(no subject)
Since "Dead Like Me" is a fairly obscure series 'cause those booger eating morons at Showtime cancelled it to show "Fat Actress." What the fuck?!?, I figured that it would be a good idea to do a basic summary of what a Grim Reaper is and the people George knew, preCamp.
Grim Reapers
What A Reaper Is, Physically
A Grim Reaper is un-dead. He or she can interact with the living, just as a normal person does. A Reaper needs to eat and sleep just like a normal person, but they don't really seem like they can be hurt badly. George has been stabbed with a bed spring and coughed up a metal piece after she'd been stabbed in an accident, but it didn't seem to do any real damage.
However, Reapers are vulnerable to things like drugs and alcohol. She can get just as shit-faced drunk as the rest of us. Getting sick isn't really addressed, but I'm assuming that it would take one nasty disease to get her. Also, Reapers don't get older. Whatever age they were when they died, that's the age they stay forever.
Technically speaking, Reapers look differently to living people than they did when they were alive, but I'm going with the cheat assumption that since the Camp isn't in her reality, that rule no longer applies.
What A Reaper Does (Including The Obvious)
A Grim Reaper takes the soul of a person or animal who is about to die, then sends that soul onto whatever comes next. There are Reapers for plagues, "external influence" (meaning accidents, suicides, and murders), and even pets.
The way a Reaper is chosen is simple: each Reaper is assigned a quota of souls to send to the afterlife. The Reaper has no way of knowing what that quota is, but once it's fulfilled, the previous Reaper gets to go on themselves and the last soul taken gets their Reaper spot. As a result, Reapers can be anyone from middle-aged men to young children.
Gravelings are creatures who look like a cross between a gargoyle and Gollum. They seem to be the ones who make the deaths happen, doing everything from dropping pianos on a woman's head to tossing food near a caged bear to make it go crazy. Only Reapers are supposed to be able to see them, but in one episode, a mentally ill person was able to spot them.
Gravelings also seem to have the responsibility of punishing Reapers who don't follow orders by tormenting them, trying to scare them, dropping electrical wires on them, and generally being great big pains in the ass.
What A Reaper Doesn't Do
Reaping isn't a paid profession. Most Reapers simply take whatever cash the dead person has and use their home until somebody gets suspicious. Reapers of a more morally squeamish type get day jobs.
Reapers also aren't allowed to contact either their family or the families of the people whose souls they take.
Most importantly, Reapers cannot tell anyone what they are. The theory is that if people knew that death literally walked among them, there would be massive panic. If George tells you the truth, she either really likes you or is drunk.
Random Fun Reaper Facts
Reapers are given their assignments written on Post It notes. The Post It includes the person's first initial, last name, the time of death, and the place it will happen. The Reaper has the responsibility to be at the place of death, find the right person, and take their soul. If they don't, the person will die anyway, but whatever injuries they have are carried over into the afterlife. Also, they're aware that they're dead and they know what's happening to their body.
The Post It information is taken from information given to Rube (the Reaper in charge) and kept in a leather notebook. The actual list of those going to die is given to him by a mysterious person never actually shown on camera. However, it's implied that the person with the list is an actual person/Reaper, not an angel or another otherwordly creature.
It's possible to remove a soul, then put it back in. Instead of dying, the person has a glimpse of what is after death. The time this happened, a man went from being an abusive asshole to being calm and sweet and spiritual. However, people aren't supposed to know what's next, so he was provoked into becoming an asshole again, which sort of voided the whole experience.
Also, if a person dies without a Post It, they don't go on to the happy, shiny afterlife. Instead, a Graveling is born from their body.
George's Family
Joy Lass: This is her mom. They don't get along well. In fact, they seemed to go out of their way to provoke one another and try to get on each other's nerves. Joy is very uptight, she's sarcastic, she's bitter about her marriage and her relationship with her daughters, she tries to be sweet and caring but she fails, and she expects a lot out of everyone around her. When George was younger, Joy did things like leave little notes saying "You are loved!," instead of candy or money for lost teeth, participated with George in mother/daughter bowling tournaments, and generally seemed much softer than she was when the series began. However, Joy was never a warm, fuzzy type. She didn't let George have any illusions about things like Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, or other fantasy parts of childhood. It's implied that this early disillusionment was part of the reason why George grew to be so cynical as a teenager.
