Dead Like Me: The Complete Second Season

The Show

The second season of Dead Like Me also turned out to be the final one, showing that sometimes even good, successful series can get cut down in their prime. Apparently, and I don’t know this for certain, the cancellation mostly came down to a cash thing; Dead Like Me was popular, but by axing it the cash was freed up to create more new shows. While there was some hope that MGM could find the show another network, that came to nothing, and so these DVDs are all we have of the series now.

So, the story continues pretty much where it left off. (For a description of the basic premise of Dead Like Me, have a look at my review of the first season.) George continues to have to cope with the fact that she’s young and she’s dead, and that while she may work for a temp agency (Happy Time) to pay the bills, her 'real' position is Reaper, helping souls depart the bodies of those about to die. Where the first series really did mostly revolve around George and her grieving family, this series allows more characterisation for the other Reapers as well.



Roxy (played by Jasmine Guy) leaves her traffic warden post to become a full-fledged policewoman and ends up having to use her connections in the force on a few occasions throughout the series. We also see Roxy deputise for Rube, which clarifies her ranking amongst the Reapers (or is it just that she’s the only trustworthy one?). Even Kiffany, waitress at Der Waffle Haus, refers to Roxy as the stand-in mother for the group (as compared to Rube’s father figure). And speaking of Rube (Mandy Patinkin), he has a very special journey in this series, one that becomes quite touching from early mysterious roots. While with George we see the immediate effects of death on her close family, for Rube his remaining living family are obviously older and in quite a different situation – it’s something else to think about for the audience and probably something that would have been expanded upon had the show been green-lit for a third season.

Mason (Callum Blue) and Daisy (Laura Harris) also undergo an interesting journey, from mild flirtations to conflict and resolution. Daisy finds herself a boyfriend that no-one approves of, and Mason gets himself into all sorts of trouble from the first episode onwards. George, meanwhile, continues to hold down both jobs, finds a boyfriend and even loses her virginity. The Reapers are beginning to work like a smooth team, even with cock-ups, and I felt a lot closer to all of them through this season than I did while their characters were still being developed in the first series. Some of that’s to do with the excellent acting and the obvious friendship between the actors, but most of it is down to the witty, crisp writing which allows characterisation while developing both episodic plots and wider-reaching story arcs.



And the non-Reapers in the show continue to add something to the mix also. Reggie (Britt McKillip) starts to deal with George’s death, and even speaks to her mother more about it. Joy (Cynthia Stevenson) thinks about dating and selling the house as part of the ongoing trauma of divorce. And Delores (Christine Willes) continues to amuse as George’s bizarre boss at Happy Time. There’s some particularly touching non-Reaper moments, such as Delores and Joy meeting as Joy goes to Happy Time in search of work. I would have been interested to see where such things could have led, but as this is the end of the show, it’s a shame we’ll never find out.

While we’re on the tail-end of mentioning the actors, there’s a couple of guest stars this season that stood out for me. Firstly Eric McCormack in his first role that hasn’t made me think Will and Grace. He plays Ray, Daisy’s slightly aggressive boyfriend and perfectly slips into the role of slimy TV producer willing to go a few rounds with Mason in the ring. Secondly, Yeardley Smith (best known as the voice of Lisa Simpson from The Simpsons, but also having had decent on-screen roles in other TV shows, like Herman's Head), turns up as Penny, a Reaper from the Natural Causes division who knows Rube from other times. In the same episode that Penny first shows up, Piper Laurie takes the role of a woman with Alzheimers’ who can’t come to terms with the fact she’s dead, in fact, she can’t even understand that she’s dead. She definitely impresses with her acting, and it’s another notch in Dead Like Me’s hat that the show managed to get such great guest stars.



Dead Like Me continued to make an impact on me through its second season and I never felt it grow stale or uninteresting. The humour is still sharp and dark, the situations perhaps a little less bizarre but still surreal and the characters grow organically. As a breath of fresh air, I really enjoyed watching it, and must admit I breezed through the DVDs without ever once feeling tired of the show, the characters or the situations. A definite success and a shame that I now have no more episodes to look forward to.

Episode Guide

1: ‘Send in the Clown’
Over at Happy Time, George is given a co-worker to train and she promptly falls for him, much to Delores’ dismay. Rube accompanies Mason to a kid’s birthday party where his next reaping is to take place.

2: ‘The Ledger’
It’s not a good luck day for George. Her nifty new bike is stolen and she’s accused of stealing office supplies (amusingly, post-it notes). In addition, she discovers that her parents are splitting up.

3: ‘Ghost Story’
Mason loses his post-it note and he spends most of his time trying to find it. Reggie has been telling people that George still keeps in touch with her, much to Joy’s dismay. And George... poor George, she gets recruited to go to the Happy Time annual woodland retreat.



4: ‘The Shallow End’
An interesting episode where we get quite a long flashback to George’s childhood. Roxy sets out on her new job as a policewoman, Mason has more trouble with the soul he’s reaping and Daisy gets to counsel a pre-op transsexual.

5: ‘Hurry’
Happy Time drafts in an efficiency expert and Delores obviously gets quite into the whole thing. Rube gets a heartbreaking letter which sets further plotlines into action, Mason must reap an old friend and Daisy’s reaping takes her speed-dating.

