|
Dead Like Me: Season
One TV Series
Directed by: Bryan Fuller, et al.
Starring: Ellen Muth
Genre:
Sci-Fi/Fantasy,
Comedy
Run Times: Vary
Release Date:
June 2003
On The Web:
Official
Site
Teaser:
Movie Trailer
Reviewed by
Byron Merritt |
I don't buy television
series' to keep in my DVD collection. I don't own any BUFFY THE VAMPIRE
SLAYER DVDs (although the show has some great acting and dialogue), nor
do I own SIX FEET UNDER or THE SOPRANOS or any other form of long term
television viewing. So what makes this one so different?
Simply put: everything!
In a time where most of what we see and understand comes through that
little lighted box with a remote control near-at-hand, it is refreshing
to see something different. Something unlike what Hollywood would
normally put out there. I can almost hear the arguments against this
show before it was released (probably similar arguments that got
WONDERFALLS cancelled ...another excellent show with the same production
crew, so I understand). "Death! Who wants to hear about the afterlife of
an 18 year old girl?!" and "This family is too dysfunctional!" and
"Comedy. We need more comedy!" Let's hope some do-gooder never get's
his/her hands on this excellent story concept and tries to change it to
a light-hearted, feel-good series or some other ridiculously overdone
theme.
So what is this series about? The focus is on Georgia "George" Lass,
played perfectly by ELLEN MUTH. She's like millions of other post-highschool
graduates out there; she has no idea what she wants to do with her life,
or if she wants to do anything at all. Her mother, Joy (Cynthia
Stevenson), is fed up with her daughter's attitude and forces her out of
bed one fateful morning with harsh words and orders for her to "find a
job and become a productive member of society." Little does George's
mother know, but these harsh words will be the last she ever speaks to
her eldest daughter. On George's first day in the workforce, she takes a
lunch break and, as she stand on a street corner, gets snuffed out by a
zero-G toilet seat that comes crashing into our atmosphere from the
disintegrating Mir space station. But before she's killed, a nice black
man asks her name and touches her on the back ever so slightly. George
has just been Reaped. The toilet seat kills her, but her soul lives on.
Rube (Mandy Patinkin) greets her as her new boss. George is to become a
Grim Reaper, taking souls from the lives of those that are about to be
violently ended.
The irony is smackingly wonderful: a young girl who couldn't have cared
less about her own life only moments before is now in charge of the end
of lives of god knows how many people. Leaving behind her family is
tough, though. And it is poignantly portrayed without getting
heavy-handed in the dialogue department. Her mother retreats into
herself and becomes an angry woman who likes very little. George's kid
sister, Reggie (Britt McKillip), tries to contact George in the
afterlife by acting out (she steals toilet seats from her school, uses a
Ouji board on top of her own toilet seat in an effort to hear anything
coming from the `beyond', and collects dead things like birds). George's
father, Clancy Lass (Greg Kean), has an affair with one of his graduate
students.
What George hadn't anticipated either was the fact that her life has/had
actual meaning. She witnesses her family falling apart but is unable to
do anything about it. She also has to work a regular job now (Reapers
don't get paid by some surreal agency), as well as do the reaping
assignments handed out to her by Rube.
Within this little grouping of Reapers are some outstanding
personalities, too. Callum Blue plays Mason, a Reaper who died while
drilling a hole into his head in the 1960's in an attempt to reach "the
ultimate high." He'll do anything not to work, including stealing from
those who he reaps and carrying "illegals in his bottom." Jasmine Guy
plays Roxy, a tough and roughshod Reaper who doesn't take anything from
anyone. She'd been murdered over money. No wonder she wants to be cop.
Laura Harris plays Daisy Adair, a pretty, young actress who knew and had
sex with almost all the early movie stars. She's been around the block,
trying to find love and acceptance. It's a funny and sad character that
comes barreling off the screen.
The thing that'll pull you into this series is the dialogue and the
characters. The death of an 18 year old girl and her subsequent
enlistment into Reaperville can sound rather heavy. And it is. But the
writers let that seep into the story and don't force it upon us (not an
easy thing to do). The comedy is spot on and never slapstick or
inappropriate. I let my teenagers watch a couple of the series and they
were laughing out loud many times, and reaching for tissues at the more
poignant moments; a testament to a great show if ever there was one
(being able to hold the attention of the instant gratification age).
I cannot recommend this series highly enough.
(Click
here for the Dead Like Me: Season Two review)
(back to top) |
Image from Dead Like Me
DVD cost: $30.99
Purchase:
BestPrices.com
Film Review Stew
Favorite?
Yes.
Stew Poo-Poo? No.
Newsworthy:
The red frog that appears
throughout the series comes from the first scene of the pilot. It is,
depending on who you ask, the first "person" to die, the first reaper,
or both. The frog is an Argentinian horned frog (aka, "the Pac-Man
frog"), which does not make sounds like North American frogs. (During
one take, however, the frog hissed when Ellen picked it up, scaring the
daylights out of Callum and Jasmine.) The "frog sound effect" is dubbed
in. The Pac-Man frog also has sharp teeth, and should only be handled by
professionals, as its bite is very painful.
Movie Quote: "It's
a destiny thing. Enjoy it."
Other Actors/Actresses
from Dead Like Me
   |
