Not Dead Yet

2023 - 2 - 8

Post cover — Image courtesy of "News-Daily.com"

'Not Dead Yet': What Did You Think of Series Premiere? (POLL) (News-Daily.com)

Gina Rodriguez plays a journalist who sees ghosts of the people for whom she write obits.

'Not Dead Yet' Review: Gina Rodriguez's Shaky New ABC Sitcom (Hollywood Reporter)

Gina Rodriguez returns to TV as a journalist who sees dead people and uses them to help write obituaries in ABC's new sitcom, 'Not Dead Yet.'

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 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 a fallback position; Not Dead Yet has a C-story with Lexi learning to appreciate breadsticks. Yes, Nell is talking to herself in the middle of a bustling newsroom — though there’s little indication that anybody associated with the show has ever been to a newsroom, especially in 2023 — but there’s no tangible sense that she thinks she’s crazy or that anybody else thinks she’s crazy; there’s just a lot of really unfunny flailing. With the end of the fourth episode, there’s as abrupt a tone-shifting detour as I’ve seen in a mainstream comedy in years. At the very least, the ghost in Ghosts had a want and need — “Protect our house!” or whatever — from the pilot on. This sets Not Dead Yet up as a low-stakes workplace comedy entry in the genre of shows in which a protagonist uses a supernatural gift to solve crimes — only in this case it’s more about solving the mysteries of her own life (and how to find a good lede for an obituary). Just when it would be easy to write Not Dead Yet off as DOA, it decides it wants to take a real interest in the consequences of the thing Nell’s experiencing. She’s pushing too hard to get laughs from nowhere, and the show doesn’t have the time to ground the outlandish things happening to Nell or the personal things that might be driving it all. Note that Ghosts — which has some narrative similarities — led by focusing on zaniness over any character depth for Rose McIver’s protagonist, and then began, a few episodes in, to explore hints of dramatic depths not through her but through the individual ghosts. Plus, just because the show wants to give the impression that what’s happening is normal workplace behavior, only with ghosts, doesn’t mean it needs to be so completely visually bland. Like, there’s an episode in which Sam teaches Dennis to shoot a miniature basketball, and that’s the B-plot. [Not Dead Yet](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/t/not-dead-yet/) stars Gina Rodriguez as 37-year-old Nell, who had a promising journalistic career at the SoCal Independent, but set everything aside to follow a man to London.

Gina Rodriguez's <i>Not Dead Yet</i> Speaks Volumes About the ... (TIME)

ABC's new Gina Rodriguez vehicle isn't great, but it does capture how broadcasters are reinventing their shows for the streaming era.

[Abbott Elementary](https://time.com/6214182/abbott-elementary-season-2-review/). [Superstore](https://time.com/4170769/eva-and-america-return-but-without-the-spark/), the show flirts with critiquing capitalism. But its reluctance to risk the truly subversive Big Business satire most recently perfected by Comedy Central’s [Corporate](https://time.com/5505440/black-monday-corporate-anticapalist-tv/) hobbles both its commentary and its humor. But, midway through its second season and already renewed for a third, Abbott stands apart because its specific mix of political engagement and humanistic warmth feels organic, grounded as it is in [Brunson’s own upbringing](https://time.com/6145151/quinta-brunson-abbott-elementary-interview/) and her mother’s experiences as a teacher. [fall of 2021](https://time.com/6094071/fall-tv-network-comedies-canceled/), it looked as if Big 5 broadcasters had given up on the format, which thrives on the perhaps-outdated assumption that if the jokes are good enough, viewers of all demographics and political persuasions will come together to laugh at them. Based on English author Alexandra Potter’s novel Confessions of a 40-Something F**k Up, the series relocates its action across the Atlantic, throws in some ghosts to zhuzh up the premise, and recasts a conspicuously younger Nell as a Latina writer in a postracial, LGBTQ-inclusive office. NBC’s American Auto, now in its second season, casts Ana Gasteyer as the clueless CEO of a car company, who reigns over a diverse, long-suffering staff of millennials. [The Mary Tyler Moore Show](https://time.com/4649173/mary-tyler-moore-appreciation/) and both incarnations of One Day at a Time before it, Not Dead Yet follows a woman starting over after a big breakup. Younger viewers, to their credit, also expect to see characters that represent a wide range of identities. Journalist Nell Serrano, played by [Jane the Virgin](https://time.com/3545682/jane-the-virgin-is-the-keeper-of-this-fall-season/) star [Gina Rodriguez](https://time.com/5505437/gina-rodriguez-directing/), introduces herself by way of a headline: “Local Woman, 37, Ruins Own Life.” Fresh off a five-year stint in London that ended in a broken engagement, she’s back home in California, with a fussy roommate and a job writing obituaries for the local newspaper she left to chase romance. The evolution of the network comedy has been a more delicate balancing act. With its mix of time-honored TV tropes and quirky, attention-grabbing flourishes, Not Dead Yet, premiering Feb.

