The Hollywood Reporter (Weekly)
Not Dead Yet
Gina Rodriguez returns to TV as a journalist who sees dead people in an ABC sitcom that takes a while to show signs of life
After a few rough years, one could argue that the broadcast comedy is back. With an awards juggernaut (ABC’s Abbott Elementary) and some reasonably big hits (NBC’s Night Court, CBS’ Ghosts), it may be enough to restore your confidence in the format.
But how far will that confidence go when your friendly neighborhood TV critic tells you, for instance, that a new sitcom has a gifted cast and interesting potential … but that in order to get to that potential, you have to sit through at least three or four episodes that I’d (generously) call unamusing and generic?
Adapted by David Windsor and Casey Johnson from Alexandra Potter’s novel Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up, ABC’s Not Dead Yet stars Gina Rodriguez as 37-yearold Nell, who had a promising journalistic career at the SoCal Independent, but set everything aside to follow a man to London. Five years later, relationship ended, Nell returns to California and takes the only job available at the paper, writing obituaries. The newspaper is still home to her best friend, Sam (Hannah Simone), and presumably second best friend, Dennis (Josh Banday), but is now run by Lexi (Lauren Ash), the publisher’s snooty daughter.
Nell is lonely, drinking too much and struggling to find inspiration. Until the guy she’s memorializing (Martin Mull’s jingle writer, Monty) shows up as a ghost. Soon, spirits are visiting Nell — in a very orderly, one-per-episode way — to help her write, introduce her to new friends and offer her valuable lessons.
This would have worked better as an hourlong broadcast dramedy — think Pushing Daisies or iZombie — instead of a single-cam, which leaves everything feeling rushed and thin. While occasionally the episodic guest-stars-as-ghosts get to do lightly comical things, recognizable punchlines are few and far between. Yet said guest/ghost stars are so central to the 21-minute episodes that the supporting cast is left with very little to do.
What’s worse is how little Rodriguez, returning to TV for the first time since her decorated Jane the Virgin run, has to latch on to. She’s pushing too hard to wring laughs out of nothing, and the show doesn’t have time to ground the outlandish things happening to Nell in the personal turmoil that might be behind it all. There’s no instigating event that triggers Nell’s gift, and the show initially can’t decide how seriously we’re supposed to take the fact that our hero sees dead people.
Then, just when it would be easy to write Not Dead Yet off as DOA, the show decides to take a real interest in what she’s experiencing with a tone-shifting detour in episode four. The fifth episode leans into sentiment, and the difference it makes in the scenes both of Rodriguez solo and of her with Simone is astonishing. Suddenly Nell’s talk about how disconnected she feels in her new life hits home. Suddenly Nell and Sam’s friendship exudes warmth, as well as the strain of their five-year separation. The fifth episode feels like one of those “This week we’re dealing with real emotions!” episodes of a genre-bending show like Scrubs. Except that Scrubs generally had hilarity as its default mode; Not Dead Yet has a C-story with Lexi learning to appreciate breadsticks.
It’s normal for broadcast sitcoms to adapt in their early episodes — but the process usually involves writers getting to know actors and their strengths and playing to them, not transitioning into a completely different show. The inevitable question when I say, “It isn’t good, but then it becomes a different show!” is, “Is the other show good?” So far, with Not Dead Yet, I can only say that it’s better. That might not be endorsement enough.
AIRDATE 9 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 8 (ABC)
CAST Gina Rodriguez, Hannah Simone, Lauren Ash, Josh Banday, Angela Gibbs, Rick Glassman
CREATORS David Windsor and Casey Johnson