Television show review: Dead Like Me (Season One)

Title: Dead Like Me (Season One)
Main actors: Ellen Muth, Mandy Patinkin, Callum Blue, Jasmine Guy, Cynthia Stevenson, Christine Willis
Creator: Bryan Fuller
Release date: 27 June, 2003 (Canada)
Age range: 16 – no upper limit
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 1 2 3 4 5

Plot Summary: George (Georgia, actually) is an 18 year-old girl who met an accidental death after dropping out of college. Her mother pushes her to get a job and move out; during her lunch break on her first day at a temp agency George is hit by a flying object from space and killed. After she dies she finds out that a select few people become ‘reapers’ – responsible for removing people’s souls before they suffer a violent death. The system is in place to minimize the trauma souls experience. Most ordinary deaths don’t require a reaper’s assistance. Georgia becomes a reaper, but she has trouble obeying the rules, and a lot of trouble coping with her own sudden death when she hadn’t accomplished much in her young life.

Rube is the boss, and he hands out yellow Post-Its every day with a name, location, and estimated time of death. Georgia and her fellow reapers are responsible for being there at the right time to touch the person about to die and then help the soul find their way to the bright lights of heaven. Each of the group of five reapers who meet every morning over waffles and coffee at the same diner has their own backstory and well-developed personality. They all died in different eras so there are occasional flashbacks to explain how their first brushes with death came to pass. Georgia is the youngest in terms of her age at her death, and she is constantly pushing the boundaries and questioning why she can’t save other people who are scheduled to die, or otherwise shirk her responsibilities. Meanwhile her family moves on and she has to deal with observing that process as well, and being outside of it, yet the subject of their mourning.

Comments: This series is full of humor and also the thoughtful treatment of death. Each of the reapers has to find some way to support themselves even in death, as they need a place to live and money for food. So a lot of the action has to do with working dead-end (so to speak) jobs (Georgia goes back to the temp agency even after her disastrous first experience!) and squatting in the no-longer-needed apartments of the recently deceased. Georgia is full of disgust for her predicament, and she’s grumpy most of the time. She also can’t let go of her family even though while she was alive she didn’t get along with her mother or her younger sister at all. Now she visits them secretly and wishes she had made more of her life while she was alive. The reason I would recommend this for older teens is that in the DVD version at least, there is strong language and some sexual content, mostly in conversations. This is a great series, very inventive, and it’s a shame it was canceled after only two seasons. I’m now waiting for HPL's copy of season two!

Date Viewed: 27 February – 8 March