song of the day: big country / big country
word of the day: snuggle

while on tour i purchased the first season of Dead Like Me, based on the public, emphatic recommendations of Art Bell on Coast to Coast AM radio show. mistake. first of all, Art, god bless him- he's a lovely sweet guy, but he's got the cultural sensibilities of a nine year old with a wigi board fetish. this show, which stars Mandi Patinkin (and others, including the star girl chick whom i can't remember) has a cool enough premise: an 18 year old girl dies, becomes a grim reaper, and learns all the lessons about life while she's dead. her work is taking the souls of other people who are about to die. i like that premise, and the first episode was promising, because it humor, emotion, it was hard to pin-point exactly what genre the show would be, and it came out with some surprises. but then, the subsequent 14 episodes (yes, i watched them all) were kind of like watching "Blossom" meets "Six Feet Under". i wasn't surprised again, and the show seemed to meander aimlessly, repeatedly missing opportunities for ingenuity and novelty. the acting ranges from good to adequate, the main problem is the writing. i get the feeling the network has put pressure on the show to connect the idiot dots and make sure that anyone can relate to this show. why give a show an inventive, promising premise and then yank the fucking rug out from under the writers as soon as episode two rolls around? not only that, the plot lines and character developments don't really go anywhere from episode to episode, and sometimes are never concluded or continued at all. somewhere around episode five, one of the main characters jumps into a luminous chasm, and that's it- we never hear from her again. did i mention she was hot? ten episodes later we still haven't heard a peep about what's up with her. of course, if you want to see a kick ass show about death, just go buy Six Feet Under.