Dead 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.

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.

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.

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.