Dead Like Me - TV-PG
TV Rating: TV-PG
Network: SciFi, Syndicated Cast: Mandy Patinkin, Ellen Muth, Callum Blue
Genre: Drama
Available on: 
DVD
Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that the main characters in this dramedy are all dead. They serve as "reapers" or spirits who collect others' souls right before they die. Not surprisingly, then, this show is all about death (someone dies in each episode) and the afterlife, which might upset younger or sensitive viewers. Some of the death scenes are also quite graphic and potentially frightening. The show also explores some heavy topics, including transgenderism and bullying.
Families can discuss what happens when you die. Potential topics include funerals, cremation, the afterlife, and other traditions, beliefs, and rituals related to death. How would teens like to be remembered? How would they like their life celebrated? What are parents' beliefs about the afterlife, cremation, and caskets? How did the traditions surrounding funerals come to be? How do other cultures respect and treat their dead?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Lucy Maher
In DEAD LIKE ME, a group of already-dead "reapers" collect people's souls moments before they, too, pass into the afterlife.
Ellen Muth stars as 18-year-old college dropout Georgia "George" Lass, who, in the show's first episode, dies when she's hit by a toilet seat that fell from the Mir space station. It's at this point that she meets Rube (Mandy Patinkin), the leader of the reapers, and learns that she's joining their ranks.
The reapers -- including Mason (Callum Blue), Roxy (Jasmine Guy), and Daisy (Laura Harris) -- are all people who died with unresolved issues; they're charged with gathering a certain number of souls from people who are about to die. Once they reach their quota, they move to the next level in the afterlife.
Each episode of Dead Like Me centers on and is narrated by George as she meets people who are about to die, looks in on her family members as they deal with her death, and connects with the other reapers. Dead Like Me first aired on Showtime (it's available on DVD and still runs in syndication), so viewers can expect some unorthodox storylines and mature dialogue, as well as lots of death scenes (a la Six Feet Under, only not as graphic).
In one episode, for example, an elderly man who has been skinny dipping in a public pool asks an astonished boy watching him leave the water, "Want some?" In the same episode, Daisy gathers the soul of a man awaiting consultation for sex-change surgery after his forehead is pierced by the heel of the woman waiting across the room (she threw it at someone else and missed). When Daisy grants the man's wish to visit church one last time, she's shocked when he berates God, asking why God let him live in a man's body for so long.
Mature audiences will find Dead Like Me to be smart, thought-provoking television that raises questions about death, spirituality, and much more. But parents with younger kids who are attracted to the sci-fi/fantasy element of the show will want to monitor their viewing.
Fans might also like Six Degrees or Fallen.
Rate It!
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Sexual ContentSome innuendo. An elderly man skinny dips. Some episodes deal with issues like transgenderism. |
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ViolenceViewers see how ordinary people die, and these scenes, while rarely involving murder, can be pretty graphic. For example, a man who is impaled with a high heel is shown with the heel embedded in his forehead. Another slips from a diving board and face-plants into the one below. |
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Language"Bloody hell," "idiot," "this sucks," "jackass," "sure as hell," etc. |
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Social BehaviorGeorge and her fellow reapers try to ease other people's transitions to the afterlife, but the behavior of those in the living world (including George's family) is iffy and complex. |
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