They knew the end was coming and attempted, with some success, to at least complete a mini-season arc.
Similarly it is obvious the Dead Like Me folks also hedged their bets - both seasons end with moments of clarity of sorts for the main character.
I love both shows and unlike some, I enjoyed the family subplot. It helped add a little more human drama. The dad was a bit of a cypher ( either a weaker actor or just a weaker character ), but ultimately I enjoyed Joy’s bitchiness and Reggie’s weirdness ( even got used to the sullen early teen thing in season 2 ). Indeed I think one of the single most effective little moments in the entire series is the short scene where Reggie almost gets hit by a car and Joy freaks right the fuck out for 20 seconds thinking she could lose her other daughter. A spot-on reaction ( especially for Joy’s character ) IMO.
I watched a few episodes before I moved to a house with no cable (yet…), and I have a question as well.
What happens if someone choosen to be a repear refuses to? What if they don’t go to their little meeting and get their little post-it? Do they eventually send them to whatever after-life there is in this world?
Wasn’t there a guy at George’s post-funeral reception who hugged her father ‘too long’, in the pilot? I thought the hints that Dad was straying were there from the beginning.
It was shown that the person dies, but isn’t reaped - is trapped in their bodies. She also prevented a child from being killed and we learn the the soul will die anyway and rot during the bodie’s life.
Yeah, when Tim Minear was brought in to be executive producer and he saw the time slot the show would be airing in, he knew they weren’t going to make it past thirteen episodes. He suggested to show creators Todd Holland and Bryan Fuller that they do it as a single story arc.
As for Clancey’s affair, wasn’t he getting suspicious phone calls (and hang-ups when Joy answered) even in the first episode?
I disagree - I liked the 2nd season better than the first. The show seemed to spend less time on the family, Daisy was a better character than the reaper she replaced, there seemed to be more humor and the characters developed more, and more time was spent on Rube (whose story with his daughter was the best episode of the series IMHO).
I would probably have disliked the “gay dad” subplot. In Wonderfalls, the “closeted gay sister” distracted from the real story and became a little too preachy at times, (the kinda religious-student brother subplot was worse) and seemed tacked on. I’m afraid the same thing may have happened in DLM. Secondly, the dad coming out of the closet would have made him both more sympathetic and less interesting than a hetero affair. The way it stood, I was conflicted between disliking mom and feeling sympathetic for her circumstances. If you didn’t feel dad was such a bastard, I wouldn’t have felt as much sympathy for the mom.
I also liked the Daisy religion subplot. It allowed the reapers to explore an obvious issue - the afterlife from a religious viewpoint. I just wish they had taken it farther.
I also loved the Happy Time scenes, and would love to see a series (ala The Office) about the place.
I have been DVRing these as they come up on the SciFi Channel. Unfortunately I missed the first few episodes, but it’s still pretty easy to catch up on stuff. One of this week’s episodes had George needing to choose between 3 job candidates, one of whom is now a regular on Eureka as the guy who runs the restaurant. This character has irritable bowel syndrome and farts throughout the entire interview. Finally George screams at him “you’re FARTING! You know this is a job interview, right?” and I just lost it. It was hilarious. Those are the moments in the show that I live for.
Those, and the very touching moments sometimes, like on George’s Day.
Personally, I liked the scene where someone hacked George’s office computer to host a neo-Nazi web site. The on-screen animation of the goosestepping Nazis was priceless.
I love the montage where she looks back and realizes just how awful she’s been to that computer guy (the one who played the mouth-breather on Wonderfalls). Rapid-fire violence and yelling. Hilarious.