Dead Like Me

"I'm going to tell you a story. Not my story, that's later...This is just a story...ready? Once upon a time, (or more specifically at the dawn of time), god--lower case "g"--was getting busy with creation, as the kids these days are saying. He gave Toad a clay jar and said, "Be careful with this. It's got death inside." Pleased as punch and oblivious to the fact that he was about to become god's fall guy on the whole death issue, Toad promised to guard the jar. Then one day Toad met Frog. "Let me hold the jar of death, or whatever you call it," Frog begged. With a nod to Nancy Reagan's pearls of wisdom, Toad just said 'no'. But Frog was determined, and after much whining, Toad finally gave in. "You can hold it, but only for a second," he said. In his excitement, Frog began to hop around and juggle the death jar from one foot to the other. Frog... was an asshole."

Dead Like Me was a Mundane Fantastic Black Comedy television series created by Bryan Fuller. It aired on Showtime from 2003 to 2004.

Georgia ("George") Lass is an unmotivated eighteen-year-old slacker; a college dropout, she's returned to live with her unhappily-married parents (Joy and Clancy) and withdrawn younger sister (Reggie) in her family's Seattle home. To make her miserable existence even worse, her father is cheating on his wife with one of his students, and her mother is so uptight that she thinks the word 'moist' sounds pornographic. (Her mother later got over it.)

On George's first day at the Happy Time Temp Agency, she loses an important file down an elevator shaft, unwittingly insults the boss, and to top it all off, is killed on her lunch break by a toilet seat that detached from the deorbiting space station Mir.

Instead of going off to the afterlife, however, George is drafted to serve as a "grim reaper" (not the Grim Reaper, a Grim Reaper; it's a team effort, with a supervisor and assignments handed out via Post-It Notes), in the 'External Influences' division -- which handles suicides, homicides and fatal accidents like George's own. A perfect job for a depressed teenage reaper.

On her team:

 * Rube Sofer  (d. 1926), was the boss who affectionately calls George 'Peanut' and is constantly trying to manage his very unorthodox employees.
 * Roxy Harvey (d. 1982), tough-as-nails meter maid (and, later, cop) strangled to death by a jealous roommate for inventing legwarmers
 * Mason (d. 1966) a 60s druggie who trepanated himself (ie, drilled a hole in his head) to try and reach the Ultimate High.
 * Betty Rhomer (d. 1926), a cheerful mostly-adjusted reaper who keeps photos of her reaps in shopping bags which she organizes by category. She died after diving off a cliff into a river for a thrill. Early in Season 1,.
 * Daisy Adair (d. 1938), a Hollywood starlet who may (or may not) have slept with Clark Gable and nearly all of 1930s Hollywood. Died in a terrible fire on the set of Gone with the Wind.

In the other corner: Gravelings. Dark, mysterious, and (apparently) unwilling or unable to harm George for reasons never explained, they're responsible for causing the deaths that the reapers have to clean up.

Oh, and did we mention that reaping is a 'public service', and reapers don't get paid? That's right, George pays the bills by holding down a 9-to-5 job, under a different name, at the Happy Time Temp Agency.

Because it was Too Good to Last (and, at least according to Word of God, due to Executive Meddling) it was canceled after the second season with much of the side-story and back-plot unresolved.

A DVD movie came out in February of '09. It aired in Canada on January 1st. Fan response to it was mixed, but it did well enough to renew interest in networks considering to pick up the series again, especially after the cult success of Bryan Fuller's other (and then recently canceled) series Pushing Daisies.

