Cult Fave ‘Dead Like Me’ Revived
…At Least in Syndication
Last Tuesday, Sci Fi—the basic-cable channel that aims to please—resuscitated one of the most loved and hated (depending on whom you ask) cult television shows in recent history, Dead Like Me. This extremely quirky dark comedy lasted just two seasons on Showtime, from 2003 to 2004, and starred Ellen Muth (who happens to be a member of Mensa in real life—Go, girl!), as well as numerous other familiar faces, including Mandy Patinkin (CBS’s Criminal Minds), Jasmine Guy (NBC’s former A Different World), and Rebecca Gayheart (the Noxzema girl and Fox’s forthcoming Vanished).
The series’ hour-long episodes will air in two-hour blocks on Sci Fi every Tuesday from 7pm to 9pm, right before the channel’s new hit, Eureka. Since the plot is very whimsical and fairly complicated, I’ll let the description provided on the show’s official Web site take it from here instead of subjecting readers to my inept paraphrasing:
Georgia “George” Lass (ELLEN MUTH) is a young college drop-out who has no job skills and seems unable to take an interest in anything, including her own life. She cultivates an air of cynicism that infuriates her mother, baffles her father, and isolates her younger sister. George is about to get a wake-up call.
With her mother Joy (CYNTHIA STEVENSON) insisting that she get a job, George applies to a temp agency that sends her out as a file clerk. Her lunch break - and her life - are cut short when a toilet seat from the MIR space station drives her into the pavement. George does not realize that she is dead until Rube (MANDY PATINKIN), the kindly leader of a team of grim reapers, points out her remains. Rube takes George under his wing and introduces her to the other members of his undead group: Mason (CALLUM BLUE), Roxy (JASMINE GUY) and Betty (REBECCA GAYHEART).
The members of Rube’s team of reapers are all, like George, people who died with unresolved issues. They still have lessons to learn that - for one reason or another - they failed to learn in life…. Read More…
Thanks, Sci Fi, for once again delivering a deserving but overlooked show to fans of the fantastic and unusual.
Dead Like Me photo courtesy of Showtime
