Ellen Muth in "Dead Like Me"
courtesy of SHOWTIME
"Dead Like Me" (SHOWTIME)

SHOWTIME brings back the series "Dead Like Me" for a second season beginning July 25th. Ellen Muth, Cynthia Stevenson, Mandy Patinkin, Laura Harris, Callum Blue and Jasmine Guy are the stars and each one gives a solid performance. The series deals with death and its aftermath but it is a dramady (half comedy, half drama).

Last year the show started with eighteen year old Georgia Lass (Muth) being killed when a toilet from a space station fell to earth. Instead of going to Heaven or Hell, Georgia found herself still on earth but unseen. She met up with a man named Rube (Patinkin) who told her she had been designated to be a "grim reaper." This meant she was assigned to take people's souls immediately before they died.

In order to do this Georgia had to assume the identity of a girl named Melissa. This girl could be seen but she looked different from how Georgia looked (this element of the story is not revisited in the second season). 

This season starts out with George, as she is nicknamed, meeting with Rube and other grim reapers every day at a Waffle House where they eat breakfast and get their doom assignments. The other reapers are Mason (Blue), Daisy (Harris), and Roxy (Guy).

The series also focuses on George's parents (Cynthia Stevenson and Greg Kean) who are trying to cope with the loss of their daughter. Their sadness is tearing their marriage apart. It is also affecting their younger daughter Reggie (Britt McKillip). This aspect of the series appears to be the most traumatic.

Muth is perfectly cast as George and is the glue that holds the show together. She is never predictable and never boring. She is unique in how she looks, how she acts, and how she reacts. 

This being a SHOWTIME show there has to be nudity and excessive profanity. The nudity, at least in the first four episodes I previewed, is minor. The profanity is continuous. Why is this necessary? Do the writers actually think this is the way people talk in polite society? It is annoying and disruptive to the show to have four letter words spew forth in each and every conversation.

There is something about "Dead Like Me" that grabs you and won't let go. You begin to care about George and her situation, and you want to know the backstories on the other characters too. So this means you have to keep tuning in to see what happens.

"Dead Like Me" premieres on SHOWTIME, Sunday, July 25 at 10PM. This is the show's regular timeslot and new episodes can be seen for the next fifteen weeks.

 

 

 

 

 

©2004 Jackie K. Cooper

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