Meeting the deadline
Obit writer sees her subjects in ‘Not Dead Yet’
Life’s setbacks often lead to great discoveries, even if they start at the obituaries desk. Journalist Nell Serrano (Gina Rodriguez “Jane the Virgin”) returns home to Los Angeles after five years abroad, hoping to start fresh in the series premiere of the sitcom “Not Dead Yet,” airing Wednesday, Feb. 8, on ABC. Settling into her role as the SoCal Independent’s obit writer becomes unsettling when Nell starts getting editorial notes over her shoulder from some unlikely sources — her subjects.
While Nell can see dead people, the rest of the people in her life cannot, including her new passive-aggressive roommate, Edward (Rick Glassman “Undateable”), who barely tolerated her before she started communing with spirits. Having spent the last few years chasing a relationship all the way to London, England, Nell has little left to lose and everything to prove, so when the dead start talking to her, she talks back (because really, no good journalist could give up that kind of access).
Though Nell has landed on her feet again, albeit a few years off schedule career-wise, things are just barely holding together at the seams. In an official trailer for “Not Dead Yet,” released by ABC in January, Nell is almost literally between a rock and a hard place, pinned into the smallest parking spot imaginable. She manages to crawl out through the trunk with relative grace, straight into her first day at the paper, for which she is now late. Luckily, her friend and Life & Style section editor, Sam (Hannah Simone “New Girl”), has more than covered for her, warning Nell, “I told everyone that your phone was still set on U.K. time and that you were donating blood.”
Alongside Rodriguez, the main cast boasts some of the most recognizable sitcom stars of the last 10 years, a couple of whom just happen to be Canadian. In addition to Simone, who started her TV career as a VJ on MuchMusic, “Superstore’s” Lauren Ash stars as the selfdescribed “harsh, intense and attractive” newspaper editor Lexi in “Not Dead Yet.”
Rounding out the main cast are Joshua Banday (“Upload”) as Dennis, Nell’s boss, and Angela Gibbs (“Hacks”) as bartender and Nell’s friend Cricket. Some big names appear as apparitions in “Not Dead Yet,” too. In the trailer for the series, Nell is first startled by a spirit in the form of veteran TV actor Martin Mull of “Roseanne” and “The Cool Kids,” but by the time she is visited by Brittany Snow (“Almost Family”), she seems to have gotten the hang of talking to ghosts as the two have a conversation at Nell’s cubicle. Nell’s become a pro by the time she’s being followed by the spirit of a woman desperate to share her story, portrayed by Mo Collins of “Parks and Recreation” and “MADtv.”
Nell manages to roll with the discovery that her new position as obituary writer allows her to see and talk to the recently deceased, but it’s not just a work perk to get direct access to her obit subjects. Crossing over from the land of the living surely gives the spirits of “Not Dead Yet” some wisdom to pass on to Nell, who is desperate for some direction in her life. Rodriguez told People magazine that the sitcom makes time for touching moments amidst the funnies, saying, “It makes you laugh, and it makes you cry. Everybody is on their own experience, but they’re all trying to help each other.”
Rodriguez went on to add that “Not Dead Yet” is the kind of series she herself seeks out as a TV viewer, adding, “I want to watch this kind of television that helps me escape but at the same time helps me reflect in a way that’s going to make me excited by the end of it. It’s going to keep me hopeful.” If anyone can make obituaries seem hopeful, it’s the executive producers of “Not Dead Yet,” writing partners Casey Johnson and David Windsor.
Catch the series premiere of “Not Dead Yet” when it airs Wednesday, Feb. 8, on ABC.