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Dead Like ME

DaRkEnEdStAr

DaRkEnEdStAr

Regular
i remember when this show premiered on sky one , but i didn`t get the chance to watch it ... So i just bought the dvd`s today ! i learnt from HMV that they only had 2 seasons on general release , after a bit of investigation i have found out the channel who makes it (Showtime ?) cancelled it . Damn ! , i thought that series was great (just getting into it ) :) why did they cancel it ?
May the execs burn in hell :)
 
The ratings showed a sharp decline in season two. I don't think any "reason" was discovered as to why that happened. I personally don't think the quality went down, and the network were a bit surprised. It just happened.

It was a good show. Not a great show, but a good show. I liked Roxy. :D The amount of swearing in it was offputting though. OTT.
 
I LOVE Dead Like Me; I think it's an amazing show. My understanding (the things I've read) is that it was cancelled after season two in order to have funds in order to pay for what turned out to be a very short-lived comedy staring Kirstie Alley called Fat Actress.
 
I liked it a lot, but I did think season 2 was not as good as season 1. I've recently been rewatching it on dvd myself.
 
Spoiler for Season 2 of Dead Like Me:
Between learning that George had nearly died in a pool when she was a kid but the Gravelings having changed their mind and left her alone and that George could actually reap Gravelings causing them to disentergrate, season two left me really interested in George's position within the realm of reaper-dom as it set her up as being something really special and different than what had come before.

We also got Rube, having told George in season one to leave her old live behind and let it go, that he himself hadn't done so after he became a reaper. Rube pissed me off a lot in season one; in season two, I came to respect and care about and sympathize with him a lot more.

We also get the one reap that Daisy has of the woman with whom a man is cheating on his wife killing her while Daisy is in the closet. To me, that is one of the most emotionally and psychologically scary reaps/scenes ever. Watching Daisy completely lose it as she listens to the man killing the woman really gets to me.

And the whole purple post-it story with Mason suddenly thinking that his time on Earth is over that the purple post-it is his last reap and how that affects him and reveals his appreciation and love for being on Earth, for life, is an awesome story.



So, yeah, I loved season two as much as I loved season one.
 
I thought it was a terrific show. I started watching it in reruns on HDNet, one of the hi-def cable channels I picked up when I added HD service. (And which I've since lost because my old cable company was bought out by another which just changed out channel line-up to match what they offer in the rest of the country.) Last year a friend of mine lent me the DVDs, which I watched in about a week, and just recently I bought my own set (still in the shrink-wrap) courtesy of Deep Discount DVD and one of their periodic "buy one, get one free" TV boxed set sales. And I agree with everything in vacantlook's spoiler box. I was very intrigued by where they were going with George and very sad that there weren't more episodes.

OTOH the show had a kind of built-in limit, since Reapers aren't supposed to age and the cast clearly would have. :)

Since the show was produced for Showtime, which makes its money from subscriptions, not advertising, ratings probably weren't the deciding factor. Original series for premium cable channels are there to do two things: 1) fill time with something less costly than first-run theatrical films, 2) attract and hold subscribers when movies and sports aren't enough. Series that people habitually tune in for are more reliable ways of hanging onto subscribers than the uncut, commercial free moives that used to be the mainstay of premium cable.

Since all the channels eventually get the same movies, and since DVD sales and rentals offer uncut, commercial-free movies that are also in the original aspect ratio and loaded with extras, the HBOs and Showtimes of the world need exclusive content to distinguish them from one another. The problem for original dramas is that cheap reality programming like Fat Actress can be as big a draw as pricey dramas. If there was a connection between that show and the cancellation of Dead Like Me
it was more likely that Fat Actress seemed like an eyeball magnet that would cost less to make. I doubt it was more expensive and absorbed the budget of Dead Like Me.

Regards,

Joe
 
AntonyF said:
The ratings showed a sharp decline in season two. I don't think any "reason" was discovered as to why that happened. I personally don't think the quality went down, and the network were a bit surprised. It just happened.

It was a good show. Not a great show, but a good show. I liked Roxy. :D The amount of swearing in it was offputting though. OTT.
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the fact that there is an "awful amount of swearing" is the one things that defines its greatness , dead like me would not be dead like me without the swearing !!
 
Who watches Showtime anymore, anyway? (Unless you find a good show like Dead Like Me?) Most of the programming sucks ass. So, you're lucky when you do get a good series now and then.

As for Fat Actress. I rented that for kicks and giggles and thought it was one of the crappiest shows I've ever seen. Fat jokes DO get old, especially when it's the cliche, Shallow Hal, "I break every chair I sit in" kind of nonsense.