"Ed Barphin: Can I ask you a question? George: That is a question. Would you like to ask me another one?"
 * Aborted Arc: According to Word of God, George's Dad was originally going to be gay, as evident in the Pilot, and this would have led to a storyline where George learned to appreciate her existence because she "wasn't meant to be". After Bryan Fuller departed the show the college student her father was said to be having an affair with was changed to a female.
 * Adorkable: Mason. Oh, Mason.
 * Age-Appropriate Angst: George died at just 18, after all.
 * Aloof Big Sister: Generally, what George was to Reggie in life. And after.
 * And I Must Scream: Not getting reaped before you die will trap the soul in their corpse conscious but completely helpless.
 * Animal Motifs: Frogs generally symbolize "death" or "moving on". (A South American horned frog appeared as the main one.)
 * Annoying Younger Sibling: Reggie, in George's eyes.
 * Anti-Hero: George, Type I. (The other regular Reapers fall into one category of Anti-Hero, too.)
 * Artistic License Geography: For a series that takes place in Seattle, it rarely rains, and seems to be sunny and warm year-round. This is made even weirder by the show having been filmed in Vancouver, where it rains as much as or more so than Seattle. Numerous recognizable Vancouver landmarks, skylines and street names, as well as a Canadian flag, also show up in the background. However, the show's location has never really been an important factor other than an incidental fact, so that may have been why they let it slide.
 * It did rain in episode 3.
 * Although the geography is never specific it is occasionally referred to as "the north west", and the name Seattle does appear once on a sign that a graffiti artist is painting over.
 * Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: The "Lights" spirits (and Reapers) go into.
 * Also happens to reapers when they reach their quota of souls.
 * Ask a Stupid Question:

"Roxy: The next Post-It that man gives me, I'm shoving it up his butt.""
 * Ass Shove: Mason once tried to smuggle drugs in a condom stuck up his ass. Hilarity Ensues.
 * In another episode, an exhausted Roxy gives us this gem:

"Mason: Well, what do you know? It really was the banana peel!"
 * Attending Your Own Funeral: George does this after dying, but this is a privilege extended only to reapers. In a later episode, an old man wants to do this and has to be dissuaded by Mason and Rube.
 * Backstory: We learn how Mason, Betty, and Roxy died in the first season, with Rube's gradually being revealed over season two.
 * Banana Peel: "Pilot".

"Daisy: I'm looking for a girl. She's about yay big, brown eyes, pretty... angry... pretty angry, actual—Oh! That's her."
 * Bait and Switch: Almost all of the deaths. Incredibly dangerous situations are set up only for the death to be caused by something almost completely random.
 * Happens so much, even the Reapers begin to notice. Some have even made a game of picking out just what's going to happen. And, since this is the norm, when everything happens as predicted (see the banana peel above) it actually ends up going full circle and becoming a surprise.
 * Big Eater: Rube.
 * Black Comedy: It's a show about grim reapers. What did you expect?
 * Bloody Hilarious: Most of the deaths and George's antics with
 * Book Ends: Season 1 began and ended with a shot of earth from space.
 * Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Daisy describing George to George's (Millie's) co-workers:

"Mason: Crazy fucking fuck. George: I wish the words just rolled off my tongue like they do yours."
 * Break the Cutie: Daisy and Reggie both suffer from this.
 * Broken Pedestal: Mason had to reap one of his favorite rock stars who had become a sad drug addict of a has-been.
 * Butt Monkey: Mason.
 * George, as well.
 * The Reapers and mortals in general as far as the Gravelings are concerned.
 * California Doubling: Anyone in the northwest could tell you that Seattle is rarely that sunny and bright for more than a week per year, much less all year round. Reggie and her mom sleeping in casual spring clothes outside in the middle of fall would have more likely given them frost bite.
 * Came Back Wrong: RAY. RAYRAYRAY. OHGODRAY.
 * Cancellation.
 * Catch Phrase: "Delores Herbig, as in, her big brown eyes."
 * Celestial Bureaucracy: Implied to exist. Most of the reapers are on the bottom rung, Rube is one level up, and whoever supplies Rube with names and dates is a level above that. No one knows how many levels there are in total.
 * deleted scenes in the pilot, which are also included in the Sci-Fi airings, show reapers standing in a DMV-like office building and filling out lots of paper work to get new identifications.
 * Not just "DMV-like", it was the DMV. The clerk providing George with new ID was another reaper. He used his breaks to do his reaps in the hospital around the corner.
 * Character Development.: Plenty, especially George, Daisy and (surprisingly enough) Rube.
 * In a behind the scenes DVD interview the actor playing Mason revealed that he demanded that his character never be allowed to develop because it was funnier to let him remain a lovable idiot.
 * Mason didn't just not develop. He regressed. In the pilot he seemed calm and competent at his job. He got thoroughly Flanderized over the course of the series.
 * The Chosen One: George seemed to be picked by the Gravelings to be important somehow, revealed in a flashback to an early near-death experience in a swimming pool.
 * And in another flashback (second season's finale), she seems to be able to see the gravelings in the house of her neighbor, at least on Halloween.
 * The next to last episode showed.
 * Chronic Pet Killer: George and Reggie.
 * Clip Show: "Nighthawks", due to budgetary reasons and that episode's plot running short. On that note, it does get bonus points for having a plot, even if the clips are irrelevant.
 * Cloudcuckoolander: Mason, quite often. According to him, college is a plot by bacteria to transmit themselves more effectively.
 * And then there was Ronnie, a clinical schizophrenic who could see the gravelings.
 * Cluster F-Bomb: Mason, who probably swears more than actually speaking.
 * Lampshaded by George in one episode.

