TV Reviews : ‘Honey’ a Dead Fish About Reincarnation

Just when you thought you’d seen the last of all possible body-switching and/or reincarnated ghost comedies, along comes Fox’s TV movie “Hi Honey, I’m Dead” (tonight at 8 on Channel 11), which reincarnates more than its share of ideas from its predecessors. Call it “Hi Honey, I Shrunk the High Concept.”

Here, an incredibly wealthy, hunky, unctuous cad, Brad (Kevin Conroy), dies on his way to an adulterous tryst. An irreverent Latino guardian angel (Paul Rodriguez) tells the deceased that his spirit has been instantly reincarnated into a new, dumpy body and re-named Arnold Pishkin.

How or why? “God only knows,” says the angel, dismissing any need for the writer to bother explaining the fantasy element. “He has moods, I dunno.”

You’ll have moods too as you watch the inevitable playout of this idea: Brad/Arnold (now played by Curtis Armstrong), who once made fun of the homeless, learns to work manual labor for minimum wage and live on the street before reconnecting--incognito--with the widow (Catherine Hicks) and wimpy young son (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) he previously abused and ignored.

It’s scarcely funny and never remotely heart-warming.