DEAD LIKE ME

THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 2 out of 5

Because of: foul language, nudity

Rated:

Dark humor and ridiculous death sequences were what made Dead Like Me so popular when it ran for two seasons on Showtime. Full of eccentric wit and likable characters, it took a "family" of grim reapers to a whole new level of absurdity. The second season is better than the first, but still bogged down with the same fatal flaws.

It's been awhile since her premature death at the clunk of a flying toilet seat and Georgia Lass (Ellen Muth) has come into her own as a reaper. Working full time at Happy Days, a job placement company, and hanging out with her fellow undead friends evenings and weekends, her one major responsibility is handed out every morning on a yellow post-it note. The name and address where some unfortunate human is about to be parted from their body. There are daredevils. Priests. Flower girls. All of them need her magic touch before death finds them. Some of them are sweet. Others are cantankerous. But the gang of reapers is on it. Headed up by the no-nonsense Rube (Mandy Patinkin), these deadheads set out after their morning coffee with grim reaping on the brain. 

There's Daisy Adair (Laura Harris), the blonde wannabe actress who died in a fire on the set of Gone With the Wind, Mason (Callum Blue) the 60's rock 'n' roll junkie who overdosed, and the temperamental hard-as-nails Roxy (Jasmine Guy), who decides to quit reading meters and go to work for the police force. Georgia is forced to contend with her parents' recent divorce and the potential sale of her family home, along with the new boyfriend who never calls, and even a "rock star reap" that launches her from amateur to professional grim status. Rube is haunted by memories from the past, and an attempt to right a former wrong. 

Mason just wants Daisy to notice him, and Roxy is working on her attitude. But that's not the entire or even jist of the plot, since there is a lot going on around the grim reapers, everything from little moral lessons and comments on daily life to the stories of their co-workers, family, and friends. One of the better mini plots later on in the series is a death without a post it that had serious consequences. Probably the best thing about the show is its character development, and the fact that all of its primary players are so distinct and likable but ultimately deeply flawed. Daisy is a bit of an air head, far too pretty for her own good, but she is genuinely searching. For what, she doesn't know, but she finds it temporarily within the Catholic church. Rube is a never-ending mystery. Georgia is nothing short of hilarious, and Mason is still a thief and occasional con man. But no one really cares, because he amuses us so much.

Because the show is all about death, it contains an enormous amount of morbid humor and unfortunate "accidents." The most gruesome death by far is when a man is knocked by a falling mirror onto a kitchen guillotine (made for slicing fruit). Blood spatters. It shows up on Georgia on more than one occasion, causing her coworker to nearly pass out. Guns go off. Rampages are implied. A woman is overheard being strangled. A priest drowns in holy water after bumping his head. A cyclist goes through a car's back window. A man's neck is snapped when he's tackled. The list goes on and on. Sexual content is mostly nonexistent, but George does lose her virginity to a boy she meets at the club, and Mason likes to ogle girls. Steamy cars rock on a lookout point. A newly married man goes into an airplane bathroom with a stewardess. There's also three instances of backside nudity ("The Shallow End" has a dead man being reaped naked; he flashes people, knowing they can't see him, and several remarks are made by reapers on the size of his antimony; "Death Defying" has a daredevil flashing a video camera before jumping off a roof; and "Last Call" has Mason and his reap going skinny dipping in the lake). "Be Still My Heart" features a gay wedding, where two men are shown kissing; "The Shallow End" has a transsexual's death.

By far the worst thing in the series is its utterly profane language. The f-word is used about twenty times per episode, along with a dozen profane uses of Jesus' name and several of GD. There are also some religious issues. Mason tells Georgia not to leave fate to God, since he royally "f---- them all" (ie, the verse in scripture that implies death will not be present in heaven). Daisy pursues a faith in God for awhile. There's a touching scene in which a transsexual rails at God for not making him a girl; it's implied that the young man witnesses a vision. A priest has the most religious passing, as he walks into a long corridor of brilliant and beautiful white light. The series is fun. There's no doubt about it, but language and occasional nudity puts it on the skids for discerning viewers. However, it also runs occasionally edited on the Sci-Fi channel.