Review of Dead like Me, Season 2 on DVD
Send in the Clown: Georgia falls for a young intern at Happy Time but faces difficulties with a colleague in the office who shares an affection for the young man, as well as her fellow reapers. Mason has a reaping job at a children’s party, where Rube and the parents convince him to dress as a clown that had not shown up yet. The victim, the child’s father, has only disappointment for Mason’s sub-par clowning performance at his child’s party.
The Ledger: Georgia’s parents Clancy and Joy, who have difficulties coping with their daughter’s, go to therapy and end up deciding to get divorced. Georgia’s already flagging luck gets worse when her bike, a gift from Rube, is stolen from the Waffle House and she has troubles with the disorder of everyday life. As well, the news of her parents’ divorce (which she discovers when she sees her old house for sale) compounds her woes.
Ghost Story: Mason messes up when he misplaces a Post-It Note and has a heart-to-heart with Daisy about the significance of their work, bringing the two closer together. Georgia is a reluctant member of the Happy Time retreat, where she begins to reveal her loner style to the rest of the staff and tries to stay to the margins by becoming part of the group. Rube displays his usual wisdom by telling a story that worries and chills the Happy Time staff on retreat.
The Shallow End: Mason has problems with an ebullient old man who wants to attend his funeral. Georgia flash backs to problems in her childhood (especially problems dealing with other kids) while she learns the lesson of balancing being good and bad on an everyday basis. Daisy reaps a man who is trying to become a woman and encounters a conflict of faith when they start to talk about the beyond.
Hurry: Georgia has repeated encounters during her work day with an efficiency expert, who has everyone on their most neurotic behavior but annoys her with his need to save time. Daisy has to sort through a group of speed daters in order to find her reap, which is a particularly funny scene where she tears the daters down for their respective problems. In the end, however, the person she reaps is the one that she respects the most and feels sorry for.
In Escrow: The newly promoted Georgia has to decide between three equally annoying employees to hire for a temporary position: one with spontaneous flatulence, another with an angry disposition, and the last a desperate middle aged woman. While Joy is selling her family’s house, she takes Reggie to see an apartment and falls for a charming landlord. While she is out on a date with him, Reggie is left alone by the babysitter and has a panic attack.
Rites of Passage: Joy and Reggie are surprised by the return of Joy’s mother, a free wheeling grandmother who has spiritual lessons for Reggie, including keeping Georgia’s memory alive. Rube gives Georgia a premium assignment, a reap of a rock star at a nearby concert. While Georgia tries to finagle her way into the entourage, Mason manages his way into the entourage of a gothic rock band.
The Escape Artist: Mason and Roxy take a flight to Cancun in order to perform their reap while Rube and Daisy try to pass off as second grade teachers in order to reap a janitor. The funniest scenes in this episode are of Rube interacting with children, including telling one child he would be “whipped” if he didn’t get in the classroom on time and berating students who didn’t know the answers to his questions. Georgia falls for a country club patron, whose father is her latest victim.
Be Still My Heart: Georgia and Mason attend the funeral of her latest reap, whose son she is infatuated with. While Mason acts the part of the clod with the family, Georgia gets closer to her newest crush and she ends up losing her virginity to him. Daisy acts as a hotel worker in order to reap a mistress who is trying to upgrade her relationship but ends up dying, which haunts Daisy as she watches from a closet.
Death Defying: Rube takes the day off in order to return to a small town to find out more about his family and his past. After losing her virginity, Georgia is jilted by her latest crush and becomes angry at men and their scurrilous ways. Daisy meets television producer Ray Summers (Eric McCormick), a questionable character who develops a rivalry with Mason. A great scene is between the angry and drunk Georgia and the smarmy Ray, when they discuss why men get away with their behavior toward women.
Ashes to Ashes: Georgia reaps a homeless man and when she tries to humanize the process by taking responsibility for the dead man, a morgue worker acts with suspicion when she wants to pay for a funeral. The scene between Georgia and the worker gives the viewer a good profile of the amorality of both Georgia’s reaping position and the worker’s position in dealing with the dead. Reggie starts to hang out with a friend whose gothic behavior, including communing with the dead, worries Clancy and Joy after they get past the excitement of Reggie making new friends.
Forget Me Not: Georgia and Rube go to a hospital, where they run into an old acquaintance of Rube’s (Yeardley Smith) and have to reap a senile woman. Georgia, eventually joined by Mason and Daisy, try to get the woman’s spirit out of the room but she has memory loss and can’t be convinced to leave. The rivalry between Ray Summers and Mason, as well as Daisy’s rocky relationship with Ray, comes to a climax when Mason kills Ray. Ray is revealed to be a graveling and a threat to Daisy, but Daisy and Mason become worried about the repercussions of killing someone without a Post-It Note.
Last Call: Reggie’s dog J.D. goes missing and eventually is found dead, bringing Clancy and Joy together to find the dog and eventually console Reggie. Mason and Daisy do a poor job of hiding that they have done something wrong, including Mason’s blubbering and attempts to lie to Rube. Roxy is involved in the search for the missing Ray and suspects that Daisy had something to do with his disappearance.
Always: Rube, tipped off by an old friend, finds his elderly daughter and tries to make a connection with her before she dies. Reggie, Clancy, and Joy bury J.D. and try to move on with their lives.
Haunted: In the final episode of the season (and eventually, of the series), the reapers go out on Halloween to do their jobs. Georgia has to wear a mask in order to prevent her true appearance from being seen in her home time but takes some joy in trick-or-treating in order to take a peek into the lives of other people. Meanwhile, Roxy and Daisy switch roles as police woman and princess, respectively, and gain a glimpse into the life of the other. Throughout the episode, a serial killer is the binding thread for all of the reapers because all of their reaps are due to his murders.
Why Didn’t This Show Work?: The second season did not seem to evolve much from the first season’s table setting of life after death. While the show retains much of the bittersweet ups and downs of the reaper lifestyle, it continues to pound away at the same themes as the first season without expanding too far from its base. The most compelling storyline in this season is not amongst the reapers (though Daisy’s dalliance with Catholicism and her love affair with a bad man are interesting) but among Georgia’s family, which experiences divorce and her sister’s struggle with growing up. Despite critical success, this show may never return because of the lack of Showtime’s will to bring it back and the need for a reexamination of how the series would progress with a third season.