"George: licks finger and holds it up You feel that? That's the IQ falling."
 * Everybody swears quite a bit.
 * Comedic Sociopathy: Indulged in frequently by Mason and sometimes by George (until she has a change of heart).
 * Conspicuous CG: Mostly averted with the gravelings and the lights, but a little to obvious on things like the train derailing in season one and other causes of death.
 * Cool Big Sis: Reggie looks up to George, despite the lack of affection she gave back.
 * Also, though non-biological, Betty assumes the role for George.
 * Cool Old Lady: "Grandma Phyl," Mother of Joy and George and Reggie's grandmother. Joy was always at odds with her, but the latter two liked her.
 * Creepy Child:
 * Reggie's way of coping with her sister's death was a bit disturbing.
 * Charlie, the animal reaper.
 * Cruel and Unusual Death: Again, most of the deaths.
 * Justified; George and the other main cast members are a unit assigned to accidents, murders, suicide, etc.
 * Curse Cut Short: "Oh shi....", but only in the broadcast edit.
 * Dark and Troubled Past: Ms. Herbig, the extremely Genki Girl boss of the temp agency who casually mentions things she did in her youth like participating in lesbian orgies, doing coke in a public restroom and picking up random homeless men for sex...
 * Rube.
 * Dawson Casting: George, initially unobtrusive since she's the only teen character we regularly see. Becomes inconvenient since undead characters are not supposed to age. Increasingly obvious makeup is Handwaved as office-worker glam. Averted with Reggie, who gets to grow up on screen.
 * Daydream Surprise
 * Deadpan Snarker: George and boy does she deliver some gems.

