Dead Like Me
So today I finished watching a brilliant but short-lived US TV series called Dead Like Me. Here’s the trailer for season 2 - which REALLY doesn’t do it justice, and is peppered with sickly sweet upbeat American movie style music, but get past that and this explains the crux of the show:
The premise is thus: 18-year-old college dropout Georgia Lass shuffles rather swifly off this mortal coil on the first day of her mind-numbing temp job when she gets killed by falling debris from a space station - namely, a toilet seat.
Lucky for her, a grim reaper ‘pops’ her soul out of her body moments before impact. The bad news is that now she has to take that reaper’s place, as they’ve reaped their quota and now get to ‘move on’….wherever that may be.
George is now undead, and is a reaper. However, there’s no paycheck for reapers, and she can still interact with the living (although she looks like a different person to the living so she isn’t recognised by anyone who would’ve known her) and HAS to interact with the living on a daily basis. She starts over at her suck-ass temp job, assuming the new persona of Millie for this purpose.
As for her family, they learn to live without her. Or not. And her new family? A motley crue of other reapers, from generations past and present - being a reaper means you stay the same age as the day you died, you heal rapidly and it also leaves you with the ability to drink and not get a hangover (kinda cool).
Straight-talking father figure Rube hands out the reaping assignments - a name, address, and the estimated time of death are all that’s given out to a reaper, on a Post-It note. Rube’s got a short temper and a cutting tongue. Mason is the 60s English hippie screw-up, who relies on petty theft and various p/t jobs to earn his keep. Roxy is a traffic warden and one tough cookie not to be messed with. Then there’s Betty - a Twenties glamourpuss who enjoys reaping, and takes a Polaroid of every soul she reaps. She bows out midway through season 1 (I shan’t say how in case you watch the show) and is replaced by movie starlet Daisy Adair, who spent most of her short-lived movie career sleeping with as many leading men as she could.
The show is pretty dark, with a grim sense of humour, and the first series mostly follows George coming to grips with reaping - like learning she can’t get out of it, it has to be done. The second series really starts to build on the characters, and it’s such a shame the show got cancelled after just two seasons.
If you like quirky stuff, then watch it - it’s available to buy on DVD. There’s also a movie coming out this year….I have mixed feelings about whether it’s going to be any good, as Rube (played by Mandy Patinkin) is not in it, and Laura Harris (who played Daisy Adair) has been replaced by another actress. I’ve also heard it’s going straight to DVD. But, anyway, I want to see it, so I think whether it’s in the cinema or on a DVD, me and fellow DLM devotee and good friend of mine, Gill, will be getting together to watch it, so if you get into this show, perhaps you should also check out the new movie.
In the meantime, watch this clip from season 2. Roxy, Daisy, Mason and George are gathered at regular meeting place, Der Waffle Haus, and George is upset because her parents are selling the house. Ok, she doesn’t live with them anymore - being undead and all - but it still upsets her so she vents about it to her fellow reapers.
This clip doesn’t demonstrate the plot per se, but is a great example of the dark humour and great comic timing that are evident in every episode. I also love the way Mason swears in this clip, cracks me up every time.
Websites:
Wikipedia entry - Dead Like Me
Multichannel.com article - MGM Resurrects Dead Like Me
YouTube - Dead Like Me movie trailer