6: ‘In Escrow’
George gets a promotion at Happy Time and isn’t afraid to boast about it to everyone. Joy is on the verge of selling the house because of the upcoming divorce and Reggie is really unhappy about it. George’s new position means she has to interview candidates and she’s terrified of making the wrong decision.



7: ‘Rites of Passage’
The other reapers are quite jealous when George gets assigned her first VIP reap, a popular singer. Mason tags along and messes up a bit with a group of Goths who claim they can see death in him. Roxy has to make use of her day job and Daisy confides in a priest.

8: ‘The Escape Artist’
George’s reaping takes her to a posh country club where she finds herself very attracted to someone she meets, Trip. Roxy and Mason are given first-class tickets to Cancun, along with post-it notes for the journey. Reggie meets Charlie, the pet reaper.

9: ‘Be Still My Heart’
George attends the funeral of Trip’s father so she can spend more time with the man she fancies. Rube places Roxy in charge temporarily while he goes off on personal business... very intriguing. Meanwhile Reggie’s homework pits her parents against each other.



10: ‘Death Defying’
George struggles to cope after Trip ignores her despite them having slept together. Daisy flirts with TV producer, Ray and Mason gets jealous. Rube travels to get information about people from his past and spends a lot of time looking through records.

11: ‘Ashes to Ashes’
George passes herself off as the relative of a homeless man she’s reaped and then suffers the consequences as she finds herself saddled with cremation costs. Daisy acts for Ray and we see a bit more of their relationship which doesn’t seem to be going too well. Reggie goes goth and makes a death joke too far for Joy to bear.

12: ‘Forget Me Not’
George goes to hospital where she struggles to get a woman with Alzheimers’ to acknowledge her death. Rube goes with her and speaks to Penny, a reaper from the Natural Causes division. Joy and Delores meet when Joy goes to seek work via Happy Time, and they work out the connection between them. More amusingly, Mason decides to fight Ray for Daisy’s affection, in the boxing ring.



13: ‘Last Call’
Mason gets a purple post-it note, and, after the events of the past few episodes, he believes it signals his last reap so he sells all his worldly goods and tries to get ready to move on. Roxy investigates Ray’s disappearance. Reggie, at home alone, goes to search for J.D., who has run off.

14: ‘Always’
Mason’s now homeless and runs into trouble at Der Waffle Haus. George gets a bit freaked out to learn her mother’s been to Happy Time to see Delores. Rube, meanwhile, receives upsetting news from Penny and heads off to sort out some personal business on a very special visit.

15: ‘Haunted’
It’s Hallowe’en and a serial killer is wandering the streets, with the reapers following his journey. Joy tries to persuade Reggie to go trick-or-treating, but the pair of them end up at George’s grave. And so does George... on the one night where reapers appear as their true selves. Mason sets himself the task of getting a year’s supply of candy!



Picture

The picture quality is still excellent for this show. Colours are deep and rich and there’s barely any problems at all, the slightest bit of noise being all there is to distract from perfection. The transfer is 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen and I really have no complaints.

Audio

As with the first series, the audio here is in Dolby Digital 5.1, but with no subtitles – something that really should have been sorted out. There’s a fair amount of directionality used for this 5.1 track, but as a TV show, it’s not needed all that often. Stewart Copeland’s score fits very well into the show and never diminishes from dialogue.



Menus/Extras

The disc menus here, whilst visually-attractive, still suffer from some of the bad design and navigational problems seen on the first season DVD release. All of the extras can be found on the final disc of the boxset.

There’s no commentary this time around, a notable omission since one was included on the first season collection. However, in its place, we have two featurettes: Dead Like Me... Again and Putting Life into Death. Both featurettes are around 11 minutes long. The first has Ellen Muth, Mandy Patinkin, Cynthia Stevenson, Callum Blue, Jasmine Guy, Laura Harris and Steve Beers (the co-executive producer) talking about the second series of the show and how much they enjoyed it. It’s a bit fluffy really, but it’s good to see everyone get a chance to comment. The second featurette is all about special effects and is made up of 6 mini-featurettes about specific effects: Gravelings, Dirty Old Man, Falling Flower, Death Ripple, Disco Priest, and Bouncing Glass. I found the gravelings one the most interesting, as well as the death ripple as I found myself wondering how this effect was done while watching this season (though funnily enough it didn’t bother me during the first season).



Instead of the 30 minutes of deleted scenes we had on the first season, here there are only 9 scenes which run to about 11 minutes when watched together. However, the ‘play all’ option is still located at the end of the list as opposed to being at the beginning, where the average viewer would have a chance of spotting it in time. (Bad move, MGM.) And interestingly enough this is mirrored by the number of clicks you need to get through to even watch an episode of Dead Like Me, first to go from the main menu to the episode list, then select the episode, then select ‘play episode’. As mentioned earlier, it’s a bit of a drag!

The final features are a photo gallery containing just under 60 photos and trailers for other MGM releases, including the first season of Dead Like Me.

Overall

I found the second series of Dead Like Me just as enjoyable as the first with good character development and the same wry wit in the writing. The DVD set is a great way to watch all the episodes with no advert breaks and with a great video and audio transfer. And while the extras aren’t that enthralling, they’re an entertaining hour or so on top of the actual series.