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 Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 11:41 pm
In 2003 Showtime green lit a show created by Bryan Fuller called, Dead Like Me. The show opened to an amazing response bringing in ratings roughly three times greater than the networks prime time average, along with the great reviews it also received many nominations for awards from the International Horror Guild to Emmy's. Yet despite the rave reviews, great ratings and award nominations the series only lasted two seasons, (2003-2004) with a final direct to DVD release movie in 2009. What happened to a show with such promise that ended with a short run? I will be doing a three part review, (Season 1, Season 2, and the direct to DVD movie) breaking down the plot, acting, and elements of this series and see if I can find out.
Part 1. Season 1
Dead Like Me is a series about Grim Reapers, but not as we have come to know them with the stereotypical black robes and scythes. Grim Reapers are actually deceased people, brought back after their deaths as un-dead people who live among us, and must "collect" a certain amount of souls and help them pass on before they themselves can move on. Once a Grim Reaper has collected enough souls they move on, and the last soul they collect takes their place.
The protagonist/narrator of this series is a young girl named George, played by Ellen Muth (Law and Order) an 18 year old college drop out who is killed on her first day of work by the Mir space station toilet when the station re-entered earths atmosphere. After her death she finds out that she was the last soul of a previous Reaper, and now she must take over his spot as a Grim Reaper herself. She is joined by several other Grim Reapers who work in the same division of "External Influences." Her boss is a Reaper named Rube, played by the awesome Mandy Patinkin (The Princess Bride). A Reaper who has a love and passion for food, mostly from their usual hang out Der Waffle Hause. He receives the list of people who are going to die day to day, and hands out the assignments to the other reapers on post it notes. In this Motley crew of Reapers is Mason, a drug addict from Britain who makes his living stealing from the people who's souls he's collected, Betty, an uplifting Reaper who always tries to cheer up everyone in the group (First 5 episodes only), Roxy, a meter maid who as George describes is someone who will "Kick Your a**." And after Betty leaves, Daisy, a southern belle and former actress who has known, *cough* Blown *cough* many actors in the business and supposedly died during the making of Gone With the Wind.
George is the kind of girl who when we first see her is a very emotionless, stubborn know-it-all who gets annoyed by everyone and anyone. She fought with her mother Joy while she was alive, had a falling out with her father as a child and grew distant from him, and has a younger sister named Reggie, who while she looked up to George, George doesn't want to have anything to do with her, ignored her, and at times referred to her as the, "Invisible Sister." She lives her life with no expectations or ambitions for anything, and therefore her life was pretty empty and lacking of worth. After she dies and becomes a Reaper she realizes how pitiful her life was, and tries to make up for it in her undead life by indirectly interacting with her family when she's not suppose to, and trying to have great experiences which she neglected to have while alive. All while trying to hold down another part time job at the Happy Time Temporary services, since being a Reaper is a non-paying occupation.
What immediately caught my attention and drew me into the series was the development of George. Ellen Muth did an amazing job in the Pilot episode portraying a very unlikable girl, and as the show progressed made her someone the audience can emotionally get invested in. My favorite moment of the series is still the ending of episode one when she was given her first solo assignment to claim the soul of a 6 year old girl who's suppose to die in a train accident. The feelings and emotions she lacked in life overflow in the characters death and we feel her pain and sorrows as she is forced to handle the duties of a Reaper. Other moments that Ellen exceeds in that add to the great job she did in developing her character included episode 103 where she tries to talk to her mother and reveal who she is. (It is important to note that while the Reapers have physical bodies and can inter act with the living, they look different from what they looked like while alive and therefore cannot be recognized by the people who knew them.) And when her mother rejects her and chases her off while calling her every dirty name in the book, we see George in Roxy's car crying so hard from the ordeal. The scene was just full of emotion and you can see just how real her pain was. And the many encounters she has with Rube in their love/hate relationship as boss and employee, or as the series progresses it evolves into more of a father/daughter kind of relationship.
