Dead Like Me: Life After Death (2009) – A TV Fan’s Wet Dream
Fri. June 12, 2009Categories: Comedy, Dark Humor & Black Comedies, Watch Instantly
Tags: 2000s, 2009, 4 stars, bad character development, bad timing, britt mckillip, callum blue, ellen muth, good acting, happy endings, jasmine guy, mgm, original story, showtime, so-so script
4 out of 5 stars
Showtime is by far my favorite cable channel, but has a long history of cancelling shows before their time…Dead Like Me, Leap Years, Odyssey 5, Resurrection Blvd, and Jeremiah are just a few that I watched.
Dead Like Me was an original Showtime television show produced by MGM. The show ran for two years, 2004-2005. It won two Emmys and several other industry awards. It was awesome television. The premise in short – a misanthropic young woman dies in a freak accident. She doesn’t go to heaven or hell, she’s assigned a job. She becomes a reaper and works with other reapers to remove the souls of people before they die. She sends souls to their white lights without ever seeing hers. In addition to all that, she has to deal with real life – a job, rent, food, etc.
Showtime and MGM seemed to be confused about show’s ratings – very high, too low, not sure. In the end, Dead Like Me was cancelled. Bryan Fuller, the creator who left the show early in season one, claimed it was largely due to conflict with MGM.
Regardless, MGM decided to bring Dead Like Me back in movie form – straight-to-DVD Dead Like Me: Life After Death. Anyone who has ever been a fan of a cancelled television show has wanted this to happen at least once. The problem with television is, season to season, you never know if the show will be back, if the story will be completed. And when a show ends before the story is done, fans are heartbroken. It’s like reading a book and stopping half-way through. There’s no closure.
Dead Like Me: Life After Death is closure. The movie largely focuses on the main character of the show, George played by Ellen Muth, and pushes the other characters to the background. Dead Like Me: Life After Death takes you through the final stage of grief: acceptance. We see George truly accept her situation, we see that her family has accepted her death, we watch her little sister accept losing loved ones. And most importantly, fans are forced to accept that Dead Like Me is truly dead.
Hardcore fans have criticized the movie, citing “it’s not the same.” Of course it isn’t the same. It has been five years since the show ended. People have moved on. Of course the entire original show cast didn’t sign on for the movie. Of course the writing, wardrobe, etc isn’t the same.
Fans of Dead Like Me’s ensemble cast will be disappointed. Two cast members, Mandy Patinkin and Laura Harris were missing. Callum Blue and Jasmine Guy, the other two stars of Dead Like Me, were not largely featured in the film. In fact, their characters showed absolutely no growth. Instead they were the same characters that were introduced in Season 1 Episode 1.
If you’re judging Dead Like Me: Life After Death independently though, it’s a pretty solid film. Ellen Muth is an amazing actress and definitely has the ability to carry a movie. Britt McKillip, who played George’s sister Reggie, also did phenomenally well. The scenes Muth and McKillip shared made the film.
If you watched the TV show and would like a little closure, Life After Death is your best bet.
The Good: The Acting, Happy Ending, Original Story
The Bad: Timing (Too Little Too Late), Character Development, So-So Script
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