'Not Dead Yet' Recap: Season 1 Episode 1 Premiere — Gina ... (TVLine)

Read TVLine's recap of the 'Not Dead Yet' series premiere, then grade the new ABC comedy starring 'Jane the Virgin' vet Gina Rodriguez!

That seems to be the closure Monty needs to move on as Nell submits her thoughtfully written obit and the ghostly subject of her next obit appears. But instead of a sincere apology, Nell ends up telling Lexi that she’s not good enough to be friends with Sam, after which Lexi reveals that she only hired Nell back because Sam pleaded her case. Now, the engagement is off, and Nell is back at her old job, but not in her former position.

Gina Rodriguez makes TV return in new ABC sitcom 'Not Dead Yet' (WLS-TV)

NEW YORK -- The star who brought "Jane The Virgin" to life is back in a new sitcom for ABC. Gina Rodriguez plays a journalist forced to start over after an ...

"You can laugh at a funeral, and you can cry at a wedding. "You start to see there is a reason she is this way which I think is so honest to humans to people. "What's amazing is even by the end of the pilot, you start to see the cracks," notes Ash. "She is so wonderful on and off camera." "It's just like life, you know?" "I recently, right before we started the show, lost my grandmother," she said.

Is 'Not Dead Yet' on ABC Based on a Book? Here's the Scoop (Distractify)

Wait, is 'Not Dead Yet' on ABC based on a book? Here's what we know about the dark new comedy series featuring Gina Rodriguez in the leading role.

An official episode count for Not Dead Yet Season 1 has yet to be released by ABC. The two-episode premiere of Not Dead Yet airs tonight on ABC at 8:30 p.m. Not Dead Yet marks Gina Rodgriguez's return to sitcom comedy (after the success of the long-running series Jane the Virgin). EST, with one new episode to air live weekly on Wednesdays, one hour later at 9:31 p.m. Hey, solely writing obituaries may not be every journalist's dream job, but at least Nell has the help from all the ghosts she can see! [Gina Rodriguez](https://www.distractify.com/p/gina-rodriguez-husband)) wanted was to find love after a successful career as a journalist.

Review: 'Not Dead Yet' Squanders Mighty Cast With Tepid Premise (IndieWire)

Gina Rodriguez stars in ABC's new comedy about a woman struggling with her personal life and writing obituaries for dead people she can see.

If “Not Dead Yet” dares to get more personal with Nell — and it takes a major step in Episode 5 — the series could improve, especially if the cast chemistry starts to feel more organic than forced, as it often does early in a series. Windsor and Johnson produced “This Is Us,” which leaned into grief and death without the dark levity that imbues so much modern TV, and “Not Dead Yet” gives them a chance to do just that. Their interactions are reminiscent of the premiere season of “How I Met Your Father,” but the good news is that “HIMYF”s core grew stronger over time. The ghost-of-the-week format gives “Not Dead Yet” a classic network procedural feeling, but sadly doesn’t breathe any life into the series. As deeply boring as Nell’s backstory is in the landscape of human disaster television shows, the twist is what gives “Not Dead Yet” some edge — and then immediately squashes it. In Rodriguez’s hands, Nell is vulnerable and witty, the actor’s command of the screen almost at odds with her character’s floundering persona.