Dead Like Me (Season One)
Picture: B Sound:
B Extras: B Show: B+
With the hope of the world
already as faint as it is, the last thing that we need is a television show
that centers around a young 18-year old girl that ends up living in the after
life stuck here on Earth. She has no
faith and believes that it is better to not care about anything that way there
is no pain. Her motto reflects the idea
that it is better to not love and never know love than to love and be hurt by
love. However, as the show goes on,
maybe more hope is offered than one might think!
George (the smart, cynical
lead) played by Ellen Muth, is killed by a toilet seat that comes crashing down
from space, then she joins a group of grim reapers left on this Earth for amusement
and duty. The pilot episode begins with
her as a human being still and leads us along the path of her being
killed. At the beginning of the pilot we
hear her in the voiceover tell us the story in a more flashback type of way
setting up the story for how she became what she is and then through the events
ends up among the grim reapers.
Initially the problem with
the series is that most will not be able to identify with the main character
and the rest wouldn’t want to anyway.
The show points to a life of apathy versus any type of hope for
anything. Oh, there are a few moments
where the themes from 1990’s Ghost,
but the difference between the two are this.
In Ghost, the dead wanted to
live and were torn from the world of the living still. In Dead
Like Me, the she didn’t have anything (in her opinion) to live for anyway,
but then the question is…why is she so bitter once she finds out that she is
dead? Therein lies the significance of
the show, which allows for it to keep a steady focus. Will George find more meaning in her
afterlife, or realize that her old life was more than what she ever realized,
but never appreciated it?
I have always found it
interesting when stumbling across people that believe that there is nothing
worth living for that when put to the test they will do anything to
survive. Most people are never brought
to the point where they must sacrifice everything in order to survive. Suicide
is committed all the time, which is a shame that people have found no other
escape in life other than to just end it.
One way to describe this
show would be to take My So Called Life
and intertwine every film that has dealt with coming back to life, from Beetlejuice to Donnie Darko, the film manages to weave together all elements and
ideas that come across when thinking about what’s beyond what we know. Richard Linklater’s Waking Life also comes to mind in a more philosophical way, but
rather than having the show try to rationalize what this life is for, they put
a twist on it and show the afterlife trying to rationale what life was for, if
anything.
Episode Breakdown:
Pilot (73-Minutes)
Episode Two: Dead
Girl Walking
George has been in her
grim reaper position for a few weeks, but does not enjoy her job of collecting
souls, so she bails on the position.
However, after a few incidents with leaving the souls in these people
she realizes that there are consequences to these actions.
Episode Three: Curious
George
George goes back to visit
her family, but this causes a problem with the boss of the reapers (Rube)
because there are certain reasons for the restrictions to trying to hold onto
your past.
Episode Four: Reapercussions
George finds certain ways
in which to allow certain clients to miss their date with death, but in doing
so she messes with the forces of nature.
I immediately thought of Donnie Darko with this episode because that
films is based on the idea of what would happen if a person was part of life
for an entire month or what would happen if they were taken out of the equation
for that period of time.
Episode Five: Reaping
Havoc
In this episode George
becomes more acquainted with Betty (another female reaper), but their curiosity
and friendship gets the best of them when they try to go beyond the
undead.
Episode Six: My Room
A new reaper joins the
crew and is sent to live with George, but ends up walking all over her personal
space and privacy until George gets up enough courage to speak her mind. The dead should have their rights…right?
Episode Seven: Reaper
Madness
George becomes involved
with a schizophrenic, who understands death the same way that she does, but
this causes problems with the reaper boss Rube, who must intervene and not
allow her to reveal more to the man, but George persists on still connecting
with him, which will only cause bigger problems in both life and the afterlife.
Episode Eight: A Cook
Both George and Rube
assume different positions in this episode and are completely out of whack with
their new situations. George is taking
care of a dog that was left behind by one of her clients and Rube has taken on
the identity of a grill cook. They both
must face their troubles in order to overcome their problems and return to
where they belong.
Episode Nine: Sunday
Mornings
George is on a new
assignment that leads her to a college campus where she befriends a coed, but
one-problem arises. This new friend
happens to have a fascination with one of the college’s professors and not just
any professor, but George’s dad! This
new situation allows for George to find out about her dad in ways she never
could in life. What I particularly like
about this episode is the fact that it proves the point that we assume a
certain role based on who is watching us and who will find out. Everyday we assume different identities in
order to blend in with our surroundings.
Episode Ten: Business Unfinished
Even in the land of the
undead there are con artists as some of the reapers intend on trying to swindle
money from a wealthy victim. Since these
reapers are able to have some physical connections with the land of the living,
they are still able to have the temptations of money that fall upon us all.
