Dead Like Me 1x07-1x14
Thu, Mar. 22nd, 2007 03:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterIn a few episodes, I went from thinking that this show was mildly interesting but flawed to thinking it was really, really good. Why are the seasons so short? Wah!
So yes, the first few episodes are rather shaky, particularly the first four. Episode 5 is when it starts getting good, and then there are a few ok ones. Then the last four or five of the season are excellent. Nearly all of them made me cry, not out of sadness, but just out of emotion and a sort of cathartic happiness.
It's particularly interesting watching the tone shifting gradually from dark and sarcastic to somewhat sarcastic but really very heartfelt and very interested in all the characters, regular and one-time. I love watching the Reapers develop; they start out as caricatures, and gradually, as we learn more, they all start to break my heart in different ways.
I have even stopped wanting to slap Joy and Delores and started wanting to hug them, which is a miracle in and of itself.
I'm making this sound like a Serious and Artsy and Depressing Thing, but it's not. It's about all these people, both undead and alive, learning to live and move on and grieve and be happy and find joy and peace in what they do and how they live. It's a bit more tongue-in-cheek, but ultimately, this show is really reminding me of my favorite bits of Nana and Honey and Clover, which is high praise indeed.
Spoilers for all of S1
I am still rather boggled by how I am liking characters who I just wanted to slap before, particularly Joy, Delores, Mason and Daisy. Well, sometimes I still want to slap Mason and Daisy a bit, and while I think Joy is still really, really amazingly good at messing up any and all emotional links she has, I feel really bad for her as well. She just keeps pushing when Reggie needs space, and she keeps getting so wound up over her anxieties and fear and guilt that she can't see a way through.
I still feel worse for Reggie, and I was glad at the quiet moment the two were able to share at the lake.
I love George's gradual discovery that she actually does want to be alive, to do things, to make connections with people. I keep forgetting that she's an 18
Rube continues to rock, especially as the fill-in cook for Der Wafflehaus, and I love his reactions to the daily assignments mysteriously placed at his door. I just like his way of not taking any crap but also managing to be there for his people, no matter how unobtrusively or how he tries to disguise it.
I kept wanting to shake Daisy and Mason until the final scene in "Vacation," when Mason manages to find Daisy's final thoughts and amazingly, delicately, seeing the desperation beneath her annoying exterior and actually handling the situation with kindness and finesse.
But my very favorite episode is "The Bicycle Thief," which worked for me on all levels, from Mason and the gay couple to Daisy and the painter and George and Rube. I like that even though the show still has the Rube Goldberg-esque death scenes, it's also taking the time to paint it so that you can see how the deaths matter and affect other people, and I nearly cried when Mason told the surviving half of the couple about the medication in the cabinet and took away the knife.
So yes, the first few episodes are rather shaky, particularly the first four. Episode 5 is when it starts getting good, and then there are a few ok ones. Then the last four or five of the season are excellent. Nearly all of them made me cry, not out of sadness, but just out of emotion and a sort of cathartic happiness.
It's particularly interesting watching the tone shifting gradually from dark and sarcastic to somewhat sarcastic but really very heartfelt and very interested in all the characters, regular and one-time. I love watching the Reapers develop; they start out as caricatures, and gradually, as we learn more, they all start to break my heart in different ways.
I have even stopped wanting to slap Joy and Delores and started wanting to hug them, which is a miracle in and of itself.
I'm making this sound like a Serious and Artsy and Depressing Thing, but it's not. It's about all these people, both undead and alive, learning to live and move on and grieve and be happy and find joy and peace in what they do and how they live. It's a bit more tongue-in-cheek, but ultimately, this show is really reminding me of my favorite bits of Nana and Honey and Clover, which is high praise indeed.
Spoilers for all of S1
I am still rather boggled by how I am liking characters who I just wanted to slap before, particularly Joy, Delores, Mason and Daisy. Well, sometimes I still want to slap Mason and Daisy a bit, and while I think Joy is still really, really amazingly good at messing up any and all emotional links she has, I feel really bad for her as well. She just keeps pushing when Reggie needs space, and she keeps getting so wound up over her anxieties and fear and guilt that she can't see a way through.
I still feel worse for Reggie, and I was glad at the quiet moment the two were able to share at the lake.
I love George's gradual discovery that she actually does want to be alive, to do things, to make connections with people. I keep forgetting that she's an 18
Rube continues to rock, especially as the fill-in cook for Der Wafflehaus, and I love his reactions to the daily assignments mysteriously placed at his door. I just like his way of not taking any crap but also managing to be there for his people, no matter how unobtrusively or how he tries to disguise it.
I kept wanting to shake Daisy and Mason until the final scene in "Vacation," when Mason manages to find Daisy's final thoughts and amazingly, delicately, seeing the desperation beneath her annoying exterior and actually handling the situation with kindness and finesse.
But my very favorite episode is "The Bicycle Thief," which worked for me on all levels, from Mason and the gay couple to Daisy and the painter and George and Rube. I like that even though the show still has the Rube Goldberg-esque death scenes, it's also taking the time to paint it so that you can see how the deaths matter and affect other people, and I nearly cried when Mason told the surviving half of the couple about the medication in the cabinet and took away the knife.
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