I was completely sold on this series and fell in love with the premise, but mostly from the great acting of the cast, specifically Ellen and Mandy. Who develope great characters you just want to watch from episode to episode. But Season 1 did have it's fair share of flaws which kept this good show from being excellent. Most notably that this series is a Dramedy, (Drama and Comedy) While I have no problems with either genres, and you cannot have a Dramedy without the drama, some of the drama seemed forced and just too coincidental. Drama is at its best when it flows naturally and seemed reasonable due to the circumstances. And at times the drama seemed unnatural and forced which takes away from the experience. The best example I can give is from episode 109. An episode where George encounters her father and tries to hear from him just how he felt about her when she was alive. While I had no problem with this, and it was only right after several encounters with her mother we get an encounter with her father, the lead up to their meeting at the end of the episode followed a series of events which had one too many coincidental elements to them that made it seem more far fetch that they would end up meeting in those circumstances in relation to how she encounters her mother. The other element which I felt was a draw back was how during the season the actual job as Reapers tend to take a back seat and lack importance from time to time. I think it would have enhanced the drama in Georges after life dealing with her own death while she also has to deal with the deaths of the people she Reaps. But in most encounters we see random person die, she claims their soul, she moves on. The emotional encounter with her first job, the six year old girl in the pilot was so great, that to follow it up with several of her future assignments seeming to be nothing more than a foot note in the particular episode, I think is a shame and a waist of a perfect opportunity to explore how she slowly come to terms with not just her death, but death in general.
I could go on with even more break downs and critiques of season 1 and the different episodes. But I still have another season to go and a direct to DVD film, and this first part of the review is already long enough as it is so I will cut it short. (I didn't even go into details of the Gravelings, how Georges family handles her death, and her life working for Happy Time.) An important element to add to the series and why it might have been canceled after two seasons when it has potential for a longer run, is that after the first 5 episodes the shows creator Bryan Fuller left the series due to creative differences. After the first 5 episodes I did notice some of the middle episodes in the season didn't seem to be quite as good as the first few, but when we got to episode 111 and 112 the episodes got better and the season finale ended on a high note I felt was worthy of what the series started with. I wondered while watching season one, how different, if at all the series would have been if Bryan stayed on the whole time? in the later episodes he was still being credited for being a, "consulting producer" Just how much he had to do with the series at that point is unknown. Coincidentally when Fuller left after 5 episodes, Rebecca Gayheart (Scream 2) who played Betty left at the exact same time. Whether if her departure from the series is in any way linked to that of Fuller I don't know and was unable to find out.
Dead Like Me is an amusing and entertaining series. The premise is different and easy to enjoy. It has plenty of comedy and drama, even if at times it comes across as forced or unnecessary. But it is the actors who truly do this series justice. The strength rides on how character driven the series is, and it all begins with Ellen Muth. Her portrayal and transformation of George provides the audience with a very likable protagonist, and makes the cast around her better because of it. Probably why she was nominated twice for awards in best actress and performance in a televised series.
Season 1 Final Grade: B+
Season 1 trailer can be viewed here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GM3BTBuevmw
Season 2 review coming soon.
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Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 1:32 am
I've seen like six episodes of season 1. My friend had a DVD of it and she loved the show. It did seem interesting from the episodes I saw, I've been meaning to check the rest out.
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Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2011 10:49 am
Part 2, Season 2.
It is important to note that while Dead Like Me is dark comedy, in season one the first couple episodes were indeed more dark than the rest of the season. After episode 4 or 5 the series did lighten up a bit. After the uplifting and more joyous ending season one presented, season two immediately bounced back into a very dark and depressing tone, just the way season one began.
After being a Grim Reaper for a few months George has a relapse in her dealing with her own death after reaping a woman who's death hit a little to close to home and reminded her too much of her own. As a result she has several heated encounters with Rube. At the same time her parents get a divorce, and George finds not only this out, but that they are selling the house she grew up and lived in, adding to her depression. To counter this state of depression she lashes out and finds any means necessary to feel, "Alive" and take back those living moments she felt was taken from her when she died. Sometimes she would give into lust and/or fall in love, to make up for her never having a boyfriend and dying a virgin, or at times getting into trouble and being "Bad" as she put it in an attempt to feel alive. While this goes on her Reaper co-workers Mason and Daisy continue their love hate relationship and border on the line of either being an item, but after being clean from drugs and alcohol for several months a very tough reaping assignment takes him back to the bottle. While Daisy, who spent her life trying to find love, acceptance, and answers flirts with a religious phase to try and fill the emptiness she's feeling. Rube who keeps telling George she needs to let her past life go, through out the second season deals with his own past as he breaks his golden rule in order to find his daughter.
