TV Review (series available on DVD): Dead Like Me

Calling all fans of Pushing Daisies

What’s that you say? You’ve never heard of Dead Like Me? Not surprising, I hadn’t either until by chance one day my Tivo (not DVR, my TIVO) recorded it as a suggestion for me. The show originally aired on Showtime in 2003, which is probably why I didn’t catch it. The free movie channels are usually enough for me.

If you were a fan of Pushing Daisies though, then chances are you will like Dead Like Me. Brian Fuller, who is the creator of both shows, seems to have a fascination with death, as he continues to examine how we look at death with dark comedies. So, with the follow-up, directly-to-DVD movie released today (Dead Like Me: Life After Death), which is rumored to bring closure to the story, I bring you a review of the series.

In the series pilot, we are introduced to 18-year-old, completely unmotivated Georgia “George” Lass (Ellen Muth) who lives in Seattle. George’s mom soon gets fed up with her after she drops out of college and sends her out to find a job. She applies at a temp agency where supervisor Deloris “as in her-big-brown-eyes” Herbig, brilliantly played by Christine Willes, reluctantly gives George a job.



While on lunch break from her first day at a meaningless job, George is vaporized by the flaming toilet seat from the space station Mir as it reenters the atmosphere. How’s that for being born under the wrong sign? Suddenly seeing the scene from outside herself, she realizes she is dead. It is then explained to her that she has a new “job.” Her lack of direction and affection has left her designation to either heaven or hell undetermined. The reaper who extracted George’s soul has now fulfilled his own spiritual quota and is able to move on, but George must become his replacement. She now joins the ranks of the undead grim reapers, led by Rube (Mandy Patinkin, best known for his role as Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride), who receive daily assignments (on Post-it Notes of all things) to extract the souls from the bodies of people who are about to die and escort them to their afterlives. Whew, now I’m out of breath.



Like Pushing Daisies, there are rules and twists. First of all, the reapers only receive the first initials and last names of their targets. This has comedic results at times, as in episode 5 of season 1 “Reaping Havoc,” where George must collect the soul of M.J. Bowers at the park. When she gets to the park, she finds a Bowers family reunion is underway and she must quickly find the right M.J.

Reapers have bodies and can be seen by mortals, but do not look like they did when they were alive. That aside, they are not supposed to interact with their loved ones from their former life. But reapers don’t get a free pass either. They must either get a job that will allow them to take frequent breaks so they can go collect souls, or they get money by other means, such as Mason (Callum Blue). Sticky-fingered Mason takes money from his dead assignments, and even knocks over parking meters, which sets off another reaper Roxy (Jasmine Guy, A Different World), who is always pissed-off anyway, but just happens to work as a meter maid too. To save money and keep a low profile reapers squat in the houses and apartments of the recently departed until they are kicked out by the living.



Comedy aside, I believe the series is really about the growth of George, as seen in one of my favorite lines from the pilot episode:

George: “I want my life back.”
Betty: “It's not like you were doing anything with it.”

Slowly over the series, she is forced to examine the relationships in her life. She realizes that her pushy critical mother actually loved her and shock of shocks, George loves her mother too. George also learns that she loves her little sister Reggie, who has really been affected by her big sister’s death and begins to steal toilet seats in homage. George reluctantly starts to care and starts to mature throughout the series, but all the while keeps her annoyed demeanor.

Like kissing cousins, Pushing Daisies and Dead Like Me are completely dark comedies with very dry delivery. In my estimation, dark humor is more brainy than the humor purveyed by sitcoms and this is why neither series lasted very long. I have grown tired of laugh tracks. To me, it is like the show is trying to tell you what is supposed to be funny, where you should laugh. Dead Like Me and Pushing Daisies not only don’t tell you what to think, sometimes they pass over comic situations so quickly and deliver lines in such a deadpan manner that you don’t realize the humor until after the moment has passed (thank you for pause and rewind on my Tivo). This type of show does not spoon feed you, but requires you to think a little for your reward. If you want to just sit back and veg, Dead Like Me may not be for you. After all, death shouldn’t be funny, right?

Footnote:
I must warn you that I saw this series entirely on family friendly cable television, so this review is for the edited version of the series. The DVD version likely contains language and situations not safe for family viewing, so please keep that in mind.