Dead Like Me

Dead Like Me
File:Dead like me header.jpg Dead Like Me cast photo showing reapers George, Rube, Roxy, Mason, and Daisy
Created by	Bryan Fuller
Starring	Ellen Muth, Mandy Patinkin, Callum Blue, Jasmine Guy, Laura Harris, Cynthia Stevenson
Country of origin	USA
No. of episodes	29
Production
Running time	42 to 45 minutes without commercials; Pilot ran 1 hour, 45 minutes without commercials
Original release
Network	Showtime
Release	June 27, 2003 – October 31, 2004

Dead Like Me is a Showtime television comedy-drama created by Bryan Fuller about a group of grim reapers in Seattle, Washington. The series stars Ellen Muth and Mandy Patinkin.

Eighteen-year-old Georgia "George" Lass (played by Muth) serves as the show's protagonist and narrator. Early in the pilot episode, she dies, leaving her parents and younger sister behind at a point when her relationships with them were all on shaky ground for varying youthful reasons. She is tapped to become one of the "undead", a grim reaper. She soon learns that a reaper's job is to remove the souls of people, preferably right before they die, and escort them until they move on into their afterlife. The show explores the "lives" and experiences of a small team of such reapers — a team led by Rube (played by Patinkin) — as well as the post-mortem changes in George and George's family as they deal with George's untimely passing.

Fuller, the show's creator, left early to co-create Wonderfalls; the creative direction of the show was taken over by executive producer John Masius.

The show premiered in North America on June 27, 2003; the second season began airing in the summer of 2004. The show was one of the few high definition TV productions at the time. Season 1 has also been shown on Sky One in Ireland and the United Kingdom, America Plus in the Middle East, Sony in Latin America, Catch On in South Korea and Fox8 in Australia. The series was also aired in Croatia and on Showcase in Canada (in both English and French).

As of January 2006, Swedish SVT2 has started rerunning the series. HDNet did likewise later in May. It is also one of the starting line-up shows for Channel 6 in Ireland.

Cast

George is part of a team of reapers headed by Rube (played by Mandy Patinkin), and including Mason (Callum Blue), and Roxy (Jasmine Guy). For the first five episodes the team also includes Betty (Rebecca Gayheart); after Betty's departure, her position in the team is taken over by Daisy (played by Laura Harris).

George's family also have prominent roles in the series:

• mother Joy (played by Cynthia Stevenson)
• father Clancy (Greg Kean)
• younger sister Reggie (Britt McKillip)

Other cast members playing those among the living include Christine Willes, who portrays Delores Herbig, and Crystal Dahl, portraying Crystal Smith. Both work at Happy Time, a temp service.

Grim reapers

Template:Spoiler Grim reapers, portrayed without the traditional black cloak and scythe, are an integral part of the cycle of life and death. They remove the souls of the living shortly before death and escort them until they move on into their afterlife.

Death has a list of who is scheduled to die and when. The foreman gets the list, transcribes certain information to a yellow Post-it note (first initial and last name of the person, where they are to die, and their estimated time of death), and assigns them to the reapers; this assignment is non-transferable — only that reaper can remove that soul. That person must be reaped at the time of their intended death, or the soul will "wither and die and rot inside" them. Reapers collect souls until they reach a quota, though they do not know in advance what their quota is. Once that quota is reached, the reaper moves on and the newly collected soul takes his or her place.

Reapers have a physical body and may interact with the living and the dead. They do not age, but reapers cannot fly, disappear or walk through walls, so they need to find their reap by conventional means of transportation. In fact, the only real power besides collecting souls is an ability to heal quickly, allowing a quick recovery from any physical harm incurred on the job. Reapers also have the same emotional needs and drives as living humans.

To remove a soul, a reaper must touch the body. When possible, the touch is done before death to minimize emotional harm to the soul, especially in cases of violent death. After death, the soul sometimes exists for a short time as a ghost. These ghosts retain the physical image of the being as it was reaped. If reaped before death, the ghost does not show any injuries suffered during death and usually doesn't remember dying. Souls reaped after death often manifest wounds corresponding to the manner of their deaths and may be heavily traumatized by the experience. (A soul cannot leave its body without being reaped. If the Reaper doesn't take it, it is trapped in a corpse, completely aware. This is as horrific as it sounds, especially when the deceased goes through an autopsy.) Ghosts cannot communicate directly with the living, only with and through the undead reapers. The passage into the afterlife is shown as a brightly lit scene towards which the newly-deceased is drawn. The portal/scene is unique to each soul: for a child, it may be a wonderful carnival, but for an yoga master, it may be a Deva beckoning from within a Divine Lotus. Souls cannot be forced to enter the portals and can be downright stubborn about it if they feel it is not yet time for them to move on. A big part of the Reapers' job is to convince such souls to do so.