""That is not right.""
 * Death by Falling Over: Many of the deaths on the show seem like something most people would walk away from.
 * Well of course. If someone had just walked away, there wouldn't really be a reason to call in the grim reapers.
 * Truth in Television too. For every "I can't believe he walked away from that" you have someone who, say, gets sucker punched in just the right spot, and dies from it.
 * Death by Irony
 * Death by Looking Up: George.
 * Death by Origin Story: George and all the other Reapers, of course.
 * Death Takes a Holiday: Literally, in one episode.
 * Death's Hourglass: A central theme to the series.
 * The Ditherer: George becomes this when she's called to interview three applicants to a job and choose one.
 * Direct to Video: Life After Death, a much-delayed continuation finally released in 2009.
 * Don't Fear the Reaper: Reapers exist to make death easier for people. They pop souls out of their bodies so their deaths will be painless and scarless. In fact the early episodes consist pretty much of Rube berating George for her well-intention efforts that ultimately make things harder for the dead.
 * Betty herself was tired of the image of the grim reaper being "black hooded skeleton with a scythe". So she wanted to help change the stereotype to being "fashionably dressed pretty lady holding a camera saying 'happy thoughts!' " instead.
 * Dysfunctional Family: The Lasses.
 * Edited for Syndication: The Syfy took out the curses.
 * Elephant in the Living Room: George's death can be this for the Lasses on occasion.
 * Episode on a Plane: Where Mason and Roxy were about to go to Mexico but the deaths of the two they reaped cancelled the flight.
 * Executive Meddling: The Behind the Scenes reason for . Creator Bryan Fuller recounts numerous problems with them. (Note that Tropes Are Not Bad. Some of the things Fuller wanted to do with the show sound like Writer on Board. If George's father was gay, in a sham marriage, would that mean that spiritually George should never have existed? This would also apply to millions of real people.)
 * Everything Is Worse With Bears: Episode 3.
 * Face Heel Turn: George's childhood friend Beth Anne Miller who pushed her into the public pool to gain the approval of the popular kids, an act George herself refused to do..
 * Fan Service: Of all the characters, Mason is the one seen naked or in his underwear the most. Fans are now well aware that his favorite pair is his Union Jack briefs.
 * Fan Disservice: One episode has a shameless old man die wearing nothing but a towel. His ghost promptly frolics around naked, much to the displeasure of all Reapers present.
 * A Father to His Men: Rube. A brusque, eccentric father, but like a father nonetheless. (A critical revelation later in the show leads Rube to consciously abandon this role.)
 * Fauxlosophic Narration: George's narration can sometimes become this if she's feeling angsty enough.
 * First-Episode Resurrection: George
 * First Person Snarker: George, in her narration.
 * Five-Man Band:
 * The Hero: Rube
 * The Lancer: Betty/George
 * The Big Guy: Roxy
 * The Smart Guy: George/Mason (in the "trickster" sense)
 * The Chick: Daisy
 * Five Stages of Grief: Everyone, at some point or another, but primarily George and her family.
 * Four Lines, All Waiting: The main gang usually split into two groups, each having its own plot. Besides, most episodes have a plot for Georgia's family, for Happy Time and for some flashback of Georgia's childhood.
 * Flanderization: Daisy in The Movie.
 * Freaky Fashion, Mild Mind
 * French Jerk: Roxy reaped a French woman at the airport. She was crushed by her own luggage.
 * Fridge Logic: Shouldn't the Lasses have received compensation from the Russian government for their daughter being killed by MIR?
 * Do space stations even have toilet seats?
 * They can. Space toilets need to use suction devices to collect waste, but that doesn't preclude the existence of a toilet-like housing apparatus. Having said that, the "seat" would probably not be raisable--or, indeed, a separate item at all. But who cares?
 * Frogs and Toads: Throughout the series, frogs are used as a recurring symbol for life, death, and change. George herself has a pet frog that belonged to her first reap that apparently followed her home, and a frog-shaped pendant given to her by her grandmother.
 * Fun with Acronyms: THieves ruin Everyone's Fun Time, Report Identify Punish Ostracize Fire (slogans George learned at work) and Trans-National Airways.
 * At one point Delores tells George "GFY". George is nonplussed until Delores explains that she means Good For You.
 * Garage Sale: Joy holds one after George dies, much to George's horror as a good chunk of the stuff for sale is George's. Mason also holds one (on somebody else's lawn) when he thinks he's about to ascend; pretty much all the items present are things he picked up in previous episodes.
 * Go Into the Light: The souls all see glowing visions (usually tinted blue), called lights, which they walk into to Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence.
 * God Guise: Three times (Roxy, Mason and Daisy) were mistaken for God.
 * Good Thing You Can Heal: Most of the reapers.
 * At one point in Der Waffle Haus, the manager is killed by the big neon sign falling down on him, while George is sitting at the counter. As she gets over that shock, she notices a two foot long piece of neon tube stuck in her chest. She pulls it out, bloody but apparently otherwise undamaged, then later that evening she coughs up a mounting bracket in bed.