Clancy Lass: This is her dad. At home, he's mostly hen-pecked by his wife and ignored by his daughters. In his job as an English professor, he's witty, warm, charming, and well liked by everyone. Which is probably why he's having an affair with a student. Maybe even multiple affairs, since it's implied that he's with a male student in one episode and an affair with a female student seems to be in the works during a later episode. George had been very close to her dad as a child (they had a tradition of Sunday breakfast in a little diner), but the birth of her younger sister and Clancy's refusal to let George have a kitten put a wedge between them.
Reggie Lass: This is her younger sister. She's approximately eight years younger than George is. Reggie is very quiet and seems to want to stay in the background of the family. She hero-worships George, hanging out in her closet, follwing her around, and generally being a nuisance. George tries to ignore her as much as possible, which is pretty easy since Reggie is very quiet and sullen.
The Grim Reapers
Rube: Rube is the Reaper in charge of the list of who dies when. He gives his Reaper underlings their assignments and gets very, very, very upset when they screw up. He's the stern father figure of the group and he has very little sympathy for the issues of the newly dead. Rube has been a Reaper for an extremely long time and he knows more about everything than he's willing to discuss. His relationship with George has its ups and downs, but mostly downs. George doesn't deal well with becoming a Reaper and he has no patience with her because of it.
Mason: Mason died drilling a hole in his skull for the ultimate high. That should say it all right there. If not, he died in the early sixties, he's British, and he earns his living with petty crime, stealing from the dead, and the occasional work as a drug mule. Mason loves the ladies, but the ladies don't love back. Despite his more interesting quirks, he can be very sweet and charming. George is weirded out by his lack of respect for the dead, but they become friends later.
Roxy: She's a former dancer of the "Flashdance" era turned the world's most badass meter maid. She can fuck you up. She's very blunt, she doesn't deal well with stupidity, and she seems to be Rube's right-hand Reaper in that she tends to back him up when the others are complaining and she spent the anniversary of her death with him. Roxy seems to have a low opinion of George at first, but they bond after George tries to contact her family and it blows up in her face.
Betty: She's a flapper who died when she went on a lover's leap and landed wrong. She's confident, beautiful, quirky, and charming. She has no problem with her job as a Reaper and even seems to enjoy it, taking polaroid pictures of her assignments before they die. Her photos are later put into bags for each category of person, from Reiterators (people who think that they said something first and are very arrogant about it) to Mysterious and Reassuring. She loves pretty clothes, pretty shoes, and her pretty diamond ring (which she had to steal off of her own corpse and later gave to George). Betty is only in the first few episodes, but she didn't leave when taking her quota of souls. Instead, she got bored with her un-life and decided to see what was next ahead of schedule, following one of her assignments into the afterlife. She vanishes with a huge burst of energy and is never seen or heard from since. In the short time they knew each other, George and Betty become very close and Betty's leaving has a huge impact.
Daisy: While I'm taking George from earlier in the series, right after Betty leaves, might as well include something about Daisy. She's a starlet from the forties who blew knew most of Old Hollywood. She was a bit cast member of "Gone With the Wind," she's very vain, and she had the tendency to pull con jobs on the families of her assignments to get money. She's nowhere near as happy with herself as she seems to be.
Happy Time
Delores Herbig (as in, "her big brown eyes"): This is George's "career counselor" at Happy Time, a big temp agency. When George was alive, she immediately got on Delores's bad side by being rude, sullen, and mocking Delores's job after she tried to tell George that a sunny personality was a good thing to have. As a result, Delores made George file all day long (or at least, until George died during her lunch break). After death, George wound up going back to Happy Time to find work and tried to be a bit more pleasant. Delores immediately took a liking to George's new persona and went out of her way to include George in office activities.