Reapers do not get paid, so they must find ways to get money, whether a day job, or "living off the land". Reapers often take things from their reaps, sometimes with permission from their ghosts. Of the reapers featured in the show, only George and Roxy hold steady jobs, with Daisy getting occasional work as an actress.

It is important that the living do not figure out that reapers are among them. This makes it taboo for reapers to enter into romantic relationships with the living; it is allowed (though frowned upon) for reapers to develop platonic friendships, and there appears to be no explicit taboo on reapers engaging in sexual relations with the living (or each other). It is likewise frowned upon for a reaper to gain notoriety among the living (for example, when George receives a promotion at work, she is encouraged not to accept it). Apparently, reapers are never noticed in the immediate aftermath of a death, even when arguing with their reap. Ronnie, a schizophrenic, could apparently see reapers at work, as well as gravelings, another normally unseen creature involved in deaths (see below).

As long as there are persons from their time still alive, reapers look different than they did in life to the living, though fellow reapers see their original appearances. George says her appearance resembles someone familiar "with crack cocaine, ten-dollar blowjobs, and maybe even a trick baby or two". On Halloween, however, reapers regain their original appearance for the day, meaning the recently deceased need to wear masks. This effect continues into All Saints' Day; George's sister, Reggie, apparently recognizes her on that day. To date, only George's and Mason's assumed faces have been shown on screen; the DVD commentary track for the pilot episode suggests Fuller's departure led a de-emphasis of this aspect of the reaper's back-story.

As part of the system, Reapers are forbidden to tell anyone about Grim Reapers or to reveal that they are dead people who have been returned to life. If they try, various bad things happen, including the spontaneous loss of any memory they try to use as proof that they know something only the dead person could have known. However, various psychically aware persons in the DLM universe can sense that there's something not right about Reapers, and are even sometimes dimly aware of what's happening if they see a soul Reaped. While some people claim to love Death and would seem to be ideal Reaper "groupies," the reaction to actually seeing a Reaper at work or suspecting what they are is always fear, horror, and immediate flight.

Pet reapers, who collect animal souls, also appear during the series, but it is unspecified how they are chosen or replaced.

Gravelings

Template:Spoiler The gravelings are mischievous gremlin-like creatures that cause the accidents and mishaps that kill people. They make their home in graveyards. The living cannot see them, though in one episode, a schizophrenic seems to be able to. A reaper can see them, but only "in the corner of his or her eye," and while they appear to understand human speech perfectly well, they don't communicate verbally with Reapers (although they do talk to each other in a hushed and unintelligble babble.) Reapers can apparently communicate with them to some extent (Daisy once shushed a graveling). George appears to be able to see them more clearly than the rest, and it has been implied that she encountered them at least twice as a child.

In "Forget Me Not", one was produced from a character's death at the hands of a Reaper, implying that they may come from either evil or rotted souls, from the un-reaped soul of a person who dies before their destined time, or from someone who is killed by a Reaper. When Rube learns that someone died without a Post-It, i.e. without a predestined time of death, he clearly knows this means something very bad is going to happen and is not surprised to learn of the creation of the graveling. In later episode "Always", George vanquished it by a similar touch used during reaping. It is unclear if any reaper can eliminate any graveling, or just this particular one because it was killed ahead of time by a reaper, or just by George because she might have a special power that we can suppose is recognizable by gravelings, as hinted in "The shallow end" final swimming pool scene.

The gravelings, like the gremlins of modern legend, cause "coincidences" that make sure people die when they are supposed to. The Reapers know when people are supposed to die and can sometimes interfere. (The trick seems to be diverting them from their fate with enough margin that they don't "make their appointments." A person who makes their appointment, even if not killed, is doomed and must be reaped.) This infuriates the gravelings and they will harass a Reaper who does this unmercifully. The reapers have all been plagued by graveling vengeance during the series.

Every so often, the gravelings take a "day off." It is not known whether nobody dies of external causes because the gravelings are taking the day off, or if the gravelings take a day off because nobody is scheduled to die of external causes.