"Mason: So... which one of you is the woman? Josh: Neither of us. We're two gay men."
 * On another occasion, George's middle finger comes off in a paper shredder at work. She puts it back on, but needs a band-aid so no one will suspect anything and because it hasn't quite stuck yet.
 * When the condom full of heroin bursts while inside Mason's rectum, he has to experience a lethal overdose without actually dying from it.
 * Mason later drinks from a glass of steaming liquid, not realizing it's a Halloween prop filled with dry ice solution. He promptly turns blue and vents steam from various facial orifices but soon recovers.
 * Go Out with a Smile: Mason died with a big dopey grin on his face. Probably literally dopey.
 * Goggles Do Nothing: Literally: Mason's death. He fails safety forever. Of course, why he thought they would do any good when he was is anyone's guess.
 * Presumably, the goggles would keep out of his eyes.
 * Gory Discretion Shot: For particularly violent deaths. Sometimes knowing what's happening is enough.
 * Goth: A couple show up, presented in various degrees of accuracy. Reggie hangs out with a goth crowd and experimented with this style in one episode. Another famous goth musician goes by the ridiculous name of "Bandar" and looks nearly as silly as the name implies. A clear sign of Did Not Do the Research.
 * Gratuitous German: Der Waffle Haus.
 * Greasy Spoon: Der Waffle Haus, where the Reapers meet and eat. Famously re-used in Stargate SG-1as a higher plane of existence.
 * The Grim Reapers: Duh.
 * Halloween Episode: The final one.
 * Healing Factor: one of the perks of being a Reaper.
 * Historical In-Joke
 * Mormon founder Joseph Smith had his religious awakening after a reaper encounter.
 * Rube reaped Amelia Earhart.
 * Daisy claims she reaped James Dean.
 * Mason reaped former Rolling Stones member Brian Jones.
 * Homage: to Hill Street Blues, down to use of theme music when the meter maids roll out onto the streets.
 * I See Dead People: The schizophrenic boy who can see the Gravelings, and the Reapers as they really look.
 * I Was Told There Would Be Cookies: Reggie says this to her psychiatrist.
 * Imagine Spot: Every now and then.
 * Immortal Immaturity: Mason. Oh, Mason...
 * Charlie, who's been--ten? eleven?--since 1993, also qualifies.
 * Inner Monologue: George.
 * Jacob Marley Apparel: Only for regular ol' dead folk; Reapers can (and do, and should) change their clothes.
 * Jerkass Facade: George tries to develop one, believing that jerks are in general liked better...but quickly realizes it's just not for her.
 * Killed Mid-Sentence: "Oh Shi...." again. Also, only in the broadcast edit.
 * Last Day to Live: Mason gets a purple post-it and becomes convinced his time as a reaper is up, but it then turns out.
 * Life Will Kill You: Common in this series.
 * Likes Older Women: Deleted scenes indicate that the guy whose apartment George takes was very much this, if his octogenarian Porn Stash and appearance of an older girlfriend were anything to go by.
 * Meaningful Name: Gee, I wonder who Rube was named for...
 * Then there's Joy. Seems like an ironic name at first, until we add Lass to the end of it.
 * Ned from a company called ''LunaTeca goes on a shooting spree.
 * Possible meaningful nickname (to the nicknamer, at least): "Georgy Girl," Mason's nickname for George, was the title of a hit film that was released in 1966 - the year of his death. It's a punny nickname as well: George Lass = Georgy Girl.
 * Medium Blending: The opening recap of the movie is done in a comic book form.
 * Misplaced Kindergarten Teacher: Ms. Herbig, of that particular variety that thinks children are happy little elf-things rather than real people with the capacity to actually think. And she tries to talk to her employees like they're children. You see where I'm going with this. It gets hard to tell if she's being passive-aggressive or if she really thinks offering up "her big brown eyes" as a mnemonic to remember her name is a perfectly acceptable way to address adults.
 * Mood Whiplash: The show regularly shifts between black comedy, drama, office comedy and Urban Fantasy. It does it well though.
 * Mundane Afterlife: At least for Reapers, life after death continues on more or less as normal.
 * The Name Is Bond, James Bond: "Daisy; Daisy Adair."
 * Played straight in the speed dating scene, even if that isn't his name.
 * Necro Non Sequitur: Very, very often.
 * Never Got to Say Goodbye: George. Subverted with, who does eventually.
 * Never "Live" It Down: In Reaper circles, George will always be known as "Toilet Seat Girl."
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Early in the series, George attempted to prevent her mark from dying by making sure he wouldn't show up for his "appointment" on time. It worked, but had a domino effect that ended up getting even more people killed.
 * Nightmare Fetishist: Reggie's tastes are a little...macabre. At one point, she even expressed interest at the sight of a disembodied heart.
 * No Sympathy: None of the Reapers are all that inclined to show that much support for George after she dies.
 * Not That There's Anything Wrong with That: Mason trips over himself during the reap of a gay couple.
 * Not That There's Anything Wrong with That: Mason trips over himself during the reap of a gay couple.

