“Just because I’m dead doesn’t mean I can’t have a splitting headache.”

Justin’s rating: More like the GRIN Reaper, am I right?

Justin’s review: Oh no! Your favorite television series was cancelled, perhaps on a cliffhanger, and now you’re left with a giant empty void in your shallow life. What to do? If you’ve any luck at all, a few years later, you might get a movie sequel to your series. And that will be exciting! But it’ll also destroy your nerves, because you know the odds are good that not every actor is going to come back nor will the film be able to wrap up loose plot threads and accurately emulate the show.

Do you watch? Sure you do. Will you be disappointed or, at the very least, unnerved? Almost definitely.

Today’s case study in this phenomenon is Dead Like Me, a two-season supernatural dramedy created by X-Men’s Bryan Fuller that aired on Showtime from 2003 to 2004 and starred, among others, The Princess Bride’s Mandy Patinkin and (briefly) Urban Legend’s Rebecca Gayheart. The premise centered around a team of soul-harvesting “Reapers,” including one recently deceased girl named George (Ellen Muth, who has an unusual look that grew on me) who was hit by a toilet seat falling from space and is drawn into this new lifestyle.

I saw some of it back in the day and thought it was generally enjoyable but certainly not Buffy 2.0 or anything. Dead Like Me was a decently liked show with some award nominations, but 29 episodes later, the whole affair wrapped up.

That is, until an epilogue movie called Dead Like Me: Life After Death was greenlit and made in 2009, directed by Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure’s Stephen Herek. As might be expected, there were changes. Patinkin was out, the character of Daisy was recast, and Lost’s Henry Ian Cusick joined the crew. So is this five-years-removed sequel a fine finish or a lame coda?

The movie has to handle double duty of both continuing the story and introducing this unique premise to anyone who hasn’t seen the show. So it does kick off with a recap of George’s death, her calling to be a Reaper, the routine of the job, the machinations of the Gravelings (little imps who actually cause all the deaths), and other supernatural elements. That recap is appreciated and helpful — after all, it had been five years since the series when this came out and far longer than that since I myself had seen it.

After the recap, the crew of four Reapers find out that their old Der Waffle Haus hangout burned down and their leader Rube moved on. So they get a rich new boss who died in 9/11 who’s here to “reconfigure” the team, which ends up being a total mess as everyone stops following the rules. Eventually, the gang decides that they’ve got to take him out… but how do you kill the already-dead?

During all this, George (who has a different appearance than her prior living self) reveals her identity to her sister for a little family reconnection. But mostly what this movie does is meander. There seems to be a lot of filler that’s either being stylistic, quirky, or pretty pointless. That’s due to the story not being as purposeful as it should’ve been.

Also, there’s a cat death and a funeral in space. Just go with it.

While this isn’t exactly the original gang and situation, Life After Death near enough to be a comfortable simulacrum. This is a lot of the same style of humor and flippant look at dying and the afterlife, even if it’s not fondly remembered by fans. But then, what post-series TV movie ever is? If it’s moderately interesting, if it gives you a little jolt of what you used to love, you take that as a consolation prize for the cancelation and move on with your life.

Or death. Or whatever.

Intermission!

• The cool comic book intro
• Don’t give Death-in-a-jar to a frog and a toad to watch
• Rube comes back… but only as a comic
• What the heck is this suicide machine? More like an irony machine!
• The Gravelings
• “Ohh, snacky snacks!”
•  Nothing dates this movie like mentioning Treos and having a hard time working a phone
• They get to play “High Risk Fountain”
• That’s the longest interview table
• OK that’s a really weird time for a kiss
• “In death, the rules are unclear.”
• “You can’t kill a dead guy, mate.”
• Parachuting with your cat seems a little cruel to the cat, but what do I know?
• Oh that MacBeth performance
• “Part of being dead is having a really high deductable.”
• What’s with all the huge sunglasses in the final part?