Dead Like Me

I thought Dead Like Me was one of the... funniest.. saddest.. smartest.. and just quirkiest shows ever on the air. This film takes place, picking up 5 years later, where everyone left off.. mostly. Now the biggest complain has been the absence of Rube (Mandy Patinkin) as the boss.. a tragic loss to be sure. and the recasting of Sarah Wynter in the role of Daisy Adair, formerly filled by Laura Harris. I will only say.. not to give too much away.. but they got MOST of the cast back.. and a pretty decent.. I won't say it is a definitive conclusion, as it could be left open to more DTV films. But at least it felt there was a punctuation at the end of the sentence which had been hanging for almost half a decade.

I will be the first to admit the movie has its MAJOR problems.. but over all, rough edges and everything.. it is a pretty decent representation of what the best of the show offered, although not quite as adeptly written, or acted.. its much harder to fill in a 90 minute film with so many characters as opposed to a dozen hour episodes yearly. This does seem more done for the "fans" who've missed the show. and its still a welcome return, if not at its best.

While it was nice to see the return of the show, this reeked of Straight to DVD production value.

The excessive use of slow-mo and transitional effects were annoying to me, the original series just had a more polished feel to it.

The story line was OK, while it was good they tied up the absence of Rube. His general presence was missed, he kept everyone grounded.

In all honesty this movie has lost some of the charm of the series that made it quirky and dark. I am not saying it's bad, I just think they could have done so much better with how long this has been in production.

And to anyone who may quip that I am looking to find fault I watched the series when it had it's run on TV and bought the DVD's when they came out. I love the series as much as the next person and I want to see it picked up again but not at the expense of the story and the ideals that made the series what it was.

ideally, it would be that they were trying to tie up loose ends left when the show was canceled...but i guess that would be a bit too much to ask... there are so many shows that, when they get gone, leave the viewers with little to no resolution. or, if you're from California...closure. 'deadwood' and 'john from cincinnati' come readily to mind... so when i saw that these people had made a movie i thought, 'great. a studio that cares about its audience...'. maybe. maybe not. personally, i would've rather they made no follow up than a foul up... there's LOTS of things that are, at best, unsatisfactory about this project. first off, for me, was the 'new' daisy adair...easily one of the most dynamic characters of the show, though a 'latecomer'...and boy, if people want to see the difference a good actress makes, they need look no further than here...i imagine the actress that played daisy saw this as a good opportunity to, pardon the pun, make a killing... seems the studio decided they didn't need her THAT badly. bad decision... but it would seem that's only one of many... see this if you must. just don't get your hopes up. or you did like me...

Dead Like Me: Life After Death, is a good entry into the series. Though not quite as fun or engaging as the series was, it was quite enjoyable to see the characters again, and how they have all grown, matured, and subtly changed. It felt a bit restrained in comparison to the episodes which had a bit more energy and emotional content. However, the quality of dialog, special effects, and visual design are all very good.

Surely, this film won't be as enjoyable to individuals who are not familiar with the series, as they won't perceive the subtle character differences, and certainly won't understand why the reaper team is so frustrated with the new team leader of Cameron Kane. Nor will neophytes to the series pick up on the fact that George's mom has also grown and matured significantly, or why it was such a big deal that she reveals her secret to her sister. And despite the fact that they did an excellent job of introducing "the world" that the story is built upon, the significance of Der Waffle Haus, Happy Time, and even Murray the cat, are all lost.

Overall, it was a satisfying experience, and yet leaves me regretting the series was canceled so prematurely. Dead Like Me was such a refreshing show, with its dark humor, yet its light and happy sadness. The ensemble cast, weird deaths, and character arcs, are all sorely missed. In fact, I canceled my Showtime subscription when I heard they had canceled the show. I hope there are additional installments into the franchise, but I fear that this is it. And if that is the case, it was a satisfying way to tie it up, unlike the unceremonious cut it received five years ago.