""I guess it's not so bad, being dead like me.""
 * Our Ghosts Are Different: Ghosts exist, but they're the result of a sloppy reaping where the soul is allowed to wander off instead of getting its lights, instead of emotional trauma or unfinished business or any of the other usual causes.
 * Our Souls Are Different: If a person's soul isn't reaped and they continue living it eventually goes rotten.
 * Our Zombies Are Different: Despite the fact that they are extremely human like, the reapers themselves are in a way zombies(Type O i suppose) based on the fact that they are technically reanimated dead people. The show even uses the term Undead to refer to their state of being
 * Out with a Bang: A newlywed husband cheats in an Airplane Bathroom, and has an allergic reaction to the peanuts the stewardess he was making out with had eaten.
 * Parents as People
 * Plucky Girl: Betty.
 * Porn Stash: The previous owner of George's apartment in the first few episodes had a collection of octogenarian porn.
 * The Problem with Fighting Death: Or rather, the problem with trying to holiday, use your powers irresponsibly or for self gain, kill people who aren't supposed to die, not allow people who are supposed to die to die, and in the movie,
 * Psychopomp: The premise of the show.
 * Pulling Themselves Together: George reattaches her finger after an accident with a shredder.
 * Quick Nip: Mason, when he's Off the Wagon.
 * Quit Your Whining: Rube has this attitude toward George.
 * Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Again, the External Influence Division.
 * Rasputinian Death: in The Movie. It's really difficult to kill.
 * Specifically,
 * Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Reapers stay the age they were when they died, and all but George have been dead for at least a few decades.
 * Retcon: A few details were added in and taken out between the pilot and the second episode. And, for the most part, in the second season and in the movie, the detail of the Reapers looking different to living people seemed to be more or less dropped. (Though the last episode of Season 2 alluded to it.)
 * Rube Goldberg Hates Your Guts: All of the deaths involve this to some degree. Lampshaded and justified in that the Gravelings exist to ensure that the improbable coincidences occur resulting in the death of the right person at the proper time.
 * Running Gag: One of many is George making up bizarre excuses to escape certain situations, such as spending more time than she has to with Delores. In the pilot episode she says she can't talk with a man because she is praying, she avoids scrapbooking with Delores by saying she is having a "heavy flow day" and avoids going to a stationary store (that apparently has to be "seen to be believed") with Delores by saying she has been alcohol-free for a year and her AA sponsor is taking her to the park to fly kites.
 * Scotireland: in "Reaping Havoc", an Irish-American saw Ireland's Cliffs of Dover waiting for him in the afterlife... while the soundtrack played "Scotland the Brave".
 * Even worse, the Cliffs of Dover aren't in Ireland at all, but in England.
 * Furthermore, the actual image they showed was of the Cliffs of Moher, which are in Ireland. Which means someone in post-production caught this and didn't bother to tell anyone.
 * Hey, maybe the poor guy was going to hell. An Irishman's version of hell, that is...
 * You're right about them showing Moher; however, compositors aren't given the soundtrack when special effects are handed off to them. It wouldn't have been caught until the finished effects and the soundtrack were put together, which most likely would have been too late for a change to be made due to either deadlines or budget, or both.
 * Shaggy Dog Story: The story of the man who rode through a swamp to get back to the woman he loves whom with he had quarreled. He met a boy and asked him if the bottom was hard. As he sank, he told the boy that the swamp does not have a hard bottom. The boy replied, "It's bottom is hard, you just haven't reached it yet.
 * She's All Grown Up: Reggie, in the movie. Her hair let loose, her glasses gone, and wearing make up and pretty dresses causes her to become nigh unrecognizable to fans expecting her to still look the same five years later.
 * Ship Tease: Mason gives George a quick peck on the lips when he thinks his time as a reaper is over.
 * Not to mention "I really love you, Georgie."
 * Shrine to the Fallen: Reggie makes one out of toilet seats for George.
 * The Snark Knight: George
 * Soft Water: Averted by Betty's death, jumping off a cliff into water that was too far down.
 * Spontaneous Human Combustion: One episode sees an untalented stand-up comedian, literally, die on stage by inexplicably exploding after one of his bad jokes.
 * Also happened to an arm wrestler the night they met Ray.
 * Stealing From the Till: something that comes up both at Happy Time and amongst the reapers taking art, jewelry, houses, cars, drugs, etc. from those they just reaped. The morality of the stealing from the dead appears to be pretty gray, sometimes a character will be scolded and punished for stealing from bodies, others times they treat it like a normal thing. Then again, as it has been noted many times, the reaper job is completely unpaid.
 * But don't EVER steal from Der Waffle Haus.
 * Stepford Smiler: Daisy initially appears to be a ditzy starlet who is as promiscuous as it gets, who is selfish and full of it. But as George notes, she seems to simply be putting on an act. And her final thoughts when she died in a fire was . Combined with her psychological problems with seeing women being attacked by men and she seems to be a pretty troubled character.
 * George's mother is this in a huge way. Absolutely everything in her life must be perfect, fitting every single stereotype of suburban life exactly. No variation allowed. This makes it hard for George's sister to actually come to terms with her sister's death.
 * Dolores Herbig. She puts on a happy, cheery demeanor, but it's strongly implied that she's a sad and desperately lonely individual with a Dark and Troubled Past.
 * Strange Girl: George, pre-death, as well as her little sister Reggie.
 * Stupid Crooks: In the pilot episode one of George's first experiences with the reapers is with Mason at a bank, where we meet Bret, the hapless bank robber. Bret stumbles through a prepared announcement he wrote up before entering the bank and gets upstaged by one jealous wife of the bankers. However, he miraculously manages to get away with the bank's money.
 * Meanwhile, Mason is oftentimes the dumbest of the team of reapers and is the only one who looks to earn his money through theft and scrounging, while the others hold down jobs on the side (except for Rube, who seems to be independently wealthy). Usually, his stupidity and crimes don't affect the others, but one occasion stands out where, after previously giving away all of his possessions when he incorrectly assumed he was finally going to the afterlife, he was caught stealing tips left on tables at Der Waffle House, where the gang always meets and hangs out, and is immediately kicked out and barred from coming back to the diner by the group's usual waitress Kiffany.
 * Supernatural Soap Opera
 * Talking to the Dead: Part of the premise.
 * Team Dad: Rube. George even identifies him as this.
 * Team Mom: Roxy. Kiffany, a waitress at Der Waffle Haus, identifies her role as this in the Reapers' group.
 * The Tell: Joy makes blueberry pancakes when she feels guilty.
 * Third Person Person: Ted from Happy Time (usually).
 * This Is Gonna Suck: George's last words in life ("Aw, shit.") evoke this as she sees the toilet seat flying towards her.
 * Throw It In: One episode has George jokingly make a motion to eat her pet frog. It retaliates by biting her on the mouth. According to the commentary on the first episode, this was not scripted.
 * Title Drop: Done in the last episode of both seasons -