And there you have it, as much canon information as you could ever want to know!
Of course, you should also watch the show because it's great. Not that I'm biased or anything.
Grim Reapers
What A Reaper Is, Physically
A Grim Reaper is un-dead. He or she can interact with the living, just as a normal person does. A Reaper needs to eat and sleep just like a normal person, but they don't really seem like they can be hurt badly. George has been stabbed with a bed spring and coughed up a metal piece after she'd been stabbed in an accident, but it didn't seem to do any real damage.
However, Reapers are vulnerable to things like drugs and alcohol. She can get just as shit-faced drunk as the rest of us. Getting sick isn't really addressed, but I'm assuming that it would take one nasty disease to get her. Also, Reapers don't get older. Whatever age they were when they died, that's the age they stay forever.
Technically speaking, Reapers look differently to living people than they did when they were alive, but I'm going with the cheat assumption that since the Camp isn't in her reality, that rule no longer applies.
What A Reaper Does (Including The Obvious)
A Grim Reaper takes the soul of a person or animal who is about to die, then sends that soul onto whatever comes next. There are Reapers for plagues, "external influence" (meaning accidents, suicides, and murders), and even pets.
The way a Reaper is chosen is simple: each Reaper is assigned a quota of souls to send to the afterlife. The Reaper has no way of knowing what that quota is, but once it's fulfilled, the previous Reaper gets to go on themselves and the last soul taken gets their Reaper spot. As a result, Reapers can be anyone from middle-aged men to young children.
Gravelings are creatures who look like a cross between a gargoyle and Gollum. They seem to be the ones who make the deaths happen, doing everything from dropping pianos on a woman's head to tossing food near a caged bear to make it go crazy. Only Reapers are supposed to be able to see them, but in one episode, a mentally ill person was able to spot them.
Gravelings also seem to have the responsibility of punishing Reapers who don't follow orders by tormenting them, trying to scare them, dropping electrical wires on them, and generally being great big pains in the ass.
What A Reaper Doesn't Do
Reaping isn't a paid profession. Most Reapers simply take whatever cash the dead person has and use their home until somebody gets suspicious. Reapers of a more morally squeamish type get day jobs.
Reapers also aren't allowed to contact either their family or the families of the people whose souls they take.
Most importantly, Reapers cannot tell anyone what they are. The theory is that if people knew that death literally walked among them, there would be massive panic. If George tells you the truth, she either really likes you or is drunk.
Random Fun Reaper Facts
Reapers are given their assignments written on Post It notes. The Post It includes the person's first initial, last name, the time of death, and the place it will happen. The Reaper has the responsibility to be at the place of death, find the right person, and take their soul. If they don't, the person will die anyway, but whatever injuries they have are carried over into the afterlife. Also, they're aware that they're dead and they know what's happening to their body.
The Post It information is taken from information given to Rube (the Reaper in charge) and kept in a leather notebook. The actual list of those going to die is given to him by a mysterious person never actually shown on camera. However, it's implied that the person with the list is an actual person/Reaper, not an angel or another otherwordly creature.
It's possible to remove a soul, then put it back in. Instead of dying, the person has a glimpse of what is after death. The time this happened, a man went from being an abusive asshole to being calm and sweet and spiritual. However, people aren't supposed to know what's next, so he was provoked into becoming an asshole again, which sort of voided the whole experience.
Also, if a person dies without a Post It, they don't go on to the happy, shiny afterlife. Instead, a Graveling is born from their body.
George's Family
Joy Lass: This is her mom. They don't get along well. In fact, they seemed to go out of their way to provoke one another and try to get on each other's nerves. Joy is very uptight, she's sarcastic, she's bitter about her marriage and her relationship with her daughters, she tries to be sweet and caring but she fails, and she expects a lot out of everyone around her. When George was younger, Joy did things like leave little notes saying "You are loved!," instead of candy or money for lost teeth, participated with George in mother/daughter bowling tournaments, and generally seemed much softer than she was when the series began. However, Joy was never a warm, fuzzy type. She didn't let George have any illusions about things like Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, or other fantasy parts of childhood. It's implied that this early disillusionment was part of the reason why George grew to be so cynical as a teenager.
