Deb, (Brooke D’Orsay) is a conceited, shallow, beautiful woman. One day she is on her way for an audition for a modeling job on a TV game show and while looking at herself in the rear-view mirror, has a fatal car crash. While up at the pearly gates, she insists on returning to the life of the living, and pushes a reset button which sends her soul back but her new body is everything she is not.
Can a Shallow Soul from a Skinny Body Learn to Live in a Plus-Size Body?
Jane (Brooke Elliott) is a newly deceased attorney. She was shot during an incident at the law office where she works, and eats. This woman is a non-stop eater and her body shows it. But she is a smart, caring attorney. When her body and Deb’s soul combine, everything changes, for both of them.
Jane’s intelligence remains with her body, and little by little Deb learns to tap into the smart attorney’s mind. She could simply decide to get the body into shape the way Warren Beatty’s character did in the 1978 movie Heaven Can Wait, but Jane’s mind is too powerful. Deb succumbs to the food cravings within Jane’s mind.
Deb is tortured by the past and the days when she was a beautiful, statuesque model and every time she looks in the mirror she is reminded of the body she had. But her consciousness is blending with Jane’s and becoming one. The once-conceited self-centered blonde is changing. She never did anything good for others before, but inhabiting Jane’s body and merging her talent with her own, she manages to change.
In the meantime, Fred (Ben Feldman), the gatekeeper who is now her guardian angel, to his chagrin, is keeping tabs on Deb/Jane. Margaret Cho co-stars as Jane’s faithful assistant Teri.
The Series at a Glance
The series looks like it will be filled with a combination of comedy and humanity. As Deb learns more about living in a plus size body, and becomes more intelligent by integrating Jane’s mind with hers, there is a lot in store for these characters.
Making appearances throughout the first season will be Rosie O’Donnell, Sharon Lawrence, Kathy Najimy, Tim Gunn, Elliott Gould, Chuck Woolery, Jorja Fox, and Diedrich Bader.
While this theme of a soul inhabiting a different body is not new, the character of Deb/Jane is appealing and shows two very different styles of characteristics. And it gives larger size women a step up on the entertainment ladder.
Drop Dead Diva premiers Sunday, July 12 at 9:00 PM ET/PT on Lifetime.
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