 * Tomboyish Name: Georgia "George" Lass (and her little sister Regina "Reggie" Lass). Creator Bryan Fuller seems to like this trope; his other series (Wonderfalls and Pushing Daisies) also have female leads with "boy" nicknames.
 * Tomboy and Girly Girl: Roxy and Daisy, respectively. Lampshaded in the last episode of season 2 where they dress up as a princess and a cop, respectively.
 * True Companions: The External Influence division.
 * Tsundere: Roxy.
 * Uncancelled: The Movie.
 * Undeath Always Ends: Death is a transient... I mean, transitory thing. Or both, if you count Mason.
 * Unusually Uninteresting Sight: At one point, Roxy shoots Mason right inside Der Waffle Haus. Nobody in the restaurant seems to notice or care.
 * Subverted the time Rube substituted for Angus the recently deceased fry cook of Der Waffle Haus. One of the waitresses sees them talking but to her it looks like Rube's talking to himself.
 * Visit by Divorced Dad:
 * Waking Up At the Morgue: Somewhat. George tries to avoid a reap but the person dies anyway, and had to experience his autopsy before she reaps him at the Morgue.
 * Wham! Episode: Three in season 2. Two showed George could see gravelings when she was a kid and the third showed.
 * What Happened to the Mouse?: What happened to Betty is purposely left up in the air. Interestingly, when a different character named Betty shows up later, George remarks "Who's Betty?" as if she wasn't familiar with anyone by that name...
 * Betty was supposed to return in season two. Bryan Fuller, the show's creator, left early in season one, which left the plot in the hands of studio execs. Since they hadn't wanted the actress who had played Betty to portray her in the first place, they wrote Betty out of season two.
 * Whatever
 * White-Haired Pretty Girl: Daisy.
 * Why Did You Make Me Hit You?
 * Yank the Dog's Chain: In the thirteenth episode of the second season, we see that.
 * In The Movie, we find that Delores's chronically health-challenged cat Murray has survived the past five years.
 * You Can't Go Home Again: George. That doesn't stop her from doing it anyway.