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.

Yes, there are a ton of plot holes in this that make no sense when compared to the series. The lack of Rube really hurts, but the lack of Daisy does even more, simply because instead of just not having her character appear in this, they have another actress play her and her writing is completely uncharacteristic when compared to the show's Daisy. Her development in the show was genius and it's like this film forgot all of her episodes in Season 2 and how much she had progressed. It's pretty much a new character with the name "Daisy" and well, it's awful. Mason is also written in a way that doesn't make much sense. He's a screw-up, but he cared about Rube! Only Roxy and George have some of their show personalities. That whole reaper-Henry Ian Cusick storyline here really sucks.

What saves the film a bit is the family stuff. Okay, some plot holes as well, but the George/Reggie stuff is handled adequately, and also sort of gives closure to the show's ongoing storyline.

Really, this is a pretty mediocre film, and when compared to the show even worse, but it does have some good moments here and there. Stick with the show, this isn't needed.

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.

I guess one could label me a fan of this series, since I own both season 1 and 2 DVD box sets and today I purchased this movie. However I am not here to put frosting on the cake. Any TV series is better than the movie from any point of view. Take into consideration that the writers can afford a few episodes that fail over a two year season. One tends to remember the great episodes and push aside the crappy the ones. So in a nutshell you cannot compare any movie to the series.

I was happy to see they managed to get about 80% of the original cast back after 5 years of doing nothing. I enjoyed the movie but it lacked revelations. There was no cosmic secrets answered about the show. It merely asked more questions and some to most of the characters seemed to take a back seat. I was hoping they would use the opportunity to expand on the "Reaper Society" and I kind of thought that was where the plot was heading but somehow failed to push through.

The focus of the film is on Georgia and Reggie and unfortunately characters like Mason, Roxy, and Daisy become less significant than they should be in this film. The subplot with Cameron Kane wasn't well developed and makes the movie fall short of the mark.

So why did I give the move a seven out of ten? That in my honest opinion is a "C" average. It is just OK but could have been better. Sadly due to the nature of the story that reapers never grow old they won't be able to make another. The actress Ellen Muth is showing her age. I sincerely hope she can move on to better roles but I am afraid she will always be haunted by the series and movie.

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...