Network: Direct to DVD movie; Genre: Comedy/Drama; Content Rating: R (profanity, dark comic violence, sexual content); Available: DVD; Perspective: Contemporary (star range: 1 – 4);

For reference I'd recommend any reader of this briefly skip over to my review of the original Showtime series "Dead Like Me", where the show's freshness, originality, creativity and strong voice inspired me to a 5 out of 5 star rating. The direct-to-DVD feature "Dead Like Me: Life After Death" opens with a well-done, but redundant re-cap of the show's premise already captured so well in creator Bryan Fuller's movie-quality Pilot for those unfamiliar with the series. But then again, if you're unfamiliar with the show you wouldn't be interested in this movie.

Stunned at the unexpected loss of former team leader Rube (Mandy Patinkin contractually unable to be in the film), workman-like grim reapers Georgia Lass (Ellen Muth), Roxy (Jasmin Guy), Mason (Calum Blue) and Daisy Adair (Sarah Wynter replacing "24" sister Laura Harris who was hopefully off making the far better horror/comedy "Severance") are whisked off to a new life managed by unsavory new boss Cameron (Henry Ian Cusik, "Lost"). All seems great at first, limos take them to an upscale restaurant replacing Der Waffle house and Cameron quickly replaces their trademark post-it notes with blackberries, but Cameron plays fast and loose with the reaper code of conduct and the new "do-what-you-feel" attitude starts to have dire results. The first of which causes George to miss a reap which traps a teenage boy in a coma and brings George face to face with the boy's secret girlfriend: her sister, Reggie (Britt McKillip all grown up now).

Series episodes were structured like a wheel, centered around a theme with every character branching off as a sprocket to illustrate a different element of that theme (a la Sex and the City). "Life" is all over the place. One minute it's about George's reluctance to take reaping into the 21st century and her distrust of Cameron, then it launches off into a story that is essentially a rehash of the season one episode "Reapercussions" (which in 45 minutes covered this ground with more imagination). It throws in a random subplot involving Delores (Christine Welles, not her usual shiny self) giving her cat Murray a swan song only because the two are fan favorites.

"Life after Death" is a shallow, cynical cash grab from MGM with a hastily assembled cast and a script, by showrunner John Masius and co-writer Stephen Godchiux, that could have used several trips back to the writer's room. "Dead" heads will be disappointed all around by this venture. For starters all of the characters have been hollowed out and turned into one-note bits dispensing cringe-inducing one-liners, particularly Mason who is now just a goof. Georgia is no longer the antisocial, sardonic voice of a generation, but a protagonist, functioning in society, doing what's right as any protagonist does.

Surprisingly enough, much of "Life" belongs to McKillip. Suddenly thrust into the lead, the young actress does a fine job with it, it's that – even in the series – the entire Joy/Reggie storyline was an unnecessary, and poorly conceived trapdoor escape from the fantasy of the grim reaping story that seemed to move the show backwards. In the series it gave the show one tiny toe grounded in domestic drama, by expanding it in the movie, it very often swallows the production entirely in melodrama. I can see teenage girls crying and screaming at each other anywhere, but I can't see a bizarre Rube Goldberg series of events set in motion by a Graveling that leads to someone's death anywhere but "Dead Like Me".

Speaking of the Gravelings, a certain surprise revelation regarding George and the Gravelings at the end of the 2nd season is disappointingly not addressed at all in "Life". From Mandy Patinkin's rock solid performance to Stewart Copeland's whimsical music to Laura Harris portraying a ditz like Daisy Adair with a perfect (and rare) steely-eyed determination that everything she says is right – there are more things that I can count, big and small, from the show that are missing from this production.

Maybe the most dispiriting thing about "Life" is how unnecessary it feels. Given the chance to bring a loved TV series back from the dead for a last hurrah is a golden opportunity and should inspire the showrunners to swing for the fences. "Life" looks like a tired afterthought that forgot what it used to do so well in the first place. It makes no effort to close the series out with a bang or to extend the stories into exciting new territories. Although, it is kind of fun to see the show's informal theme song, "Boom Boom Ba", making another appearance. "Dead Like Me" fans deserve a whole lot better than "Life After Death".

* ½ / 4