Dead Last

Dead Last is a TV series that mixes ghosts, comedy and rock in a fascinating way. The rock band "The Problem" is on tour and the three members always are solving ghosts' problems. But the missions are sometimes funny, sometimes thrilling, and sometimes a real drama. In an hour they have enough things to do to make this a really exciting show. It's remarkable the performance by Sara Downing. She plays a rock girl, sexy, with brain and also she seems to need some love, but none of the members of the band would fill that need.

What would the Sixth Sense be like if it were a sitcom? Watch this show to see. Catching the second (?) ep I wasn't as confused as I thought I would be. The plot wasn't very thick, it was mostly a character piece with emphasis on one-liners. It seems that the main characters, a new unsigned band, can see and talk to dead people. These dead people seem to be stuck on 'our plane' until the band members complete some task. The band is assailed by numerous 'undead' (AKA Ghost) and they must do the ghost's bidding to make the ghost disappear. These tasks vary in difficulty, but always with an emphasis on getting a laugh, which was usually delivered.

There's actually a real-world band called Dead F***ing Last. I wonder whether that's where they got the name for this show.

I confess, I only had an interest in watching this thing because Harry Groener was guest-starring on it. But I have since acquired all the episodes on DVD, partly because of Tyler Labine (currently starring on ABC's "Invasion"). He was far and away the most believable and convincing of the three "rock stars". This series wanted to be a supernatural spin on movies like "Almost Famous", and it would have succeeded, had the WB not been such arses about scheduling it. The rest of the cast and the writers would have gotten better with time. It's the curse of television sitcoms that time is one commodity they can't afford.

Best episodes: "The Crawford Touch" guest-starring "Ghoulies" Michael DesBarres as a evil rock producer impresario who traps the gang and forces them to contact his resident ghost, a Kurt-Cobain type genius whose final record is hidden/lost forever. "To Live And Amulet Die", simply on the strength of my Harry being in it :) as an evil professor obsessed with gaining the band's magical amulet. The pilot and the lion's share of eps I'm sorry to say weren't that good. But they *would've* gotten better-- and Labine is fun to watch in every single ep; we can only hope "Invasion" kicks him off on the strong career "Dead Last" should have.

Just an aside: no series about any band will ever succeed without extended footage of the "band" performing at least one honest to God hit. "Dead Last" made the mistake of cutting away right when The Problem hit the stage. Nobody is going to believe your series about a struggling rock band unless you actually show them playing; I'm sorry, but it's a fact. There's a reason "The Monkees" lasted more than one season.

I *loved* this show! And now. . . its not on the WB anymore. It was great, though. I'm really into the paranormal. . . so this was my kind of show. But, like all the good paranormal t.v. shows. . . its gone. I miss it. ..

Interesting, short-lived series that never found the audience it deserved. The premise seems like something Sid and Marty Kroftt might have cooked up for one of their live-action shows: A rock and roll trio come to possess a magical medallion that enables them to communicate with ghosts and send the troubled spirits on the the other side. Along the way, the two guys and girl who make up this little group struggle to make it in the music biz and deal with their various personal and family problems. What keeps this from turning into a 1970s Saturday morning cartoon is some pretty hip, rapier-sharp dialogue of the BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER variety and the then-current rage of "seeing dead people" ala THE SIXTH SENSE. BUFFY fans might have liked it, if they had seen it. Too bad more people didn't.