I vaguely touched on George's family in my first review, I'll admit this was an unjust gesture on my behalf since the events going on in her families life is just as equal to that in hers. In season one we witnessed how Georges death impacted her family. Her mother who lives in regret believing she was a bad mother for George, wanted to avoid being the same with her other daughter Reggie. But Reggie at the age of 11 is a very complicated child who has issues dealing with and handling her sisters death, a sister she idolized while George ignored. And the more George's mother Joy tries to connect with Reggie the more distant they grow. The divorce between Joy and George's father Clancy you could see coming from a mile away from season one, Clancy was having an a fare with one of his students and after George's death looses connection with his wife. And in the middle of all this George still tries to, from a distance, connect and remain loosely involved with the family.
Overall season two remained pretty similar to that of season one, the formula for each episode follows a similar pattern to the episodes in season one, only this time we see more development. The good and the bad coming from the story, as even through her roughest times we see George able to rebound and handle her problems with the help of the other Reapers and strangely enough her boss from her non-reaping job at Happy Time. Just enough rebounding so we see that she is making progress and is handling things better as we approached the end of season two, but not enough to eliminate the drama that comes from her situation. And through the problems with her family, it was nice after so much tension between Joy and Reggie to see the two begin to connect and make progress in their relationship. You feel sorry for Joy and all she had to go through that at times you wonder just why she hasn't completely lost it dealing with the tough family issues. It may only be a small connection between her and Reggie, but it's just enough to relieve some of the tension between the two and allow the mother to have some happiness in her life.
Where season one mostly focused on George and her family with the Reapers serving more as a supporting cast, the story seemed to involve them and their situations as well, making them feel more important to the story, especially with the development between Mason and Daisy. After Rebecca Gayheart left the series and replaced by Laura Harris who plays Daisy, I was unsure how that transition would work and if she was going to hold up to the purpose in the story I assumed Rebecca's character Betty was going to have. I was pleased that Daisy turned out to be a deeper character than she showed on the outside. I loved her on screen chemistry with Mason, and actually have a tough time seeing Rebecca's character Betty doing similar, if not the same thing Daisy went through.
Unfortunately season two did have it's fair share of flaws as well. The first being more of the coincidence factor. I mentioned in part one how I wasn't too keen on how the drama at times seemed forced and the story progressed out of coincidental elements tying Georges life to that of her family to push the story. I was happy that even though it was cut back and some of the drama didn't seem as forced as it was in season one, it still had certain times where I felt they were still trying too hard to force a dramatic scene. Once again not as bad as it was in season one, but at times still relatively noticeable. But the biggest problem I had with season two was having contradictions to key elements in the story. Not just minor slip ups we sometimes see but major elements in the story that define the definition of Reapers. The biggest being that in season one they fully established that Reapers looked different in their post life than in their previous one so they cannot be recognized by the living. Okay, no problem, but they broke this rule several times during the course of season two. Including a man recognizing Rube from a wanted poster of him when he was alive. George, who her new image is suppose to be very unattractive compared to how she looked in life, yet many times we see people raving about how pretty and good looking she is. I went through the series remembering the woman George was suppose to look like and trying to picture that as the woman these people are seeing in their encounters with her and think to myself, Did the writers forget what she was suppose to look like to the living? A woman like that does not get the responses she was getting through season two. There were a few other examples of this going on as well. Also during a span of a few episodes Daisy dated a man who was accidently killed by Mason (In self defense) and his soul as a result turned into a vengeful graveling (Spirits who cause accidents that kill people to maintain the balance of life and death) who kills more people than he's suppose to and haunts the Reapers. I loved this part of the season, it built up great drama in a frightening manner. And this story arc came to an end with a very anti-climatic ending which I thought was disappointing and undeserving to the build up it got.
Overall season two was just as enjoyable as season one. The strength of season one as I mentioned before came from the great acting of the actors, and the characters they play making you feel connected to them in one way or another. And giving more development to the other Reapers and developing their characters only added to this. And I felt they did it well enough to where they didn't take anything away from George. It still had it's fair share of emotional scenes but none of them seem to be nearly as impactful as they were in season one. The most emotional scene for me was when Rube finally finds his daughter, now an old woman, and gets to see her one last time before she dies.
