Ibert Anderny's
Daily View
Dead Last
Looks like us dead folks are finally hip -- judging by the new Fall television line up.
Tonight marked the premiere of "Dead Last"
a fast moving, reasonably well-written, comedy mis-adventure about a band cursed with the ability to
see the dead and stuck with the responsibility of helping.
The band "Problem" is composed of our hapless trio: Scotty (Tyler Labine),
Vaughn (Kett Turton), and Jane (Sara Downing). If these three look familiar that
could be because of two things, 1) they've been around television and low budget film for a while
and 2) the casting department has deliberately found typicalities to match
other hot new rising stars. For example, Tyler Labine as Scotty has a very
definite "Silent Bob" thing going -- except for the silent part. Scotty, and
each his two cohorts appear to be gettin' their fair share of good dialogue.
There is some fine filmography with nice setup shots and fun experiments
at cutting while maintaining good continuity and establishing shots to keep up with
the fast pace of this first episode.
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Another feather in the cap of "Dead Last's" producers Steve Pink and D.V. DeVincentis is their
use of action, rather than narative, to establish key plot elements. For example, it was
necessary to quickly establish that the power giving amulet and its responsibilities could not
be given away, thrown away, destroyed, or escaped by any means. The director had the choice of
idiotic narative or action. In this case he chose a rather fun sequence of events centered on
Scotty's attempt to give away, destroy and sell the amulet. Not only does this sequence establish
the fact that the band is stuck with their new found responsibilities we also get an excellent
view into several aspects of Scotty's character. His relaxed, yet edgy, repartee with the skateboarders
make him an easy character to like. And his repeated attempts to pawn the amulet give us
a glimpse of us his quick wit, keen eye for the moment, balanced with a healthy dash of larceny.
It doesn't hurt that the results of this pawn shop spree serve well to put some money in his pocket for a later scene.
Apparently, the writer's might actually be granting the audience a little credit with their
use of setup shots for action which occurs later in the hour. Nothing like Jacques Tati's Playtime,
but still a move in the right direction.
The only real clinker in the show was their lame introduction of Jane as Vaughn's ex. The scene looks very
much like some big wig late in the day decided that the audience had to know before the end of the
first episode exactly where the sexual lines were drawn. It would have been better if they just left that un-said.
A previous scence with Vaughn being discovered by his two band bud's while doing a groupie in the van was enough
to let us know they were not girl-friend and boy-friend. But I guess you have to let the top-boys think they are contributing.
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