Clancy Lass: This is her dad. At home, he's mostly hen-pecked by his wife and ignored by his daughters. In his job as an English professor, he's witty, warm, charming, and well liked by everyone. Which is probably why he's having an affair with a student. Maybe even multiple affairs, since it's implied that he's with a male student in one episode and an affair with a female student seems to be in the works during a later episode. George had been very close to her dad as a child (they had a tradition of Sunday breakfast in a little diner), but the birth of her younger sister and Clancy's refusal to let George have a kitten put a wedge between them.
Reggie Lass: This is her younger sister. She's approximately eight years younger than George is. Reggie is very quiet and seems to want to stay in the background of the family. She hero-worships George, hanging out in her closet, follwing her around, and generally being a nuisance. George tries to ignore her as much as possible, which is pretty easy since Reggie is very quiet and sullen.
The Grim Reapers
Rube: Rube is the Reaper in charge of the list of who dies when. He gives his Reaper underlings their assignments and gets very, very, very upset when they screw up. He's the stern father figure of the group and he has very little sympathy for the issues of the newly dead. Rube has been a Reaper for an extremely long time and he knows more about everything than he's willing to discuss. His relationship with George has its ups and downs, but mostly downs. George doesn't deal well with becoming a Reaper and he has no patience with her because of it.
Mason: Mason died drilling a hole in his skull for the ultimate high. That should say it all right there. If not, he died in the early sixties, he's British, and he earns his living with petty crime, stealing from the dead, and the occasional work as a drug mule. Mason loves the ladies, but the ladies don't love back. Despite his more interesting quirks, he can be very sweet and charming. George is weirded out by his lack of respect for the dead, but they become friends later.
Roxy: She's a former dancer of the "Flashdance" era turned the world's most badass meter maid. She can fuck you up. She's very blunt, she doesn't deal well with stupidity, and she seems to be Rube's right-hand Reaper in that she tends to back him up when the others are complaining and she spent the anniversary of her death with him. Roxy seems to have a low opinion of George at first, but they bond after George tries to contact her family and it blows up in her face.
Betty: She's a flapper who died when she went on a lover's leap and landed wrong. She's confident, beautiful, quirky, and charming. She has no problem with her job as a Reaper and even seems to enjoy it, taking polaroid pictures of her assignments before they die. Her photos are later put into bags for each category of person, from Reiterators (people who think that they said something first and are very arrogant about it) to Mysterious and Reassuring. She loves pretty clothes, pretty shoes, and her pretty diamond ring (which she had to steal off of her own corpse and later gave to George). Betty is only in the first few episodes, but she didn't leave when taking her quota of souls. Instead, she got bored with her un-life and decided to see what was next ahead of schedule, following one of her assignments into the afterlife. She vanishes with a huge burst of energy and is never seen or heard from since. In the short time they knew each other, George and Betty become very close and Betty's leaving has a huge impact.
Daisy: While I'm taking George from earlier in the series, right after Betty leaves, might as well include something about Daisy. She's a starlet from the forties who blew knew most of Old Hollywood. She was a bit cast member of "Gone With the Wind," she's very vain, and she had the tendency to pull con jobs on the families of her assignments to get money. She's nowhere near as happy with herself as she seems to be.
Happy Time
Delores Herbig (as in, "her big brown eyes"): This is George's "career counselor" at Happy Time, a big temp agency. When George was alive, she immediately got on Delores's bad side by being rude, sullen, and mocking Delores's job after she tried to tell George that a sunny personality was a good thing to have. As a result, Delores made George file all day long (or at least, until George died during her lunch break). After death, George wound up going back to Happy Time to find work and tried to be a bit more pleasant. Delores immediately took a liking to George's new persona and went out of her way to include George in office activities.
And there you have it, as much canon information as you could ever want to know!
Of course, you should also watch the show because it's great. Not that I'm biased or anything.