It might not have been quite as good the second time around, but it was still a great season I enjoyed watching, and saw more than enough story left in it to merit bringing it back for a third season. MGM and Showtime, while not officially releasing the ratings, mentioned that the ratings for season two weren't high enough to justify bringing it back for a third season, even though the ratings records season one made went 7 years before they were broken. Maybe the series was too expensive to film despite it's good ratings, or maybe due to the writers strike which happened shortly after season two that brought the series to a close. Or maybe the ratings did take a dive between season one and two that would bring about the end of the series. Without the official ratings I cannot however make that assumption. But from an overall story telling perspective and how season two played out, I felt it was done well enough to deserve season three. But maybe people in general didn't think a series about Grim Reapers was good enough to deserve three seasons. At any case, I am a full believer in ending a series while it's still good, rather than risking another season that could ruin the series. And while there were still many questions left unanswered, I did like how the last episode ended. Not the greatest of closure for a series, but a good one that left me content and happy that that was the note they ended on.
Season 2 Final Grade: B
Movie Life After Death Coming soon.
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Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2011 1:37 pm
I love that show! After Wonderfalls, Dead Like Me, and Pushing Daisies, Bryan Fuller is officially my television hero.
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Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2011 12:13 am
Absolutely love the show. Too bad it didn't last very long...
Think I might rewatch it soon.
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Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2011 10:52 am
Part 3, Life After Death
I always related a TV series to a Jenga game. As long as the tower is still standing it's still good, but the longer the series last the more wobbly and unstable it gets before it falls over. Some series, like some Jenga towers can be built up really high as long as you pull out the right pieces and stack them really carefully. Other times if not handled with care you can pull out the wrong piece too early and the whole tower will fall over, and you have reached the point in the series where it has, "Jumped the Shark" as they say. The big question TV producers have to make, is being able to recognize when a series has hit that point where it's still standing, but on it's last leg and cancel a series before the whole tower falls over. After watching Life After Death I got that feeling that the series is like that Jenga tower, it was still standing, but definitely about ready to fall over and collapse.
STORY (WARNING, SPOILERS!)
The movie begins with a quick summary of the main points of the first two seasons, done in a comic book fashion with Ellen Muth as George narrating. We then go to Seattle where the series has taken place, five years after the events of season two. The Reapers arrive at Der Waffle Haus as usual to receive their assignments, only to find that their favorite hangout has burnt to the ground, and their boss Rube was no where to be found. A Limo picks them up and takes them to a fancy restaurant where a Reaper named Cameron informs them that Rube has reaped his last soul and moved on, and now he was leading the division. He does so in a more, "Sufficient" manor different from Rubes sloppy control of the situation, and is more relaxed about the rules of conduct a Reaper must follow, without all the "Fire and Brimstones" consequences Rube sometimes threatened the group with if they messed up.
One by one the reapers fall for Cameron's relaxed lifestyle as a millionaire and they live it up. Roxy now a full time member of the police neglects to take souls and rather plays hero by saving the peoples lives she's suppose to reap so she can get awards and recognition with the police force. Mason stealing and doesn't care if he gets caught on security cameras, and Daisy sleeps with Cameron so she can end up back in acting. George on the other hand is given an assignment that Cameron messes up on where she's suppose to Reap the soul of a high school football star named Hudson, who has become paralyzed after a car accident. Due to the mess up in the Estimated Time of Death she is stuck unable to reap the soul of the young man, while dealing with this issue she discovers that Hudson and her sister Reggie were secret lovers. While trying to help Reggie deal with the issue secretly, the ploy eventually fails and Reggie finally discovers that "Millie" of Happy Time is really her sister George. George tells Reggie all about her becoming a Reaper after her death, and when the two finally begin to bond as sisters their reunion hits and emotional climax when George must finally reap the soul of Hudson despite Reggies protests.
At the same time Roxy, Mason, and Daisy realizes how horrible a boss Cameron was, how they messed up on their duties as reapers and team up to dispatch of the pompous millionaire Reaper once and for all. The movie ends with the group successfully getting rid of Cameron (By means of cremation and launching his ashes to the moon) Reggie and her mother leaving Seattle for a long vacation to get away from it all, a quick scene with George watching Reggie drive off and her smiling back at her shows some signs that she has possibly forgiven George and still loves her as a sister, and millions of post it notes fall from the sky on George as a possible sign that she is ment to take over as the new leader of the Reapers in Rube's place.
After 5 years since the end of season 2 I have to give the film makers credit in being able to bring most of the original cast back from the two seasons, and for recapping the first two seasons well enough that if you've never watched them you don't have to necessarily go back and see them before watching this film. But there were many elements in this movie that just didn't stack up to how good seasons one and two were.
