'Not Dead Yet' Would Be Better If It Were About Hannah Simone's Character

By Dustin Rowles | TV | February 22, 2023 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | February 22, 2023 |

I’ve got nothing against Gina Rodriguez as Nell, the lead in ABC’s successful new sitcom, Not Dead Yet. She acquits herself well, and after six years on the light-hearted telenovela Jane the Virgin, displays some affinity for broad comedy. I like her. She can pull off a pratfall! She’s fine! But her co-star Hannah Simone would’ve been a better choice to play the lead. In fact, why has it taken five years for the New Girl star to land another regular series part, and why is she still playing second fiddle?

In Not Dead Yet, Simone is once again in the role of supportive best friend to the series lead. Here, she plays Sam, Nell’s co-worker in the office of a newspaper where Nell is an obituary writer. The wrinkle here is that Nell can see and interact with the ghost of the deceased she’s writing about. It’s basically Ghosts, except that it’s set in an office and each episode provides an opportunity to bring in a one-episode cameo (through three episodes, we’ve already seen Martin Mull and Brittany Snow play dead people). Rodriguez’s A-plots are fine, and her experiences with the ghosts ostensibly help her put her life back together again in a new career she left behind a decade prior.

But the supporting characters are the reason to watch, and not just Hannah Simone, although she’s the biggest reason. There’s also Lauren Ash — previously of Superstore fame — who is almost unrecognizable as a spoiled and blonde nepo baby in charge of running her father’s newspaper. She still has the same unearned confidence as her Superstore character, only here she’s actually in a position of power.

Rick Glassman plays Nell’s neurodivergent roommate, and he is as phenomenal here as he was in Jason Katims’ short-lived As We See It. Josh Banday is Dennis, another officemate of Nell’s and basically the Ian Gomez-type on the show. I love him. He and Hannah Simone should get their own spin-off immediately. Jimmy Bellinger rounds out the cast as Mason, the annoying Creed-like co-worker who steals all of his scenes.

They’re great, Rodriguez is fine, and Not Dead Yet looks to be another in a string of better-than-decent network sitcoms (Ghosts, American Auto, Grand Crew, Abbott Elementary), which have given broadcast networks a reason to exist beyond as vehicles for commercials during NFL games. It’s just too bad that it’s not Hannah Simone’s show. Why can’t one show just be about the character who has her shit together and looks after her friend who “sees ghosts” and may have a drinking problem instead of being about the fuck-up who needs looking after? Why can’t we celebrate competency for once?