Dead Like Me

I fucking love this show. Its fucking brilliant. Plus, it says fuck a lot. A LOT!

Brief background:

The show is about Reapers, people who've died but stay on Earth to help make souls ready to leave the body when they are about to die. Reapers dont have a free ride, though. They have a new body and face, although it sticks close to the original so no men waking up in the bodies of women. Reapers also have a real life, one that involves bills, and jobs and stuff that they must mesh with their reaping.

A Reaper reaps by touching someones soul, and then they wait for the person to die. When a person is about to die, you see a graveling, which looks like a CGI imp thing, start moving around. A lot of times the gravelings cause accidents, like loosening a sign so that it falls on a person's head at the right moment. Or, by loosening the lock on a bears cage so that it gets out and mauls people. The deaths arent all accidents, though, there have been a few murders although not many.

Dead Like Me is an ensemble cast, but the main story is around George, who died at 18 in a bad Soveit-era toilet seat incident and is basically coming to grips with dying, reaping, and living again. To make a living, she goes back to the place where she worked before she died, and gets hired to take her old position. Her family is also frequently on the show, especially her little sister. George's sister Reggie was only 11 when George died, and began stealing toilet seats as a way to deal with George's death. Since then, she and her own story have evolved. It's pretty cool.

The other main cast members are all Reapers, Mason, Daisy, Roxy, and Rube. Rube is like, the manager of this circle of Reapers. He hands out the post-its with the reaps on them, and acts somewhat paternal towards George. Roxy is a tough lady, whose job in the real world is a police officer. Daisy is deeply religious, and slightly devious. She's used to lying, I think and is trying to pursue an acting career.

Of all the other cast members, Mason is my favorite. He's an adorable, physically harmless, petty theif. He does not have a job, his MO to pay the rent is to raid phonebooths, parking meters, and laundromats for quarters or borrow money. He's selfish, callous, and he drinks, a lot. Almost as much as he says "fuck." He's got the hots for Daisy but knows he isnt in her league.

You dont know too much about the other reaper's pasts, but a little bit is revealed every season.

The last episode that I watched was effing brilliant. The comedic timing was perfect, although I should warn you the comedy is kind of, quirky, and off the beaten path. You need to be able to have a sense of humor about death to watch this show. As an example, one of George's reaps was for a homeless person who was barbecuing a squirrel on a skewer over a barrel. Along comes a graveling who causes mischief in such a way that the homeless person is impaled by his squirrel skewer.

I just want to talk about the latest episode called Last Call, then I'll shut up.

In the episodes leading up to this one, Daisy starts dating this living guy (which a reaper is not supposed to do) who everyone else quickly realizes is a scumbag. She finally gets smart and ditches him, but he follows her to her house and begins attacking her, where in self defense Mason kills him. They didnt get a post-it for his death, nobody reaped him, and instead of a soul popping out, a graveling does!

So the episode I'm speaking of is the day after Mason kills Daisy's exboyfriend thing and Daisy is fairly calm about it although its obvious she's been drinking. Mason, who has no conscience for just about anything is feeling all kinds of guilt and fear about what's going to happen. It's obvious he's never handled guilt before, so he cant hide it worth a damn. Plus they're both worried about what the powers that be will say. They kind of hint that they are being watched by some type of superiors although they dont know who, how, etc. They're really worried about the repercussions of taking a life they weren't meant to reap.

The episode starts in the restaraunt they all meet at, with Mason and Daisy getting there first. Daisy says she's just going to tell everyone that she broke up with the ex, and that'll be that but Mason comes up with some elaborate excuse that he went bowling all weekend. Rube notices Mason acting funny but doesnt say anything because Mason is always acting funny. Roxy notices too, and doesnt say anything. Rube passes out the post-it notes for everybody's reap and all of them are yellow post-its, as usual, except for Mason's. His is purple. He starts freaking out but before he can question Rube, Rube leaves the restaraunt.

Mason is so freaked out about the purple post-it, and he pulls their regular waitress aside to have her tell his fortune. He's heard through the grapevine she's psychic but she refuses to read his fortune. He says to her, "Please, I'll pay you $10" as he's reaching into his pockets. And she replies, "No, you've only got $2 anyway." As soon as she ends the sentence, Mason pulls two one dollar bills out of his pockets. He asks her again, and she refuses again, saying while she's walking away, "Besides, when people are about to die, they see a crescent moon in the daytime. Look at all those clouds out there, I'm sure you'll be fine." Mason looks out, sees the clouds are out and breaths a sigh of relief, which quickly turns into horror as he looks down at his half eaten breakfast. The cookie he was eating is the shape of a crescent moon. After this, Mason spends the rest of the day thinking this is going to be his last day on Earth reaping before moving on. He sells all of his worldly posessions on someone else's lawn, hoping to make some cash out of the things he'll be leaving behind. We find out why he wants the money a bit later.

Daisy is at home, drinking alone, when Roxy comes to her door on official police business to ask about Daisy's exboyfriend. Roxy realizes that Mason and Daisy know what happened to Daisy's ex, and her police experience tell her that Daisy's ex isnt alive, but she doesnt push Daisy and leaves after a few minutes. Roxy heads over to the restaraunt and is reading over the file on Daisy's ex. Its clear she's struggling over whether to tell Rube what she knows or not when the waitress that Mason spoke with earlier comes over and makes the comment that Mason had done something obscene to his breakfast earlier, and again, while walking away the waitress says, "Well, anyway, you cant pick your family." Roxy nods, closes the file, and doesnt say anything to Rube.

After selling everything, Mason buys an engagement ring for Daisy, because earlier that day she said she always wanted one while she was alive. Its sad, because you can see she isnt the person who would've loved to have a ring anymore and Mason is hardly husband material. He wasnt asking her to marry him anyway, but it was so sad. Mason leaves to go on his reap.

Mason is all into the, "what would you do if you knew it was your last day on earth," bit, and he starts asking his reap all of these questions. The reap is a middle aged man, but definitely healthy with outdoorsy muscles. He's camping, so he's got a fire started and all of the camping equipment you'd expect. And the reap is really friendly. He is really nice to Mason, offering him food, saying that the second rule of camping is to bring enough for a friend, and the first rule is to make a friend. So Mason, all on this dramatic streak, starts asking the reap what he would do if it he knew it was his last day on earth, and what he was most scared of.

At first, the reap kind of laughs it off, but Mason doesnt let it drop, so the reap picks up an axe and asks Mason to explain himself, which is so ridiculous, because Mason is like, half the size of the reap. The reap could snap Mason in half wihtout batting an eyelash. Mason pours his heart out to to this guy, showing him the post-it and everything, saying that it was Mason's last day on earth too. Eventually, the reap kind of gets it, and starts asking questions about his own death. It was just a really really cool conversation. Thought provoking, but not preachy like some shows. I love CSI but they get on their soap box, turns me off. DLM asks questions but lets yourself answer them.

So the reap dies as he was meant too, and Mason fully expects to go with him but doesnt. Later that night, at the restaraunt, Mason gets the chance to ask Rube what the purple post-it was about. Rube simply replies, "Office Depot was out of yellow." Everyone leaves again, til it was just George and Mason. Mason says, "Georgie, can you buy my coffee. I'm out of cash."

"Okay," she says.

"Georgie, I need a place to stay, too."

"Okay," she says.

"Georgie, I dont know when I can move out."

"Okay," she says.

And just like that you realize that they are a family. It was so neat.

I LOVE THIS SHOW!