One element being how at times the movie was incredibly rushed in developing it's plot and story. Best example being when George first encounters Reggie as Millie to try and help her with her issues with Hudson, in less than 5 minutes we go from their first encounter, immediately to them bumping into each other again at the hospital, immediately to Reggie chasing George down in the parking lot demanding George to tell her who she really is, and in an instant the gig was up as George spills the beans. I know the movie was only 1 hour and 27 minutes, but I felt that was no excuse for rushing such an important element of the story. And while I did enjoy seeing the two sisters bond and interact with each other, I still preferred the story telling in the first two seasons where George looked out for Reggie from behind the scenes rather than full, direct confrontations. With the absence of Rube we did need a replacement character to step in and be the person George can be comfortable with talking too about her problems and issues, but the best way to explain this change in a story is like watching a magician perform a magic trick. When you watch the trick you want to know what the secret behind it is. If the Magician tells you, you get some satisfaction in knowing what that secret is, but realize it was better before when you didn't know. The personal encounters between Reggie and George were fine, but the story was much more preferable before when George looked out for Reggie indirectly like she did in the series.
Other elements of the movie I didn't like included the relationship between Mason and Daisy. I praised in season 2 the build up of the other Reapers as characters, and especially loved the development between Mason and Daisy. In this film it was as if they completely scrapped the entire build up they had in season two and had them off doing their own things as if it never happened. The only scene touching on that development from season two was after a failed theater performance by Daisy, Mason waits for her outside the theater with flowers, blows off his entourage of beautiful women so he can see Daisy, but she never shows up. Then, they followed it up with nothing. I was very disappointed to see one of my favorite elements from season two be treated so poorly. Also the absence of Mandy Patinkin, while they did a good job explaining why he wasn't in the film, and I understand his absence from a story telling point of view, he was such a central character to the first two seasons that his absence really did hurt the film. Like serving a BLT without the T or the L. One final element I didn't like goes back to a critique of Season two I had regarding how George looked to living people. She was suppose to be unattractive and looked like a drug attic as George mentioned yet she still got a lot of positive responses from her looks as if they saw her as George. In Life After Death they scrapped all of that and showed how she was suppose to look to the living as an attractive young woman. A major continuity issue. I can understand if they couldn't get the same actress who played Georges alternate look from the series, but it seemed like they didn't even try to get a girl similar to how she was suppose to look and went with random good looking girl. Maybe its just me being a little too nit-picky, but I still think of it as an overlooked flaw.
It is tough to bring back a series after a 5 year hiatus. Dead Like Me did a good job of doing so and presented a good, stand alone movie. But it was a movie I felt just wasn't as good as what Seasons 1 and 2 was. It had it's flaws, but they were minor flaws which keeps the movie from being as good as the seasons preceding it, but not bad enough to where it completely ruined the film. I still recommend it to fans of Dead Like Me, but I'm afraid it just doesn't match the heavily award nominated series that came before it. And though the movie left enough potential for more movies to be made, or even a relaunch of the series, I would be more comfortable leaving the series as it is. And I fear that just like that Jenga tower, which is wobbling and unstable, but still standing, if they attempt to bring it back again, they may move that final piece that will bring the whole tower down and ruin it. Life After Death was good, but when I think back to what I would rather remember the series for, I will always remember the ending of the series being how it ended in season 2. Reggie waking up after falling asleep at Georges grave, she see George walking away into the rising sun, George looks back, smiles, and then disappear. A perfect ending to the series I loved, and that one moment to me says more words between George and Reggie, and the two sisters finally connecting than what took place in Life After Death.
And that concludes my review of Dead Like Me. For those of you who read this entire review I appreciate your time and hope you enjoyed this incredibly long review of such a great series. I'm sure many of you have similar, and different opinions of the series than I did and I would love to hear feed back.
LIFE AFTER DEATH FINAL GRADE: C
Trailer can be viewed here:
]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uypYOAJZblA
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Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2011 1:55 pm
I would give Life After Death the same grade, and I also think that the ending for season 2 was much better than the ending for the movie.
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Posted: Fri Feb 04, 2011 5:25 pm
All I can say about Dead Like Me is this is, always will be, and always was an excellent show and I will always love it! I miss it so much! It is a show I will own all the seasons of some day.
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