The pilot is very enjoyable, mainly because of the star, Brooke Elliot, who is fabulous. She plays a brilliant, highly successful attorney, Jayne, who pays no attention to her appearance - she's on the heavy side, and her hair is long with no style. One night, she stays late at the office, and a man, angry with one of the partners, comes in with a gun. She is killed. At the same moment of her death, a shallow, pencil thin, blonde beauty named Deb is driving to an audition to be a prize demonstrator on The Price is Right and crashes while putting on lipstick. Upset that she's dead, once in heaven, she hits a "return" button when the check-in person isn't looking. She ends up with Jayne's body, Jayne's brains, and her own memory.
I love the premise - it's been used in movies before, but usually seriously. Some of the scenes are great, including when Deb first sees herself as Jayne, Jayne trying to get into Deb's clothes - I won't spoil it for you. Since Deb has inherited Jayne's brain power, she's thrilled that she's now smart, and certainly knows how to deal with competitive women, which Jayne did not. I love how Elliot incorporates Deb's bubbly personality beneath the person of Jayne.
Very well cast, with Margaret Cho as Jayne's assistant and Kate Levering, a talented Broadway actress, as Deb's friend Kim.I caught the pilot of this show today without very high expectations, but it was actually really great and really amusing, with a fun soundtrack and interesting setting. Brooke Elliott is great as Deb in Jayne's body, the switch she portrayed between the characters was subtle but apparent, and she is very likable. The supporting cast are also all very strong. The writers do well in drawing the audience in, I already care about these characters after one 40 minute episode. Having told myself I am going to watch much less TV, and dropping about 50% of the shows I used to watch regularly, the fact that I plan to continue watching Drop Dead Diva shows how entertaining the pilot was. I'm looking forward to seeing more of what this show has to offer, and I hope it continues to deliver and develop into a great series.Drop Dead Diva. Actually, my first reaction to the show, or frankly to the TITLE of the show, was kind of "What a nonsense they're putting on". Hello!? I could not have been wrong more here. Not a nonsense. Quite on the contrary. One can not only get a nice law story per episode, but also gets a share of really great performance here as well as really lovable characters. I loved and love a lot of TV shows (most of them already ended), but since my late teens I for the first time am really thrilled with the main character of the TV show, as well as I can well put myself in almost every position she's in (except, huh, for having your soul trapped in a wrong body). It's like in many TV shows and movies we only get these 'super white big smile nice body' actors and actresses which all look great and at the same time almost the same and just as unreal as Santa to any grown-up, but this time we are getting this new character which is awesome, beautiful, and at the same time just like me, you or someone next to you. And I really love that. Long live the show as there is one fan for you here already