The second year of Dead Like Me involves moving onward, and the
changes that result from this forward motion. Just over one year after young
George Lass (Ellen Muth) was killed (thanks to being hit by a plummeting toilet seat
from the Soviet space station), she's moving on with her life--her undead life,
that is, as a grim reaper. While she may still not understand how
the universe works, George does finally starts to accept who and what she is. And as
a consequence, she attains a little bit of self-confidence with each passing day. Her fellow
grim reaper Roxy (Jasmine Guy) has moved on as well. She decides to focus her
natural aggressiveness by ditching her meter maid job and applying to the police
academy. Mason (Callum Blue) makes an initial attempt to go clean and sober, and
Daisy Adair (Laura Harris) begins a spiritual quest.
Rube (Mandy Patinkin) appears to be the only one of the reapers not to undergo
any changes--at least at first. Yet over the course of the season, Rube winds up
undergoing an emotional journey that, by exposing his past, answers a lot of
questions about this character, as well as raises a few new ones. And he
eventually experiences a sea change as well. George's
parents make the decision to get a divorce, which sets Joy Lass (Cynthia Stevenson)
and her young daughter Reggie (Britt McKillip) on their own new adventures. And
in addition to deepening and enriching the characters, the Dead Like Me writers also dug deeper into
the reaper mythos itself, as we finally uncover the origins of the Gravelings,
those murderous minions of mayhem who are the natural antagonist of the reapers,
but without whom they wouldn't have a job.
All of the episodes in this DVD set are standouts, but among the noteable ones is
"The Escape Artist", where George falls for a guy while reaping at a country club.
In "Hurry", George's normally perky Happy Time boss Delores (Christine Willes)
feels the pressure when a corporate efficiency expert comes to judge the staff.
Mason loses a post-it note and must scramble to find it before his reap dies
alone in "Ghost Story". George gets a Very Important Person Reap in "Rites Of
Passage", and in "Ashes To Ashes"; George learns it's best not to get too
involved in her work while Reggie makes friends with a Goth princess from
school. In the final show, "Haunted" the reapers wind up working on a Halloween
that turns out to be far more unsettling than they expected.
The special features include "Dead Like Me…Again" a ten-minute look back at the
season with interviews with the cast and producer Steve Beers. There's also a
special section, "Putting Life Into Death", which looks at the special effects
for the show, such as the creation of the Gravelings, and the death ripple (the
glow of light that appears on a person when their souls are reaped). There are
also deleted scenes, and a photo gallery. The second season of Dead Like Me
would also prove to be a place for some familiar faces, as a trio of actors from
Stargate SG-1 made guest appearances in several episodes. Sadly, the second
season of Dead Like Me would also prove to be its last, as Showtime made the
idiotic decision to cancel the show. Despite some attempts to bring it back on
another network, it appears that Dead Like Me has been itself reaped by network
TV stupidity. If there's any consolation for Dead Like Me fans, it's that every
single episode of this marvelous and funny series is now available to be enjoyed
over and over again on DVD. --SF
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