Dead Like Me - Season 1  (2003)

Rating: NR

Distributor: MGM Home Entertainment

Release Date: June 15, 2004
Review posted: June 1, 2004

Spoilers: Minor

Reviewed by Dennis Landmann

SYNOPSIS

A college dropout, Georgia "George" Lass (Ellen Muth), is killed by a toilet seat that falls from the MIR space station on her first day at a temp agency. Upon death, she is recruited by a team of grim reapers - the undead who mix among the living and take people's souls just before they die. Along with fellow team members Mason (Callum Blue), Roxy (Jasmine Guy), Betty (Rebecca Gayheart), and leader Rube (Mandy atinkin), George discovers life after life. Thanks to IMDB.

CRITIQUE

Dead Like Me premiered on the Showtime cable channel last year in June. I remembered seeing a few ads for it, but I didn't tune in, and I don't have Showtime. To capitalize on the rushing DVD market, MGM releases the first season on DVD in a four-disc set.

The show's concept of "life after life" intrigued me enough to agree to review the DVD. The pilot episode is very well done, and it shows. At six million dollars, the 74-minute opener is large in scope, featuring pretty good sets and a variety of cool special effects shots. The script is exciting and intriguing, and sets up the show's premise in a fashionable and dramatic light. However, after three more episodes the show lost me a bit. More on that later.

As George adjusts to her new life, that is, her second life, her family tries to move on with their own. George is homesick and visits them, but they see her differently. The Reapers look the same to each other, but to the living they look like someone else. Also, George finds it hard to adjust to her new job; reaping the souls of people who are about to die.

The next few episodes after the pilot deal with George's responsibilities and insecurities, especially her reluctance to perform the reaping, because the repercussions of a soul not set free before death are grave (pardon the pun). It's also interesting to find out that in her new life George has to make money, which means she has to apply for a second job. At the Happy Time temp agency, everybody is sort of weird, especially the female boss. George stays there despite the oddness of the environment. But Mason, a supporting character, shows her how to make the extra buck by stealing from the dead.

And with that, let me voice my irritation of the character. I find George to be a boring person, and frankly her aside notion of "uh, I don't know" and "uh, okay" gets on my nerves. Granted, the character develops more later in the season. The supporting characters are actually a little more interesting, especially Rube and Mason. The character of Roxy is not, however, which might explain why she doesn't appear in some episodes.

On the show's narrative front, George narrates the events so the audience gets to know her thoughts and feelings on everything. This form of storytelling is fine by me as long as it isn't obvious or forces the issue. In Dead Like Me, however, the voice-over is not interesting all the time; most of it tries to comment on contemporary society and people, but also to voice George's idle thoughts. Muth's voice also gets a bit annoying over time, but that's only me.

The writing for the show is actually good, and although not so on a consistent basis with every episode, there are a variety of good moments and a few good storylines interspersed throughout the season. The comedy works from time to time, too, that is, in my case. Some of the lesser interesting episodes take away from the enjoyment of the better episodes. For example, Nighthawks shows the Reapers going through the annual evaluations and everything takes place at night, however, it's also mainly a clipshow, that is, featuring excerpts from previous episodes.

Moreover, Dead Like Me shows off good production values and locations. Direction is solid, as is the acting. The editing is highly stylized with a lot of scenes progressing at high speeds. The special effects are used well, though some shots look pretty obvious. Stewart Copeland's score is good, but sometimes it forces the issue.

THE VIDEO

MGM presents Dead Like Me in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen. Colors look bright and clear, and they're also well-saturated. Image quality is pretty good without major flaws. There is hardly any grain visible, and dark tones and black levels look good. Compression artifacts appear in a few areas, mostly on the second disc that holds five 42-minute episodes. Some images also look a bit soft, but overall this is a very nice presentation of a very recent show, plus it's in widescreen. There are no subtitles for this release, but closed captions are available.

THE AUDIO

MGM presents Dead Like Me in English 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround. This is a pretty good presentation overall. The surrounds are active and the front channels emit dialogue that's always clear and easy to understand. Surround usage is evident during several moments in each episode.

THE EXTRAS

All extras are located on the first disc. The commentary by the cast on the pilot is moderately enjoyable, yet participants Ellen Muth, Mandy Patinkin, Jasmine Guy, Callum Blue, and Cynthia Stevenson have more to say about each other than about the show. There's some decent information here, but that's it. Fans will enjoy it more than me, I'm sure.

The 32 deleted scenes (30:44) are okay, several of them are good, I suppose, but you have no idea where they take place; MGM didn't break down the scenes to the corresponding episodes. A "play all" feature may be found on the last page of the menu; logic is not applicable on this set, it seems.

Behind-the-Scenes (6:50) is purely promotional in nature, although the cast interviews are somewhat nice. You'll see clips of the show and some on-set footage, but nothing in this featurette offers insight into the show. Next is The Music of Dead Like Me (4:30), which surprisingly is not about the music. Instead, exec producer John Masius and composer Stewart Copeland discuss some aspects of the show. Adding insult to injury, the American Beauty theme plays at the beginning of this piece.

Dead Like Us Weekly spoofs the practice of magazines, showing eight profiles of the deceased characters and rounding up a top ten of the spectacular deaths from the first season.

Rounding out the extras is photo gallery with 29 pictures, a brief Season 2 promo that shows no new footage, and trailers for Fargo and Jeremiah: Season 1. Scene selections are available, too.

Each episode runs approximately 42 minutes and is organized into a meager five chapters. The first chapter stop always occurs at the 7-9 minute mark, so viewers will have to forward the opening credit sequence by remote; a minor nuisance that didn't have to be, although MGM isn't on top of the TV-DVD game just yet.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Dead Like Me is a decent show that despite a few flaws features several good elements to make for sufficient entertainment. It's certainly not one of the better shows I've seen lately, but you could probably do worse. The DVD edition of the first season is a little disappointing. Aside from a decent commentary and deleted scenes, the extras lack substance. Video/audio quality is very good, however. Fans should find the set attractive to make a purchase, but everybody else might want to rent it first. In essence, Dead Like Me gets a light recommendation from me.

VERDICT: RECOMMENDED

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