Let's begin...
Dead Like Me, Showtime
IMDb; MGM; Sci-Fi Channel; Showtime; TV.com; Wikipedia
Georgia "George" Lass (who we kinda like) is an 18-year-old college dropout who isn't really doing anything with her life. She's rather apathetic and sarcastic and cynical and whatever. Then she dies (hit by a toilet seat that fell from the Mir space station). And then she becomes "un-dead," recruited to be a grim reaper. People see her as someone else, so no one from her past life will recognize her. Reapers get new identities, and George's new name is Mildred Hagen, though of course only the living will call her Millie. Meanwhile, she hangs out with some other reapers, who call her George. The leader of the group is Rube, who receives information about people who are about to die, and assigns the reapers in his group souls to collect, with name, location, and Estimated Time of Death (ETD) on post-it notes. Besides George, other reapers in Rube's group include Mason, Roxy, and Betty (who we like). A ways into the first season, Betty leaves, and is replaced by another reaper named Daisy Adair (who we like). Mason is a rather goofy British guy who drinks too much and who Rube calls a screw-up. Roxy is a meter maid with a gruff attitude, who eventually becomes a cop. Daisy was an actress. Um, I don't really know what else to say about any of them, but I feel I'm definitely not describing them very well. Sorry about that. But they make for an interesting ensemble. Anyway, they always gather in Der Waffle Haus to eat, and get their post-its from Rube, and talk about whatever. There's also a waitress there named Tiffany who serves them all the time. I sometimes wondered if she knew they were reapers, or anything....
Reapers work in different divisions, depending on the circumstances of their own death; because her death was accidental, George works in the external influence division, collecting souls of those who died of accidents, murder, or suicide. The whole reaping gig doesn't provide alot of answers; they don't seem to know anything about God, Heaven, Hell, or any such thing. They may help souls in their transition, but they don't know where they go. There are strange, shadowy creatures called Gravelings who seem to cause accidental deaths. And... well, there are various mysteries, and George has a hard time dealing with some of this stuff, especially accepting the fact that she has to take souls she's assigned to take, rather than trying to let people live. And Rube is sometimes displeased with her, though he himself has unanswered questions....
Aside from her reaper duties, George has to deal with mundane things like finding a place to live and making money. Reapers have to either loot from dead bodies, or find jobs, because being a reaper doesn't pay. If they can't afford a place of their own, they often have to squat in the unoccupied homes of the recently deceased, until the place becomes occupied by someone living, again. George (or rather Millie) ends up working at the Happy Time temp agency, with a rather annoyingly perky woman named Dolores Herbig (from whom George had gotten a job the day she died, coincidentally).
And then, there is the family George has left behind. She isn't supposed to have any contact with them, or anything, but she seems unable to stop... at least watching them. She never really related very well with her parents (Joy, who we like, and Clancy), and totally ignored her little sister, Reggie (quite a cute kid, IMO). Welp, now Reggie is having alot of trouble dealing with George's death, and is acting in alot of odd ways (such as stealing toilet seats). Joy is having trouble dealing with her, and thinks Reggie should get therapy. Clancy doesn't seem able to deal with anything, and would rather Reggie didn't get therapy, so there's alot of strain in the marriage. And now George regrets alot of things about how she lived her life (or failed to really live it), including her family relationships. Oh, and one of the people George reaped had a dog named J.D., and George anonymously left him with her folks. Reggie and Clancy both got pretty attached to him.
So... not sure what else to say, but so far I'm quite liking it. Although the show actually seems more sort of "quirky" than "supernatural," because it isn't that much about the reaping, it's more just about characters having to deal with the afterlife, or rather... life... after death. Which, for reapers, is mostly the same as life before death. Except different. I dunno. But whatever, maybe I'll move it sometime, but I'll leave it here for now, at least.