Synopsis

Template:Spoiler Georgia Lass was aloof and emotionally distant from her family and shied away from having experiences. After dropping out from college, she took a job at Happy Time Temporary Services. On her lunch break of her first day, she is hit and killed by a zero-G toilet seat from the de-orbiting Soviet space station. Although Mir is never actually uttered in the series, it is presumed that's what space station they are talking about. (Mir was actually de-orbited in 2001, two years earlier than the setting.)

She is informed shortly after her death that, rather than moving on to the "great beyond", she will become a grim reaper in the "external influence" division, covering accidents, suicides and homicides.

Through the first season, George has trouble adjusting to her circumstances: collecting souls, while holding a day job at Happy Time. By the second season, she has mostly adjusted to her new role in the circle of life, though still has unresolved issues with her life and her afterlife.

George's family is struggling to deal with her death. Joy is depressed and visibly repressing it, while Clancy is cheating on her. Reggie acted out — stealing toilet seats from neighbors and school and hanging them on a tree — before being sent for therapy by Joy. She clings to the belief that George visits her, but is starting to lie to cover this up. At the start of the second season, the family began to break apart as divorce proceedings began.

Nearly all of the main characters have some form of depression, but cope with it in different ways: Mason resorts to alcohol and drugs, Daisy puts a veneer of perkiness, and Roxy is physically and verbally aggressive. Rube and George are more open about their sadness, as they both tend to be brooding loners.

Characters

Main article: List of Dead Like Me characters

Episodes

Main article: List of Dead Like Me episodes

Season 1 (2003)

1. Pilot
2. Dead Girl Walking
3. Curious George
4. Reapercussions
5. Reaping Havoc
6. My Room
7. Reaper Madness
8. A Cook
9. Sunday Mornings
10. Business Unfinished
11. The Bicycle Thief
12. Nighthawks
13. Vacation
14. Rest in Peace

Season 2 (2004)

1. Send in the Clown
2. The Ledger
3. Ghost Story
4. The Shallow End
5. Hurry
6. In Escrow
7. Rites of Passage
8. The Escape Artist
9. Be Still My Heart
10. Death Defying
11. Ashes to Ashes
12. Forget Me Not
13. Last Call
14. Always
15. Haunted (aka All Saints)

Trivia

• The series includes numerous pop culture references; see List of references in Dead Like Me.

• The title may be a reference to Black Like Me.

• The setting in Washington but the show is filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia. While license plates, telephone area codes, and other references are consistent with the show's setting, those familiar with Vancouver landmarks will recognize the Harbour Centre Tower and the Sun Tower in the background of some scenes.

• Dead Like Me was created by Bryan Fuller, who also co-created Wonderfalls. Both series begin their pilot episodes with the heroine of the series narrating a mythical tale about life and death.

• Dead Like Me's last episode aired on October 31, 2004. This is also apparently the day it took place on, since their Halloween was on a Sunday.

• Mir's de-orbiting, which plays a role in the pilot episode, actually took place in 2001, two years earlier than the show's setting.

• According to series creator Bryan Fuller, Clancy had a story arc that included George realizing her father is gay, and because of this, she shouldn't exist [1]. After Fuller left, Clancy was rewritten to be heterosexual, and has an affair with Charlotte, which results in Joy suing for divorce as the second season began. This rewrite upset Fuller. [2].

• "Der Waffle Haus" is inaccurate German; the correct gender and spelling would render the name "Das Waffelhaus". This is generally considered as a deliberate joke by the writers, since the original script had the names "Das Waffle Haus", however it is thought to not have any symbolic meaning as it is stated that it has none by creators of the series on the Dead Like Me season 1 boxset. The name is most likely a play on a chain of restaurants in the South called Waffle House. The set of Der Waffle Haus later appeared in the television show Stargate SG-1, where character Daniel Jackson contemplated Ascending to a higher existence (for a second time).

• The show is said to be inspired by On a Pale Horse, the first volume of Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series, in which a personification of death is physically sent to collect souls from the newly dead.

• The show also has a resemblance to The Twilight Zone episode, One for the Angels, which similarly featured a manifestation of Death calling to collect someone at the time of their passing.

External links

• Dead Like Me at MGM
• Dead Like Me at Showtime (link not accessible outside United States)
• Template:Tvtome show
• Dead Like Me at IMDb
• Dead Like Me Google Theme
• 'Dead Like Me' Brings Reapers' Stories Back to TV, an August 2004 NPR interview of Masius