Okay I'll admit this show is weird. Now it has it's moments and an answer for down right everything but not always good one. You do have to know enough that drilling a hole in your head to reach a high will kill you and not to attempt it. Seeing as i began watching this when i was seven I'm a attached to this show and i have no issue with children watching it as long as they know what they are watching and know enough not to do anything stupid or start swearing on a normal basis. I don't really have issues with the language seeing as i knew all the words by the time i was seven other kids and parents might but it really isn't. The are some questionable one liners but they really shouldn't be able to understand them. Unless you explain them, there are some strange role models if you call them that but some are good and some are bad I'll let you decide.
It's for adults. Parents will probably not like the bad language, however it's not bad for adults, in other words it's appropriate to the dialogue.
Although there are not good role models the lead reaper (Rube) tends to be a moral compass for them and mentor. Also somebody mentioned that the characters make bad choices, often there are consequences to their choices and repurcussions that they find unpleasant to catstrophic.
It's an awesome show, but a little too graphic at times. Anyone who is saying it appropriate for kids obviously has not watched the season 1 finale where Mason has sex with a girl while screaming he's a grim reaper. A little too sexual for the 12 I had watching this show with me.
I love this show, I've seen every episode and the movie, but I'm not going to even consider letting my children watch this until they are at least 17, because lets face it, when they reach that age they'll be able to get into rated R movies anyway, so I don't think it makes much difference then.
We have only watched the Pilot episode, and it appears the show has mellowed down afterwards, but I wanted this to be a warning.
The Pilot episode has strong sexual images! During a scene in a bank, two co-workers are having an affair, and sexual scenes are shown.
I can't imagine the show getting such low scores unless something changed, so hopefully things were much more toned down. Heads up, if you are starting the show, skip the first episode!
Great show for adult viewers but wouldn't recommend for kids.
Although I enjoy watching this show, it is not appropriate for children or even teen viewers. I think the most offensive part is the language with FREQUENT use of the F-word. People die in every episode and some deaths are more graphic than others. The main reaper, George, deals with people who meet their end via outside forces such as train wrecks (a child in that instance), explosions, vehicles, being hit in the head etc. In addition to the deaths, there are definitely some spooky moments with regard to the gravelings (the creatures whose job it is to cause the deaths) although in season 2 they seem more comical than scary. The reapers all are faced with decisions on whether or not to exploit the grieving families or the newly dead by stealing possessions, communicating final messages for money, etc. One reaper makes frequent references to her sexual escapades while she was alive. George's living family struggles with her death and both parents and her younger sister display negative behaviors. Finally, what I would caution parents about is the question of the existence of God or discussion of religion with regard to the afterlife. I think that this is made out to be of minor importance to the show with only some reference to one of the reapers being an atheist and another "thinking about" becoming Catholic. To me, the less the show gets into this line of discussion the better. There is definitely a chain of command and the reapers have a boss, who has a boss and so on. Following this logic one would think you would eventually get to God. But the pilot episode says something about a god- "with a small g" -and gives a silly story about death being entrusted to a toad and goes from there. There are rules that must be followed by the reapers and the people they reap but who makes those rules remains a mystery (I will say that I have not finished season 2 or the movie yet so perhaps I am mistaken about that). Also, the manner in which the reaped souls cross over is usually reflective of what they valued in life (the little girl runs toward an amusement park and a yoga teacher toward a woman in a lotus flower etc.). My point with regard to this is that the show is a funny and fictional look at life after death and I think that adults can ignore the religious contradictions but I wouldn't want to subject my children to them. I just want to enjoy the show without religious commentary or the degradation of one religion or another. What I enjoy about the show is the characters and their struggles. They grieve over their own deaths and must learn to leave their lives behind. It hits you head on with some pretty difficult emotions like fear and regret but does it in an entertaining and often funny way.
More intense than CSM's review claims, but still a great show
Be aware that CSM's summary of the profanity used in the show ONLY applies to the censored reruns on SciFi. The original Showtime airings and the DVDs contain a near-constant stream of strong profanity. Expect to hear the f-bomb and many of its derivatives in every episode. The characters are often selfish and make poor decisions. A lot of Burtonesque dark slapstick, too. One character was (and probably still is) a drug addict.
That said, this is a great show with very well-written characters. It hits a perfect balance between comedy and drama and is worth viewing for any TV enthusiast.
When I looked up the show Dead Like Me on this site and saw it was rated only TV-PG, I was thrilled and went to my local Hollywood Video to rent it and see what it was like.
Tv-PG's don't have 4 F-Words!!! (And that's BEFORE I turned it off, there could have been more.) The episode I watched was the Pilot. All it did was totally turn me off to this show and I was wondering how in the world it got rated as if it were a kid's movie! Did the website make a mistake or have current episodes tuned down to a TV-PG or what??
Well Dead Like Me is one of the greatest shows i've ever seen that's for sure. It's fun, funny and amusing but not for kids. It contains loads of references to sex (a specially oral), one of the main characters takes drugs and there's lots of bad language.
Though I really like the show, there's always some sort of profanity, like F-bombs; definitely not for anyone 1-11, even 1-12, unless they are mature and you know they won't use the language. One of the characters (Mason) is a drug addict and alcoholic. The amount of sexual activity in the show is usually kept at a minimum, but in some episodes (Pilot, for instance; the first episode in season 1) there is supposed or noticeable sexual exchange. Some deaths are graphic, but usually, there is minimal or no blood. Overall, the show is good for mature people.
I decided to watch this while there was a marathon on SciFi channel and nothing was on. Within five minutes I was hooked. For seventeen hours. Yes, I, with the attention span of a squirrel, watched the same show for 17 straight hours. It's just that good. The show does sound very morbid, but most of it is kept quite lighthearted considering the subject they are handling is death. It's interesting to watch George discover things, and question them. Many of the deaths are violent, but are not shown. The swearing was edited on Scifi channel, but on the DVD it's at a PG-13 level. Some episodes have rather funny sexual references. All in all, it's a great show for kids 13+ and adults too.
The show is appropriate for teenagers because all there really is, is language. They say the 'F' word several times per episode and if that bothers parents so be it. There are very few sex related things. In the first season, a spirit is naked, but nothing explicit is shown except the pubic hair is kind of shown. At an airport, a man is accused of hiding drugs in his butt so the airport people searh him and he pulls his underwear down and his butt is not really shown. This show is on showtime which can be more explicit but this show is one of the better. It is very dark and can be sad for some people but other than that I reccommend this to everyone.