An excellent fantasy TV show from the mid-2000s has fallen out of the pop culture zeitgeist and been forgotten, but it’s the perfect binge-watch that can last folks a week. Fantasy is more popular than ever before, and it’s extremely mainstream. Shows like Game of Thrones and The Vampire Diaries became expansive franchises with multiple TV spinoffs. What’s more, Apple TV’s The Stormlight Archive and Prime Video’s Fourth Wing are two of the most anticipated and talked about TV shows at the moment.
Unfortunately, like all genres, fantasy went through waves of popularity in the past, meaning some of the TV shows during the lulls didn’t get nearly as much attention as they deserved. There are plenty of great forgotten fantasies. Similarly, more experimental fantasies went under the radar, only gaining appreciation down the line.
One of the best examples of a TV show that is highly beloved by virtually everyone who watches it but almost completely forgotten right now is Dead Like Me, a fantasy comedy-drama. Despite having a small and passionate fanbase, it rarely gets included on fantasy lists. It doesn’t get brought up much in fantasy TV spaces. What’s more, it never got a second life on streaming. However, the series is currently available for free on Tubi, and it’s the perfect binge-watch for those who have a dark sense of humor.
Dead Like Me Is The Perfect Blend Of Fantasy & Dark Comedy
Dead Like Me follows Georgia “George” Lass, a woman who dies during her work break when she gets struck by a toilet seat that fell from the space station. Instead of passing on, she becomes a grim reaper, given the task of reaping souls and helping them pass on. She and the other reapers must follow a thorough set of rules.
Soul reaping is assigned through yellow Post-it notes. A reaper must touch the person getting reaped either right before or after their death. They cannot refuse to reap a soul, and any attempt to trick the system into not taking a soul has dire consequences. They can interact with their family members, but anyone who knew what they looked like in light will see a stranger’s appearance. The grim reapers must work low-paying temp jobs and act inconspicuous to blend in with the humans, which induces hilarious, very human existential dread on a group of dead people.
Dead Like Me has 29 episodes and takes 22 hours and 15 mins to watch, unless watching the movie as well. If you do that, it takes 23 hours and 42 minutes total, but I wouldn’t recommend watching the movie.
All of these rules contribute to the overall story, but Dead Like Me also isn’t bogged down by the fantasy rules. Instead, Dead Like Me is a high-concept fantasy with a mix of workplace comedy and gallows humor. The tone is clear from the moment that George dies, as she dies because of a toilet seat. The reapers working together all have quirky personalities, similar to Parks & Rec or The Office.
What’s more, the afterlife job is such a mundane workplace that they get under each other’s skins and even have a bowling league. In an absurdist comedy twist, harvesting souls is essentially punching a time clock. On top of that, there are plenty of jokes about dying that are laugh-out-loud funny. The reapers have to watch hilariously absurd deaths, and they become numb to something that would shock others.
The Fantasy TV Show Is Better Today Than When It Came Out
Dead Like Me was the right show at the wrong time, airing from June 2003 to October 2004 on USA Network. However, it is so much more enjoyable today than when it was on the air. Thematically and narratively, the TV show is much more in line with shows from the late 2010s and early 2020s, such as The Good Place, Upload, and Miracle Works. The blend of weird existential fantasy and comedy wasn’t thriving back then the way that it is today.
On top of that, Dead Like Me relies heavily on serialized character arcs, with George and the other Reapers being forced to reckon with who they were before their deaths and who they want to be in their afterlife. These kinds of arcs are better off being bingewatched instead of broken up week by week. The streaming format also lessens the minor weaknesses. The inconsistent pacing is less distracting when watching the episodes one after the other.
The reapers in Dead Like Me are also flawed people who make questionable choices based on dubious ethics. They are unlikable but also deeply lovable. The likability of the characters came up in multiple reviews for the show, such as those from SeattlePi and FlickFilosopher. Nowadays, morally gray characters are the bread and butter of TV. George feels like she would be best friends with Eleanor Shellstrop. Both are forced to reflect on the bad decisions and missed opportunities that they had before death.
Dead Like Me Deserved More Than 2 Seasons
The concept of Dead Like Me was expansive enough to continue for many seasons. The characters continued to grow from season 1 to 2, making them more likable. The world of Dead Like Me brings up so many questions, and they only answered a handful of them by the end of season 2. What’s more, fans who showed up for Dead Like Me absolutely loved the show. Even though the audience reviews dipped slightly in season 2, they were still well received. However, the show only lasted two seasons, largely because of behind-the-scenes issues.
From the very beginning, Dead Like Me was rife with behind-the-scenes conflicts. According to the show’s creator Bryan Fuller, Showtime’s team was great, but he credits the issues to MGM-TV in an interview with Media Village (via Web Archive). He said that they were trying to change the storylines and calling the actresses ugly. He even revealed that they cut a scene and storyline crucial to George’s character arc, where she learns that her dad was gay.
Sadly, he departed his own show five episodes into the first season. He believed Showtime continued to experience the same pressure and issues from MGM after his departure, influencing the show’s ending after two seasons. The show took a slight dip in numbers, furthering the decision. The story came back for an ill-fated Dead Like Me movie that is essentially an epilogue that wraps things up.
If it were successful, perhaps the show would have returned. It was laughably bad, though. Dead Like Me: Life After Death has a 38% rating based on over ten thousand audience ratings on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie might not have been good enough to spark a revival, but the show certainly deserves to be brought back or explored in another way. Hopefully, that will happen one day. In the meantime, Dead Like Me is an ideal watch for those who want an amazing fantasy dark comedy show that is completely bingeable.
- Release Date
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2003 – 2004-00-00
- Directors
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David Grossman, James Whitmore Jr., Peter Lauer, Kevin Dowling, Robert Duncan McNeill, Sarah Pia Anderson, Brad Turner, David Straiton, Helen Shaver, James Marshall, Jeff Woolnough, Michael Fresco, Milan Cheylov
- Writers
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Dan E. Fesman, Peter Ocko, Karl Gajdusek, Annie Weisman, J. J. Philbin, Anna C. Miller, Paul Lieberstein
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Christine Willes
Delores Herbig
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Claudette Mink
Jeannie Bead
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