Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Dead Like Me (2003)


From one of the creators of Wonderfalls comes the story of a young woman who dies and comes back as a reaper, one of the people charged with helping cross people over to the next life. Hanging out in a coffee shop she and her co-workers get their assignments from their boss, played by Mandy Patinkin, who hands them out on post it notes.

The series ran on Showtime for two seasons, was canceled, and then came back in a TV movie because people demanded it.

I stumbled this series on cable during it's initial run. I was amused because the series wasn't your typical dead people show. It went off in odd directions, kind of like Wonderfalls. How odd? George, our heroine's name is George, was killed by a toilet seat from the Mir space station. Additionally not only is George dead and acting as reaper, she also has to hold down a regular job to help pay the bills. Who said that being dead was easy?

While the series goes through a series of helping people get their lives straight before they cross over story lines over and over again, the series works because of the interaction of characters. We forgive a kind of sameness to the series simply because we like George and her fellow reapers. These are very human characters that we want to get to know and see work it all out. Sure they're dead, but they are people.

You really should see this show. Its the sort of thing that you're going to get hooked on and watch all the way to the end...and past it, since the fan support for the show is so strong the series actually spawned a follow up film.

Trust me this is a great deal of fun.

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