provide a serious problem. A nuiscance, though, that it is.
The dialogue is entertaining, and so are the characters, especially George's co-Reapers and her regular work-boss Delores (same actress who plays the demon recieving the vessels with the souls in, ironically, "Reaper", by the way).
While the show was cancelled after its second season, apparently, a direct-to-DVD-movie is on the way, so there is some hope for a fullness of story here still.
I like this show, it's strong and it's decent, but I've yet to love it. It's also a little too much on the sombre side for me - I'm very delicate when it comes to sadness in my entertainment, it gets to my mood a little too easily. Still, I will without a doubt watch the second season as well. In fact, I'm four episodes in, and so far I have a tiny little suspicion that this season is going to be better than the first.
