Belatedly, that Dead Like Me sequel
Apr. 9th, 2025 08:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessDead Like Me: Life After Death
Finally, like well over a decade and a half later, I have now seen this. I wasn’t expecting much based on what I recall of the general reaction when it first came out, and yeah, it was very uneven, partly because Mandy Patinkin hadn’t returned and they’d decided to get rid of Rube, while recasting Daisy. Everyone else, from George, Mason and Daisy, to Delores, Joy and Reggie had returned, but the whole subplot with new guy Cameron made no sense. It sort of felt as though George (and the rest)’s grief at losing Rube was barely dealt with, which felt wrong.
The plotline where George’s weird reap was Reggie’s secret boyfriend, and the sisters’ connection leading to Reggie telling her mother they needed to move on was quite touching, with Reggie now 16, closer to George’s age when the show first started. George got to be her big sister again for a bit, although you sometimes felt she hadn’t learned much. But enough to be there for Reggie and to tell her sister the weird truth and then shock her into not killing herself. It was a reminder that if this was five years after her death, she wasn’t in the same space as a newbie reaper or a teenager whose life had been taken away from her, now navigating being an adult for the first time any more.
I get that they needed to find a way to exposit the premise, but what was that whole comic book conceit? I found myself making Fray jokes, and I never bought any Buffy-related comics.
Fine, destroying the waffle house, bringing in a new guy to distribute their reaps, and have him be different was a reasonable reaction to not having Rube. But I never really understood why Cameron was so different. He...wanted chaos? Because he was a capitalist? And upper management had okayed his transfer?
Eh?
While having the same actors play Mason and Roxy was reassuring, the new Daisy felt like a caricature. But they were mainly involved in a wacky B-plot that made no sense and not given all that much depth, apart from Daisy breaking Mason’s heart a little more, while he’d been enjoying the attentions of two women. Their plot was something about the various ways reapers could get it wrong, only now with more gravelings about, and them all having different weaknesses. But it seemed as if George getting the wrong message and not being able to reap Hudson until Reggie had said goodbye to him was always meant to be, when the place of death changed.
The use of the so-modern-then mobile phones dated the show in a way the post-its would not. (Well, I don’t know, kids these days can’t deal with handwriting, apparently.)
And yeah, George was right, Reggie, if Hudson was keeping you a secret while pretending to be into and with someone else, he wasn’t worth it. But Reggie was also carrying the loss of her big sister. And Joy, who’d written a book about her experience and was helping other parents grieve, missed that.
George screwed up at her other job, letting Delores down (because she wanted time off to spend his last few days with her beloved cat, because of course she did,) but it all worked out okay. Seeing a Grim Reaper for pets was interesting, and a reminder that if I could, I would have liked to have seen more Dead Like Me, but proper Dead Like Me, with Rube and Daisy as was. AND KIFFANY AND DIE WAFFLEHAUS. What with the time jump and the changes, this wasn’t quite that, and it was never going to win over new fans, but I can see why fans of the original felt let down.
Also, what was that with the Post-It notes at the end? A message Rube had actually not moved on or that George would replace him? Because she’d got a little bit more responsible? (Roxy would hate that.) I know it’ll never get answered by canon. Oh well, the completist in me has been satisfied, even if the fan wasn’t.
(Wow, I don't even have a Dead Like Me tag on Dreamwidth!)
Finally, like well over a decade and a half later, I have now seen this. I wasn’t expecting much based on what I recall of the general reaction when it first came out, and yeah, it was very uneven, partly because Mandy Patinkin hadn’t returned and they’d decided to get rid of Rube, while recasting Daisy. Everyone else, from George, Mason and Daisy, to Delores, Joy and Reggie had returned, but the whole subplot with new guy Cameron made no sense. It sort of felt as though George (and the rest)’s grief at losing Rube was barely dealt with, which felt wrong.
The plotline where George’s weird reap was Reggie’s secret boyfriend, and the sisters’ connection leading to Reggie telling her mother they needed to move on was quite touching, with Reggie now 16, closer to George’s age when the show first started. George got to be her big sister again for a bit, although you sometimes felt she hadn’t learned much. But enough to be there for Reggie and to tell her sister the weird truth and then shock her into not killing herself. It was a reminder that if this was five years after her death, she wasn’t in the same space as a newbie reaper or a teenager whose life had been taken away from her, now navigating being an adult for the first time any more.
I get that they needed to find a way to exposit the premise, but what was that whole comic book conceit? I found myself making Fray jokes, and I never bought any Buffy-related comics.
Fine, destroying the waffle house, bringing in a new guy to distribute their reaps, and have him be different was a reasonable reaction to not having Rube. But I never really understood why Cameron was so different. He...wanted chaos? Because he was a capitalist? And upper management had okayed his transfer?
Eh?
While having the same actors play Mason and Roxy was reassuring, the new Daisy felt like a caricature. But they were mainly involved in a wacky B-plot that made no sense and not given all that much depth, apart from Daisy breaking Mason’s heart a little more, while he’d been enjoying the attentions of two women. Their plot was something about the various ways reapers could get it wrong, only now with more gravelings about, and them all having different weaknesses. But it seemed as if George getting the wrong message and not being able to reap Hudson until Reggie had said goodbye to him was always meant to be, when the place of death changed.
The use of the so-modern-then mobile phones dated the show in a way the post-its would not. (Well, I don’t know, kids these days can’t deal with handwriting, apparently.)
And yeah, George was right, Reggie, if Hudson was keeping you a secret while pretending to be into and with someone else, he wasn’t worth it. But Reggie was also carrying the loss of her big sister. And Joy, who’d written a book about her experience and was helping other parents grieve, missed that.
George screwed up at her other job, letting Delores down (because she wanted time off to spend his last few days with her beloved cat, because of course she did,) but it all worked out okay. Seeing a Grim Reaper for pets was interesting, and a reminder that if I could, I would have liked to have seen more Dead Like Me, but proper Dead Like Me, with Rube and Daisy as was. AND KIFFANY AND DIE WAFFLEHAUS. What with the time jump and the changes, this wasn’t quite that, and it was never going to win over new fans, but I can see why fans of the original felt let down.
Also, what was that with the Post-It notes at the end? A message Rube had actually not moved on or that George would replace him? Because she’d got a little bit more responsible? (Roxy would hate that.) I know it’ll never get answered by canon. Oh well, the completist in me has been satisfied, even if the fan wasn’t.
(Wow, I don't even have a Dead Like Me tag on Dreamwidth!)
