DVD Review: Dead Like Me - Life After Death

I regret that I didn't get into the TV series "Dead Like Me" until after it was canceled. Even so, after downloading several episodes I went ahead and bought seasons 1 and 2 on DVD. HEAR THAT RIAA/MPAA?!! PIRACY ENCOURAGES SALES!!!

The central character of the series, Georgia Lass, is a college dropout living with her parents. Her mother forces her to take a job as a temp. On the way back from lunch on her first of work Georgia is killed when she gets hit by a falling toilet seat from the Russian satellite MIR.

The next thing she knows she is a grim reaper. Every morning Inigo Montoya gives her a Post-it note (or several) with an address, a time, first initial, and last name. She must be at that place at that time, figure out who the pending victim is, and touch them to remove their soul before the fatal moment.

The TV series also covered how her parents and little sister coped with her death, Georgia having to find and hold a job, and life in general for the group.

The show was reaped after season 2.

Five years after the show was canceled it has been brought back in a DVD movie. Hey, if Futurama, Stargate: Atlantis, and Stargate: SG1 can all do this then why not? It was popular enough, reruns still play, and DVD sales are up.

As our show begins we find that their hangout, Der Waffle House, has burned and Rube (Inigo Montoya) has moved on to the next world. The new boss (Desmond from Lost) is a financial big wig who has rebuilt his fortune since his relatively recent death. He changes how everything runs, gives out cellphones instead of Post-its, lets them live in his mansion, and gives them an open tab at a 4 star restaurant.

Desmond's careless attitude toward life (er, death) is infectious. Georgia remains the least corrupt of all the reapers but even she starts to do some stupid stuff. While it all seems great at first, their rule breaking does begin to come back on them.

Not all of the actors were able to come back for this, but most did. Some have aged enough that they're hard to tell if the actors were changed or not.

If you liked the show then you'll like this movie. If you bought the DVDs then you'll at least want to rent this. Even if you haven't seen the series this movie manages to give you enough back story that you won't be lost. It's still worth renting or borrowing even if you don't know what came before.

But don't think of this as a movie. This is an extension of the TV show. It feels like a two hour version of the TV series. That isn't necessarily a bad thing. Just know you're not tuning in for cinematographic brilliance.