Dead Like Me
Cast & Key People
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Our Review
Bryan Fuller’s first great meditation on death (before Wonderfalls and Pushing Daisies completed his weird girl trilogy): George, an 18-year old killed by a falling toilet seat from the deorbiting Mir space station, becomes a grim reaper, an undead soul collector working a route in Seattle with a crew of fellow dead: a ’20s starlet, a meter maid, a British drunk, and Mandy Patinkin’s Rube, the gruff supervisor whose Post it notes assign each soul’s time of death.
The premise is a workplace comedy about mortality: reapers get no pay beyond what they take from the dead, no rules beyond “don’t get attached,” and no answers. Ellen Muth’s George, deadpan and furious about dying before her life started, is a perfect Fuller heroine: annoyed at the afterlife’s bureaucracy. The show’s compassion (every soul of the week gets a gentle, human sendoff) gives it real warmth. Canceled after two seasons. Fuller’s shows have a habit of dying young, which the show itself would find hilarious.
Verdict: Watch it. The quirkiest, kindest show about death ever made.
