Dead Like Me, a Showtime original series which began airing in 2003, is somewhat like the HBO series Six Feet Under in that it deals with death using dark humor and bizarre storylines with a quirky clique of characters. But instead of being alive, the regular crew on Dead Like Me are undead.

Meet our heroine (or anti-heroine, as the case may be) George Lass (Ellen Muth), an 18 year old slacker who, on her first dreaded day of corporate employment, goes out for her "35-minute lunch hour" and is hit and incinerated by a de-orbiting toilet seat from space. As it turns out she is not dead, but "undead" and recruited (like it or not) to be a grim reaper. Inspired by the Piers Anthony novel On A Pale Horse, but working on the premise that there are multiple grim reapers working the planet, Dead Like Me is an engrossing, witty, irreverent series that's one of the best gifts from cable TV to hit the airwaves in a long time (especially from Showtime - which, in my opinion anyway -  has always been the poor stepsister to HBO's original fare).

In the pilot Rube (reaper supervisor, West Coast Division), played by Mandy Patinkin, takes George to her autopsy so she can see her body reduced to kibbles and bits and realize that she's really gone. "So, what's next? Onward and upward?" George asks. Rube, in his customary pull-no-punches, frank manner says, "Onward, not upward. No pearly gates for you. No choirs of angels, either." George blasts back, "You dick! You're sending me to hell?" This is where she learns that she's been selected to be one of the undead, helping other souls on their way to the afterlife.

Death hasn't changed George much. She's still a sarcastic teen, always questioning her elders and trying to shirk her duties. Rube suffers no nonsense when it comes to George's attitude problem (but he still likes her well enough to call her "Peanut" and cut her the occasional, grudging slack). George's co-reapers try to be a little more understanding (the superb ensemble cast includes Rebecca Gayheart, Callum Blue, Jasmine Guy, and Laura Harris) and help her along as she learns on the job how to collect the souls of those who must die for real. (And they do die in some rather innovative ways!)

George, taken at such a young age, is having trouble coping with the fact that she was taken from life - a life she never really got to live or to realize how fleeting it could be. From a distance, she still keeps tabs on her family - her mom, Joy (Cynthia Stevenson), who she never appreciated; her dad, Clancy (Greg Kean), who she grew apart from; and her little sister Reggie (Britt McKillip), who she'd always considered invisible - and we get to see how they are moving on without George.

Occasionally, George breaks the rules. Much to Rube's consternation, she doesn't keep her distance, and makes contact with her former family. You see, the reapers take on a physical body that looks different from the one they once occupied (but only to the eyes of the living and reflections of themselves; to the other reapers, they look like their real, former living selves). The first time George catches a glimpse of her physical body, she's less than pleased. "Who decides what we look like?" she asks another reaper. "I don't know," he replies, "Maybe this is what our inner child looks like when it grows up." George scoffs: "If that were the case, it looks like my inner child's road to adulthood was paved with crack cocaine, ten-dollar blowjobs, and maybe even a trick baby or two."

Death isn't all it's cracked up to be. Since the reapers embody a physical form, they still need to eat and have a roof over their heads. This means taking a day job - George goes to work for the Happy Time Temp Agency; Roxy (Guy) is a meter maid; Mason (Blue) is a thief and drug dealer; and Daisy (Harris) just leeches off the other reapers. No one knows what Rube does for a, um, "living".

Buoyed by razor sharp writing, perfectly cast actors, and storylines that tease your brain, Dead Like Me is one of those addictive shows that plays even better on DVD (no having to wait till next week to see what happens next!).

The DVD boxed set has all 14 episodes on four discs; audio commentary from the cast (playful and funny) on the pilot episode; dozens of deleted scenes (a word to the wise: the "play all" option is on screen 4 of 4, not at the beginning where it belongs); an informative behind-the-scenes featurette; and "The Music of Dead Like Me" mini-doc, featuring composer Stewart Copeland.

My favorite featurette was the deleted scenes section. While some of the excised scenes are just meaningless snippets, there are several which really explain things more thoroughly and answered some of the questions that were lingering in my mind about the storyline.

Season two of Dead Like Me begins in June of 2004 on Showtime.

Review by Staci Layne Wilson [1] for Horror.com