Dead Like Me

George Lass (Ellen Muth) is a grim reaper. She's been dead for 5 years after getting hit by a toilet seat from space. Der Waffle Haus has burnt down. Rube Sofer has moved on. Cameron Kane (Henry Ian Cusick) is the new supervisor. He has a different take on reaping. Daisy (Sarah Wynter), Mason (Callum Blue) and Roxy (Jasmine Guy) start breaking the rules. George has to reap popular school jock Hudson Hart who is secretly dating George's sister Reggie (Britt McKillip) behind his girlfriend Jennifer Hardick (Shenae Grimes)'s back. George's mother Joy (Cynthia Stevenson) has written a book about grief. George takes over at work from vacationing Delores. George is discovered by Reggie.

This is a fine visit from the familiar characters despite the missing Mandy Patinkin and Laura Harris. It's really touching to have George and Reggie together. It wraps up the family's story quite nicely. I'm less taken with Cameron Kane. He's not much of a villain and that side of the movie needs to be much funnier. That half isn't much. Sarah Wynter is an inferior Daisy. In the end, it's great to have George back for a bit.

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

I was so surprised to find this movie because I was a big Dead Like Me fan from the start and was looking forward to seeing a wrap-up of it. Unfortunately, I was mostly disappointed. First off, there are some changes to some of the characters personalities. Of course, Daisy, comes to mind. They had to have another actress play her because Laura Harris either couldn't or wouldn't. People complain that Sarah Wynter is poor at depicting Daisy but I'm not so sure it's all her. When the original Daisy would open her mouth, something interesting came out. Not so with this movie. Daisy's lines in general are just boring. Along with that, there are a few changes in the way the original characters act as if whoever wrote the movie didn't participate in the series and didn't have a good grasp as to what it was all about. I thought perhaps they had different writers but the ones who worked on this also worked on the series. I don't want to give spoilers so I'll just say that some things that happen, esp. the ending with their "replacement" character for Rube, seem completely out of character for all of them. It just comes off as stupid and ridiculous. Another thing is, if they couldn't get Mandy Patinkin, they shouldn't have even bothered with this. He's too important for the composition of the characters to go without and the Henry Ian Cusick part was mostly annoying and pointless. I also wasn't too crazy at how George's mother's change in demeanor from sardonic, cynical and sarcastic to upbeat and recovered from her daughter's death was kind of jarring even though it made sense being after a five year period. There's also a edgy quirky darkness that the original had that is sadly missing here. The best most interesting part of the movie is what happens between George and her sister, which I don't want to say to, again, spoil anything but it is the part that makes this movie worth watching.

This movie was so disappointing in so many ways. No Rube. No original Daisy Adair. Mason was given nothing to do. Roxy did not behave as the original character would. And the new head of the Reaper Squad was a two dimensional character with no back story and no real presence in the story. The show had no real story line. Nothing made sense - the actions of the characters did not fit the story's ground rules. The script had none of the raw edginess and dark humour of the TV show. The pacing was irritating - very amateurish. After watching the whole series we looked forward to a wrap up of the show (ala "Serenity"). It would have been better to have let this show remain in purgatory than leave a bad taste in one's mouth. A waste of a creative premise and an excellent original cast.

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.