2 out of 5

Created by: David Windsor and Casey Johnson

covers season 1

Not Dead Yet has an acceptable premise for a sitcom, ready-built with per-episode morals for struggling writer Nell (Gina Rodriguez), as she uses each weekly lesson to get her life into shape while writing obituaries for a something-or-other, but my vagueness there is suggestive of a design-by-template vibe that hangs over the show, feeling like a pitch that’s been kicked around for a couple decades and periodically modernized until it could be plugged into the programming schedule. You can even imagine this same show without its “quirky” twist – that Nell sees the ghost of whichever obit she’s writing, helping them pass on by properly representing them; i.e. there’s no real element of this series that feels necessary, and it’s almost kind of indirectly at cross purposes with its “everyone has a story” vibe, given that we cycle through some ghosts as one-off jokes, and some as recurring characters as needed, the show not even able to abide by a loose rule set. 

The characters surely follow this same madlibs vibe – insert knowledgeable matriarch, the widow of one of Nell’s obits (Angela E. Gibbs); insert the kooky boss and workmates; insert the odd couple roommate – as does the humor, with every single beat rolling off predictably based on whatever crisis Nell must overcome that episode. 

But: I’m essentially explaining how most sitcoms work. Creativity with the humor and weekly-hijinks solutions can do wonders, and Not Dead Yet doesn’t have those elements. What it does have is Gina Rodriguez, who is eminently watchable due to her comedic timing and balance of snark and humble humanity filling every joke with as much punch as possible, and smoothing out some of the saccharine dialogue. She makes a passable sitcom tolerable, and is generally well supported by her castmates, though especially Gibbs and Lauren Ash, rather hilarious as her nonsense-spouting boss.