The Dead Zone, USA
IMDb; TV Tome; TWoP
Based on a Stephen King novel, which I've never read. There was also a movie made of the novel, back in '83 (see S&P movies 6), but I didn't see it till after a couple seasons of the show, and I didn't like it nearly as much. Anyway, what to say? This guy Johnny Smith was a teacher and was engaged to one of the other teachers at his school, then he was in a car crash and went into a coma for several years. Then he woke up and his fiancée, Sarah (played by Nicole de Boer, who played Ezri Dax in the last season of Deep Space Nine, and who we rather like), is now married to the local sheriff, Walt. They're raising a son named Johnny, who is actually Johnny Smith's son, though the kid doesn't know that. (Sarah had become pregnant shortly before the car crash.) Anyway, now the elder Johnny has psychic visions. It happened to him before, when he was a kid, I guess, but now his powers are full-blown and Johnny doesn't really want them, but he has to live with them, and does his best to use them for good. Meanwhile he's trying to get back to his old life, getting a job, and remaining friends with Sarah, with whom, naturally, he's still in love. Which causes some complications, of course. Then there's this reporter named Dana (who we like), who does some stories on Johnny and his new abilities, but the two of them also get rather close. Then there's this guy Reverend Purdy who was like an old friend of Johnny's mother (who's dead now), and he wants to help Johnny but also has ulterior motives. He has political connections and stuff, not quite sure what to say... Oh yes, and there's this guy named Bruce who's Johnny's physical therapist and became a friend and gets involved in Johnny's efforts to help people from his visions or whatever... There, I think that's all there is to say about the show. Maybe. Anyway, it's pretty cool and stuff. Interesting stories, and um... gah, I just like it, okay? I dunno what else to tell you.
Tru Calling, FOX
Fox Home; IMDb; TV.com; TWoP; Wikipedia
Okay. When Tru Davies was 12, her mom died. Flash forward 10 years, and she's just graduated from college, and takes a job at a morgue to prepare for medical school. She's played by Eliza Dushku (Faith from Buffy the Vampire Slayer), who we very much like. Anyway, Tru starts hearing voices. Dead people will ask for help, and then she'll have to relive the day and try to prevent them from dying. She also wants to help her brother Harrison and sister Meredith with their own problems. Harrison was the first person she told about her ability, though he didn't really believe her at first. The second person she told, who actually brought it up himself, was Davis, a guy she works with at the morgue, and now he does whatever he can to help her save people on her do-over days. Tru's best friend is Lindsay, and there's a guy named Luc who Tru kept trying to get to know, except every time she did, the day would end up starting over. Eventually they did get together, though. Later they broke up because Tru had this secret she was keeping from him. Eventually this guy named Jack started working at the morgue, who would in the first season finale turn out to also relive days, but he thinks Tru shouldn't be tampering with fate, so he tries to stop her from saving lives of people who were "supposed" to die. It's an interesting situation, very sort of "Evil Leaper," if you know what I mean. Oh, I should also mention that at one point, Tru learned her mother used to do what she does. And the season finale has a surprise involving her father, too. I dunno what else to tell you, but I enjoy the show. Hope it gets a second season....
This started with a TV movie (IMDb) in which um... things happened. Well, anyway, it's all based on comic books I never read. Sara Pezzini is a New York City cop, and her partner Danny was killed by this mob guy, and um... Sara gets ahold of this thing called the Witchblade (which has many other names in other languages and stuff), and she wears it like a bracelet, but it expands to become a gauntlet or a full suit of armor, and also a sword, and it's some ancient mystical thing which apparently um... is part of her destiny, and it seems like she's reincarnated and has almost always had this thing through the ages. There's this rich guy named Kenneth Irons who is very interested in it, and in her because of her history with it, which he knows alot about but Pez knows nothing about. And there's this guy Ian Nottingham who works for Irons, and he was like part of some military experiment to create super-soldiers. Anyway, Pez (did I mention we like her?) gets a new parter, Jake, but now that she has the Witchblade she can have conversations with dead people such as Danny. And um... it's all very confusing, especially for Pez. Also her father... or adoptive father, whatever, was killed because of his investigations of a group of corrupt cops, led by a guy named Dante, and now Pez is investigating them, and they invite Jake to join them. And, um... you know, there are still normal police investigations for them to work on, but sometimes it seems to turn out to involve the Witchblade. And um... y'know, other stuff happens. It's complicated. Oh, also, there was this guy named Gabriel who dealt in rare items, often very old, sometimes mystical, like the Witchblade. He'd sometimes provide info for Pez. Anyway, at the end of the first season, pretty much everyone Pez cared about was killed, and she used the power of the Witchblade to turn back time or something, though it may have been more like travelling into an alternate timeline. In any event, the second season was about the year playing over, and some things went differently, in part because Pez occasionally had flashes of how things had gone the first time, even though she didn't really remember it. Also, Danny was alive and remained her partner this time, though he began to get suspicious of her because she kept things from him concerning the Witchblade. Then the series didn't get renewed, which was a major mistake on TNT's part. Why they're always saying "we know drama" is beyond me, considering they're always cancelling their good ones....