Review of Dead Last

Dead Last (2001)
Should've given it a chance, WB.
23 October 2005
There's actually a real-world band called Dead F***ing Last. I wonder whether that's where they got the name for this show.

I confess, I only had an interest in watching this thing because Harry Groener was guest-starring on it. But I have since acquired all the episodes on DVD, partly because of Tyler Labine (currently starring on ABC's "Invasion"). He was far and away the most believable and convincing of the three "rock stars". This series wanted to be a supernatural spin on movies like "Almost Famous", and it would have succeeded, had the WB not been such arses about scheduling it. The rest of the cast and the writers would have gotten better with time. It's the curse of television sitcoms that time is one commodity they can't afford.

Best episodes: "The Crawford Touch" guest-starring "Ghoulies" Michael DesBarres as a evil rock producer impresario who traps the gang and forces them to contact his resident ghost, a Kurt-Cobain type genius whose final record is hidden/lost forever. "To Live And Amulet Die", simply on the strength of my Harry being in it :) as an evil professor obsessed with gaining the band's magical amulet. The pilot and the lion's share of eps I'm sorry to say weren't that good. But they *would've* gotten better-- and Labine is fun to watch in every single ep; we can only hope "Invasion" kicks him off on the strong career "Dead Last" should have.

Just an aside: no series about any band will ever succeed without extended footage of the "band" performing at least one honest to God hit. "Dead Last" made the mistake of cutting away right when The Problem hit the stage. Nobody is going to believe your series about a struggling rock band unless you actually show them playing; I'm sorry, but it's a fact. There's a reason "The Monkees" lasted more than one season.
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