Dead Like Me's' Blue Is Lost in the Summer of Love

By Kate O'Hare

The phrase "I need that like I need a hole in the head" takes on new meaning after learning more about Mason, a character in the Friday-night Showtime series "Dead Like Me."

Doing well since its premiere on Friday, June 27, "Dead Like Me" follows the day-to-day afterlives of the individuals in a team of undead people. They are assigned to snatch souls from the living in the instant prior to death. These grim reapers got their jobs -- which leave them stalled in a corporeal netherworld between life and whatever lies beyond -- when their souls fulfilled the quotas for other reapers. It's like a game of tag.

Mason, played by London native Callum Blue, was tagged in 1966, the so-called "Summer of Love," after using a fairly preposterous method to do himself in. Seeking permanent euphoria, Mason decided to drill a hole in his head.

"He died of a thing called trepanning, which was a very popular thing in the '60s," Blue explains. "It's this thing where you drill a hole in your head with an electric drill. I looked this up. It's so interesting.

"Reading up on it, it really sounds great. It's because we are not meant to walk on two legs; we're meant to be walking on all fours. Therefore, when we did go up on two legs, our skulls grew over too much. So, it's a way of release.

"So you do it, and these people swear to God that they have a permanent high all the time. It's like being on drugs the whole time. They're much more artistic and free; their minds are much freer."

Blue is not making this up. Trepanation has been proposed as a cure for ailments and to increase consciousness. Risk factors include brain hemorrhage, meningitis or brain abscess due to infection. In Mason's case, he didn't live long enough for any of these things to happen.

"Mason dies because he's a bit stupid, and he went too far and pierced his brain. He didn't do it very well," Blue says.

Mason may have seemed reasonably sane (if rather fond of stealing) in the show's pilot, Blue says, but just wait. "There's definitely something up with this guy. In the pilot, he doesn't come across as the psychopath that he actually is. There's something wrong. Have [you] seen the episode where I hide heroin in my bottom?

"You have to see that one. That's another crazy side to him. He does drug deals to make extra money, because as you know, he can't make money from being a grim reaper. So, he decides it's a good idea to hide a kilo of heroin up his bottom in a condom.

"He gets searched at the airport -- and I don't want to be too graphic -- but when the finger goes to search, it pierces the condom. Because Mason's dead already, he doesn't die of an overdose, but he gets extremely high. It's a very funny episode."

It's pretty clear at this point that Blue's humor and that of series creator Bryan Fuller are not all that different. Fuller views death as the start of a new life for the grim reapers, and Blue thinks everyone needs to reconsider his or her attitude toward death.

"What I loved about the concept for the show more than anything is we need to look at death as a lighter thing. It's bound to happen," he says. "We need to get used to it. The whole way through the series, people die, and we really explore the lighter side of it.

"You really don't have to be deep and dark and complex about death. You have to look at the bright side of it, I guess."

Unsure of his belief in the afterlife or grim reapers harvesting souls to spare them the pain of death, Blue says, "I don't know what my beliefs are. I just hope I don't meet Mason if I die. That would be really crappy."

Since the premiere, there's been a hint of flirtation between Mason and the newest reaper, 18-year-old Georgia Lass (Ellen Muth).

"I don't know what they've decided to do with it at the very end," Blue says. "They're still thinking about it. We've only got another four episodes to film, but the whole way, there's a lot of flirtation with them. It's like brotherly-sisterly, with a bit of incest thrown in."

"Dead Like Me" is Blue's first role in an American television series, and if it's successful, he is pondering a more extended move across the pond. But, if he really had his druthers, Blue would chuck it all and visit Mason's world (without the fatal drilling, one assumes).

"He lived in Chelsea [in London]," Blue says, "right in the middle of the whole '60s vibe, which is my favorite era. If I was going to choose an era to live in, it would be that -- having sex with anybody, just doing so many drugs. That sounds brilliant.

"We worry too much, nowadays. We can't have sex with anybody, because we'll pick something up. Nobody does drugs anymore, because it's not the cool thing to do, and you'll die. There's that, but they didn't care about that in the '60s.

"They were really depressed in the U.K. in the '50s. In the '60s, they livened up a bit, then they just went berserk. I love it."

Although Mason lived during the time of the Beatles, Blue doesn't reckon he was a fan. Asked if Mason was a Rolling Stones fan instead, Blue says, "Definitely. T-Rex, as well. I would say he was a Mod."

If he was a Mod, one wonders if Mason had Teddy Boy suits in his closet. "My God," Blue says. "I actually wear a Teddy Boy suit in one of the episodes. I get dressed up for a girl, and it goes a bit wrong, and I look like a '60s reject."