Dead Like Me – CliqueClack Flashback

Dead Like Me, a Showtime original, was a series that could have totally passed me by. In fact, I’d never even heard of it prior to it going off the air in 2004. But at some point in the following year or two, as I was going through some old VHS tapes on a lark, I stumbled upon the first 20 minutes or so of the series’ pilot, and I was hooked. I went out to Tower Records the next day and bought the entire series on DVD — not a major accomplishment, considering it only survived for two seasons. But what we got was fantastic.

Dead Like Me was two things to me: one, a terrific ensemble of characters that I will get to in a bit. And two, a novel idea that was both intriguing, and that really made you think. And that, my friends, is rare on TV these days.

The story of a band of Grim Reapers, External Influence division (apparently set in Seattle, although I can’t remember a single reference to a city in the many times I’ve re-watched the series, and I was sure it was in the Midwest), was the basis for this sometimes spiritual, more often wry show about life after death. And while a lot of conversations focused on the “why,” or the “what’s next,” the show never got bogged down in the religious and belief aspects of it all, even when George (the ridiculously talented Ellen Muth) would get into one of her moods.

The notion that these folks were taking peoples’ lives was bandied about a bit, but while their jobs were definitely dark, I’ve always seen what they did as a very compassionate service that one hopes is actually provided for us in real life. In fact, not even the Gravelings (love those guys!) were so much killers as workers punching a clock — they just happened to be designed as to be able to stomach what they did for a living. Which they managed to do, and then some.

The story of the show, as opposed to the concept, circled around one Reaper in particular, George Lass. Struck down by a flaming toilet seat during her lunch break, George filled the soul quota of the Reaper that came before her — meaning that she was obligated to take his place. The struggle that she had with that job was, to me, less understandable than her struggle with having died at the age of 18. In particular, the show turned her even more bitter by season two, a progression that you wouldn’t necessarily expect as she further settled into her new life.

But either way, George was fantastic. From Muth’s voice, to the way the writers’ words rolled off her tongue, to her relationships with her fellow Reapers and her Happy Time co-workers, especially Delores Herbig (Christine Willes of Reaper), George was an absolute pleasure of a character. Although I wonder how great the long-term planning was in stationing her in her home town — it was inevitable that her family’s proximity would make it harder for her to move on.

Actually, the pronounced role of George’s family on the show magnifies the dearth of information we’re given about her pals. Aside from George, Rube (Mandy Patinkin) and Mason (Callum Blue) run a pretty tight race for my favorite. Rube unfolds a bit in season two, as we’re introduced to his daughter Rosie who’s about to die in old age. His is the story I think I’d most like to know, as his constant need to remind George to let her old self go is indicative of the fact that he’s talking from some experience. The fact that he’s had almost 80 years to come to that conclusion tells me that he may not have always been so wise. Plus, was he always the leader? How did he get his job? And what does he know about the operation that he’s not sharing? Also, where does his money come from?

Because we know that Reapers don’t get paid for their services. Mason taught George that on her first day, as he robbed a bunch of executed mobsters in an apartment. What I wonder about Mason is how he ended up there — wherever “there” is, as discussed above — as opposed to having lived in the go-go 1960s drug scene in London. Was he relocated after death, or did his life bring him to the US?

What made Mason so great was that he was extra helpings of fun, while still having a rather deep side to him. I loved when the drugs he was smuggling in his colon exploded, leaving him deeply ill but never too close to the edge … Reapers’ obvious inability to die was utilized well there, as in other instances like when Roxy (Jasmine Guy) shot Mason. But the flip-side to him, what made him truly memorable, were scenes where he showed his compassion, when he really did try to understand what a soul was going through. The consideration he showed the couple that died separately in their home, or at the birthday party where he posed as a clown, or the way he protected Daisy (Laura Harris) from a crazed lover … as creepy as he would be to meet on the street, Mason was a really great guy.

Roxy was fun, because she provided tough love when she wanted to (she lost something too, and she wasn’t about to roll over just because George was a little younger when she died), but also because she had a really nice relationship with Rube. And she had some fun run-ins as a meter maid, particularly with the guy she turned into a meter maid believer.

I was in Betty’s (Rebecca Gayheart) camp, and every time I re-watch the series I’m excited by the prospects that lie in her and George’s relationship. Unfortunately, she hitched a ride on someone else’s lights, and we got stuck with Daisy, a rather insufferable person who rarely showed a side of her that was compelling. Daisy never gave me an indication that she was interested in being the mentor/older sister to George that Betty could have been, and her relationship with Mason was more often than not too cruel for my tastes.

Although she was generally nicer to him than George’s sister Reggie (Britt McKillip) ever was to their mother Joy (Cynthia Stevenson). I think I might have really enjoyed the complexities of the Lass household if George had stayed farther away, and if Reggie wasn’t as disgusting to Joy as Joy was to Clancy (Greg Kean). I enjoyed the juxtaposition of watching the Lass family deal with life after George, but the individuals themselves left a lot to be desired.

Rounding out the characters on the show were a handful of fun and quirky people. There was Crystal (Crystal Dahl), the still super mysterious receptionist at Happy Time, Kiffany (Patricia Idlette), the gang’s usual waitress at “Der Waffle Haus,” and a rotating cast of souls and others who drifted across the landscape of the show week after week. It was the richness of those characters, back-dropped by an interesting story and top-notch writing, that really made Dead Like Me a series to remember.

And it left me a big fan of Muth (not working much now), Patinkin (missed by me on Criminal Minds, but doing a lot of theater), and Blue (great to see him on The Tudors, and I hear he’s been keeping busy). I have yet to see Dead Like Me: Life After Death … I’m waiting for word that “Peanut” is being resuscitated. Let’s keep our fingers crossed!

Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Dec 02, 2009 @ 12:00 EST5EDT