Episode Eleven: The
Bicycle Thief
Not to be confused with
the Vittorio de Sica film, this is the episode in which the reapers truly
realize just how much their actions affect the living. Their actions and the actions of the living
counter act each other.
Episode Twelve: Nighthawks
Taking lives is starting
to really weigh heavy on George, but the biggest problem lies ahead when she
finds out that one of Rube’s newest clients happens to live in her house! What will she do?
Episode Thirteen: Vacation
The reapers take a day off
from usual business and do some work filing away the final thoughts of their clients,
but in doing so the final thoughts of these victims have some personal
connections with George knowing just how important certain things were to these
people. After all, your final thoughts
in life should be the best and most important of all, or are they?
Episode Fourteen: Rest in
Peace
This marks the one-year
anniversary of George’s death, so Rube offers her the day off in an attempt to
collect her thoughts. She tries to get a
normal job again back in the real world, but is rejected, which pushes her to
the edge to just enjoy her afterlife to the fullest, since she never took that
time during her life.
The entire show has some
really high points, mostly in its production, which will come across in more of
a film-like fashion. The show also deals
with highly complicated themes, which are so seldom in TV these days. Certain elements of the show also remind me
of Quantum Leap, which was another
show the few people understood. Dead Like Me is a mature series and
that might be its downfall because audiences are too concerned with shows that
are not as smart and deal with a so-called reality.
Showtime was responsible
for the broadcasting of the series and now issued to DVD through MGM, Dead Like Me boasts a surprise
treatment. The show was shot in 16 X 9
for broadcast, which has been presented here in an anamorphically enhanced 1.85
X 1 transfer. Picture detail looks
surprisingly sharper than a lot of the shows that I have seen on DVD, which is
a bonus showing off some of the higher production quality that the show
offers. Not only that, but the show has
been issued with a 5.1 Dolby Digital mix, which must have been the intentions
all along to create a 5.1, even if the broadcast is reduced to only stereo. By doing so, the show was smart enough to
design its sound so that if/when it was put to DVD it would reap (no pun
intended) the benefits of a discreet 5.1 mix.
Nice job!
While the picture and
sound are not nearly as impressive as a newer film or have the budget that a
major motion picture would, this is still on par with some of the better DVD’s
out there, especially for TV. Add to
that some of the nice extras that are placed into this set. The packaging is also quite sleek with the
four discs put into the thinner slide in cases, which then are collected in a
cardboard case and that slides down into a plastic sleeve, which has the cover
art for the set. Disc One contains the
lengthy pilot episode, which also has commentary by the cast and then 30-Minutes
worth of deleted scenes from the entire first season. There is also a behind-the-scenes look at the
making of the show, which details just about anything anyone might be
interested in knowing. Most of this is
displayed through on-camera interviews, which offer thoughts from the cast about
their character and how they play a part of the show.
The show also mixes a nice
blend of old familiar faces such as Mandy Patinkin (as Rube) and newer fresh
faces in the business. The writing is
strong and poignant, but also knows when to keep things serious and when not
to. The finer points are always spread
throughout allowing the show to be strong throughout the entire serious. Each episode leaves off with the viewer
wondering what could possibly come next, which ends up surprising even when it
is at its most bizarre moments.
I find it interesting to
see how DVD has brought a new market to TV shows. Now with this format people are buying TV
shows left and right, which they never have thought of before. Some shows were never even thought of being
issued when VHS was around. It never
made sense since if you wanted to watch the show you could use your own VCR and
tape it with the same quality. DVD
offers a fresher look and the fact that you can keep the show with that quality
remaining for many years to come. Now
you can file away your favorite shows in a much better way, but some shows are not really worth owning. Even some of the strongest shows are not
necessarily shows that would be worth watching over and over. Unlike a film, where you have about 2 hours
that you can watch every few years and really love, it is hard to watch a TV
show over and over, or even go back to certain episodes.
Dead Like Me follows events from beginning to end, therefore watching it in order
makes sense and allows you to experience death just like George does. Since the film is smart and engaging I can
see it becoming a vital part of any DVD library simply because it offers so
much with so little. The hit show Six Feet Under brought on record number
of viewers and become a hit DVD when it was issued, the same should hold true
for Dead Like Me, but its success
should not just be measured in commercial terms. 2003 was the first and last
year of the show, but really how much could a show like this go on anyway? I would rather think of it as the show didn’t
run out of material, but rather that the audiences ran out of interest.
- Nate Goss
