Privacy of the Mind

My son introduced me to Dead Like Me this weekend while he was over. This was originally a series on Showtime and then ran on the SciFi Channel. I fell in love with the premise immediately. The dark humor meshes perfectly with my world-view. Sadly it was canceled after two seasons.

The main character is George, short for Georgia. She’s an 18-year-old woman who is killed by a falling piece of space debris in the pilot episode. To her shock and amazement, she becomes an undead grim reaper, tasked with collecting the souls of those about to die. It’s not as glamorous a gig as you might think. She still needs a place to live, food to eat, all the necessities of live. A reapers only real abilities are collecting souls and healing fast from injuries.

I just finished watching the first season. The story arc traces George’s struggle to come to grips with her new situation over the course of her first year of “undeath.” Along the way is much humor and many poignant stories. I can’t wait to get my hands on the second season! If you never saw this series when it originally aired, it could be worth taking a look at if you like dark humor with a solid underpinning of dramatic storytelling.