The phrase
"Time to shake things up a bit" is said by the character of Betty, portrayed by actress
Rebecca Gayheart in the
Showtime original tv series
Dead Like Me. The phrase is said a little bit before the character follows a recently deceased guy's soul to his final resting place, that appeared to be the
Cliffs of Dover in
Ireland. According to the television series, everyone's entrance to the afterlife looks like something specific to them, that only they would recognize, and the
grim reapers in the story (Betty being one of them) are supposed to not follow their charges into their respective ..heavens, for lack of a better word. Betty, being the sort of person she is, decided to take a dive and, y'know, shake things up a bit.
Though she was only on the show five episodes, the character of Betty is one of the more memorable and thought provoking characters in the series, and this phrase, though perhaps used before this series to better use, has now taken on an entirely new meaning to me. Sometimes one just has to do something that no one has ever done before, not to be noticed or to be remembered or to be stupid or
zany or anything other than
human. Sometimes one just has to try something new because their soul cries out for it.
The character of Betty was an enjoyable character. You know how oftentimes writers of tv shows or movies create
characters that they're purposefully gonna
kill off later in the story? They often make these characters
unlikeable so the
audience doesn't get too attached to them, and become upset when they're gone. In this case the exact opposite happened. Betty's character, though seemingly vain and shallow in the first few episodes, is revealed to be a woman of courage and
zest for life, though she's been dead since
The Roaring Twenties. So when she's gone, her loss is palpable. It's a more powerful statement that the writers were making here. Perhaps this is one of the most powerful moments in the series. A turning point for some of the other characters, and it reinforces what the series is trying to convey: even after you're dead, you're not gonna have all the answers.
The end of life, for those who believe in the possibilities, is only the beginning.