Season Review
Everyone deals with grief in their own way. From drinking copious amounts of alcohol to taking pills or isolating yourself from the world, Netflix’s latest dark comedy Dead To Me is an exploration of these complex emotions. At 10 episodes under 30 minutes a piece, Dead To Me is a show that’s easy to pick up and hard to put down. With a surprising amount of character depth and an effortless pendulum of genre transitions throughout its run, Dead To Me is one of the biggest surprises of the year.
This drama centers on Jen, a widow who rages at the world after her husband is killed by a hit-and-run driver. She befriends Judy, who has experienced an equal amount of tragedy in her own life, willingly joining a grief therapy class to try and help her cope. As the two grow closer and their friendship blossoms, a secret that unfolds between them at the end of the first episode threatens to explode at any moment. Only, it doesn’t. In fact, before the penultimate episode, this mystery becomes a messy explosion of drama, leaving things hanging in the balance with a cliffhanger ending at the end of the finale.
Dead To Me takes quite a bit of patience to get to the heart of this drama, but given the perfect chemistry between these two lead actresses, it’s worth the wait. It ultimately serves as the highlight of this show, with a healthy dose of dark humor on the side to avoid diving too deep into melodramatic waters. These waters also arrive, crashing into some of the later episodes and showcasing some truly heartwarming moments. Seeing a teary-eyed Judy come to terms with what’s happened or Jen’s relationship with her children are truly tender moments, and here the humor is perfectly blended.
In a way, the tone of Dead To Me is very similar to The Santa Clarita Diet. Dark comedy works alongside charismatic characters, ripe with opportune times like The Santa Clarita Diet. Unlike its zombified cousin, Dead To Me’s poignant, emotionally charged scenes help it stand out and continue to switch things up across genres.
Of course, given the open ending we got and the trigger-happy nature of Netflix’s cancellation rate with shows like this, Dead To Me leaves things on a pretty sad note. The show is also a bit long, and given that the mystery stretches throughout the entire season, that wait might be longer than it needs to be if you’re not into the dark humor.
Story & Chemistry
Thankfully, the story and chemistry between Jen and Judy should be enough to see you through to the end. There’s a really cleverly written narrative here, and the fact that this show easily jumps across genres throughout its run is a testament to the broad appeal it’s likely to garner. Whether it will be renewed for a second season is anyone’s guess, but regardless, Netflix’s latest dark comedy offering, Dead To Me, is worth checking out and is surprisingly one of the best shows of the year.