Review of Dead Like Me: Life After Death (2009) by Ash S — 19 Feb 2009

A film follow-up to the TV show Dead Like Me. You must be a fan of the show to really understand the premise or the characters. With that said I will discuss some plot topics / spoilers. So BEWARE SPOILERS BELOW****.

The show ended in 2004, this movie was released in 2009. So this naturally is a large gap of time. Some of the actors have moved on, some of them have aged considerably, things are different now. I believe this is why the movie had a fair share of downfalls. I loved the tv series and would rate it 5 stars, this film however gets an average 3 rating. Here's why:

1. Absense of Rube, the actor is working elsewhere now. In my opinion he was one of the reasons the tv series was so brilliant. His father-figure pressence leaves a huge void which this film is unable to fill.

2. The original actress that portrayed Daisy was working on other projects as well, instead of writing the character out of the film, she was replaced by another actress. This was perhaps the biggest mistake. I cannot fathom how producers can ever think replacing actors is ever a good idea.

3. All of the familiar settings from the tv series are gone. Either the sets were destroyed or unavailable. The Waffle House GONE. George's family home GONE. Happy Time GONE. Just as these places were home to the characters, I feel like the fans were also connected to these places. The show just does not feel the same without them.

What I think this movie does right is any of the scenes with George and Reggie. I felt these were very well done and it was nice to see the characters finally connect after 2 seasons of being apart.

If this movie had been released earlier... it may have avoided some of these issues... Very sad that this show never got renewed for further seasons or was not given a proper film follow up...