Dead Like Me - Second Season Reviews

In the second season of Showtime's Dead Like Me , teen grim reaper George (Ellen Muth) returns just as she left the first--dead. (Technically, undead .) That isn't about to change, but some things will. In season premiere "Send in the Clown," she'll get a promotion at the Happy Time temp agency (a dead ringer for Office Space 's soul-sucking cubicle maze). Meanwhile, Roxy (Jasmine Guy), a tough-talking fellow reaper, will make the move from meter maid to police officer. After all, even reapers have to eat. There are other changes. George's parents, Joy (Cynthia Stevenson) and Clancy (Greg Kean), finally throw in the towel on their foundering marriage. The other reapers experience their share of good and bad luck. Sweet, if narcissistic Daisy (Laura Harris) finds religion, larceny, and love (in that order), while bad boy Brit Mason (Callum Blue) gives up the bottle only to take it up again and no-nonsense reaper boss Rube (Mandy Patinkin) spends most of the season trying to track down someone from his mortal past. There were 15 episodes in the second season. Guest stars include Michael Des Barres as a washed-up rocker ("In Escrow"), Barbara Barrie as George's free-spirited grandmother ("Rites of Passage," "The Escape Artist"), and Eric McCormack as a cocky TV producer who falls for Daisy (three episodes, starting with "Death Defying"). Unfortunately, 2004 wouldn't turn out to be creator Bryan Fuller's lucky year. Despite fan devotion, critical praise, and Emmy nominations, both of his distinctively quirky dark comedies, Wonderfalls and Dead Like Me , would not be renewed--but at least the latter made it to the end of the year. --Kathleen C. Fennessy