It was embarassing. I've never seen Dead Like Me, but I would have preferred they keep the interesting, cool show on than the other POS.
 
DaRkEnEdStAr said:
the fact that there is an "awful amount of swearing" is the one things that defines its greatness , dead like me would not be dead like me without the swearing !!
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Well to me it was like a kid that ha d learnt its first swear words and was going to use them at whatever cost. I find it offputting in a TV environment. Some swearing is okay for punctuation, but just not to the childish extent of DLM.
 
AntonyF said:
Well to me it was like a kid that ha d learnt its first swear words and was going to use them at whatever cost. I find it offputting in a TV environment. Some swearing is okay for punctuation, but just not to the childish extent of DLM.
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I think the key words there may be "in a TV envrionment" - which it really wasn't except in the narrowest sense. Premium cable simply doesn't operate under the same rules as broadcast, basic cable or other "this stuff basically gets dumped into your home when you turn the set on, you don't have to go out of your way to acquire it" television. So naturally the original series on Showtime or HBO will have standards closer to the uncut movies that are their mainstay. Also with "free" and basic cable TV increasingly pushing the enevlope in terms of both language and visuals (especially the latter in the late night hours, since they are not subject to FCC rules and only the dictates of the marketplace, audiences and advertisers restrain them) the priemiums tend to stress the things that distinguish them from the competition - violence, nudity and language.

In that context I didn't see DLM as being particularly egrious. If you want to see a show with a lot of profanity for its own sake try HBO's Rome and for the ultimate "four year old learning to swear" experience try the late, lamented, Deadwood. People keep telling me the show is brilliant, but I find it unwatchable because of the ear-deadingly repetitive dialogue. Deadwood is a great example of an artist who worked well when pushing up against restraints, but who was totally ruined by creative freedom. David Milch did some terrific work on NYPD Blue where his worst impulses were contained by network rules, which in turn forced him to find more creative (and subtler) ways of making his points within the rules. But then someone gave him Deadwood and told him he could say "cocksucker" - and he promptly forgot every other word in the English language. :)

Regards,

Joe
 
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AntonyF said:
Well to me it was like a kid that ha d learnt its first swear words and was going to use them at whatever cost. I find it offputting in a TV environment. Some swearing is okay for punctuation, but just not to the childish extent of DLM.
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As far as i know (or recall) it wasn`t just the main character who swore , If thats what you are implying :)... I suppose some people are a bit prudish when it comes to that - kinda reminds me of my grandmother :) (hates all swearing)

Anyway , maybe the fact that they are dead and cant go onto the next emination or whatever ! is why they are angry and troubled , And the swearing is a device used to create a atmosphere or something (just a theory)
 
DaRkEnEdStAr said:
As far as i know (or recall) it wasn`t just the main character who swore. If thats what you are implying :)...
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"it was like a kid that had learnt its first swear words"

My reading of this comment is that the "it" that learned "its" first swear wors was the show, not a particular character. So it was the habitual swearing of all the characters that Antony found off-putting. Assuming I've read his post correctly. :)

Regards,

Joe
 
Why this insistence that people who prefer dialogue without swearing where it is unnecessary are "prudish". I am no prude, I just prefer my TV dialogue without unnecessary swearing. I swear occasionally and, you know what, it has much greater impact precisely because it is a relatively rare event ... in public at any rate :D

I prefer my TV the same way precisely because if every other word is a swear word it becomes a pointless exercise. And whilst some people would call it realistic, I know no one who swears anything like as much as the characters in either Deadwood or Dead Like Me.
 
I know no one who swears anything like as much as the characters in either Deadwood or Dead Like Me.
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I have known such people. They're the kind for whom the phrase "dumber than a bag full of door knobs" was invented. :)
 
Joseph DeMartino said:
If you want to see a show with a lot of profanity for its own sake try HBO's Rome and for the ultimate "four year old learning to swear" experience" try the late, lamented Deadwood.
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I never watched Rome, but I echo your thoughts about Deadwood. It was awful. I watched it once, and never again.
 
Londos6 said:
I never watched Rome, but I echo your thoughts about Deadwood. It was awful. I watched it once, and never again.
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Rome is actually a pretty interesting show, although lamentably ahistorical. (They have Marc Antony banging Octavian's mother, for Jupiter's sake, not to mention Servillia seducing Octavia) And while there is a fair amount of unmotivated swearing it isn't remotely as bad as Deadwood. I've actually managed to watch every episode of Rome.

Regards,

Joe
 
I like Rome, in part, at least, because it reminds me of the late, lamented Carnivale, which died before its time. I think there has been a definite increase in the sex and swearing this season, in Rome.
 
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