DVD review - Dead Like Me: The Movie

When I first signed up for Blockbuster Online, way back in 2005, the quirky, clever and profane series from Bryan Fuller, Genius, Dead Like Me, was one of the first things I rented. I loved it: cranky, cynical George, crazy but kind Delores, badass Roxie, hedonistic Mason. I loved the often gruesome deaths; I loved Der Wafflehaus; I loved to dislike George’s struggling surviving family. All too soon it ended – just like most of my favorite [clever, quirky, profane] shows - until several years later (i.e. now) the direct-to-DVD Dead Like Me: The Movie came out. I moved it up to the top of my queue, danced around my mailbox when it arrived and after watching it, said, “Meh.”

The main characters are all back, except for a badly recast Daisy (when Laura Harris bowed out at the last minute) and a sorely missed Rube (Mandy Patinkin). But everyone except for George seemed to be painted with broad strokes, caricaturized, and what was quirky in the series turned dumb in the movie. The movie does give closure to George’s conflicted emotions with regard to her family, her little sister Reggie in particular, but since the Lass family portions were my least favorite bits of the series, I wasn’t all that interested when that was the main plotline. And while I adore Henry Ian Cusick in his Lost persona of Desmond, his role as the Grim Reapers’ new boss vacillates between annoying and, well, more annoying.

I would recommend Dead Like Me – The Movie only to diehard fans who are ardent completists. Anyone else who enjoyed the show (and wishes to keep their fond memories untainted) might as well skip it and just re-rent the series.