‘The Casketeers’ Season 2: Netflix’s Best Hidden Gem is Back!

The Casketeers Season 2 landed on Netflix today, blessing us with more hilarious hijinks, somber meditations on morality, and praise for leaf blowers. Since it debuted late last year, this Kiwi reality show set in a funeral home has become my favorite hidden gem on Netflix. It’s a rare show that reflects on the meaning of life all while mocking its silly trivialities. Essentially, it’s a masterpiece.

Set at family-run Tipene Funerals, The Casketeers feels like a macabre version of The Office infused with the kind of offbeat New Zealand humor made famous by Jemaine Clement, Rhys Darby, and Taika Waititi. The show’s comedy comes from the people who work at Tipene Funerals: the supercilious Francis, his no-nonsense wife Kaiora, the jolly Scottie, and hysterically sassy Fiona. Nevertheless, as this is a reality show set in a funeral home, The Casketeers also looks at grief, death, and the traditions of Maori and Tongan cultures with absolute care. The result is a tone-shifting masterpiece that flits between moments of absolute hilarity with touching tragedy. And it’s a reality show.

Season 2 of The Casketeers introduces a new, svelte, made-over Francis. He’s lost a ton of weight thanks to gastric sleeve surgery, and has treated himself to new clothes and a set of shiny new veneers. However the biggest change in Francis’s life is that he’s given up his character-defining obsession with leaf blowers. Instead, the season opens with Francis playing with his new leaf sucker, an expensive gadget that he (of course) bought without telling his wife.

After a few scenes of workplace comedy, we meet the first client of the season, Mr. Busby. Immediately the tone of the show becomes tender and thoughtful, as Francis politely describes Busby as “not…peaceful. He looks cheeky.” Busby has been outfitted in a character-revealing casual shirt and “Wander’s Bar” vest, and part of his service takes place at the sports bar where he spent so much time.

The Casketeers never flinches from showing us the reality of the funeral process. It’s not ghastly in how it depicts death, but rather it asserts that dying is a part of being alive. Funerals aren’t merely about grief, but celebrating community. That, contrasted with the sweet comedy of the workers’ everyday lives, makes The Casketeers a show that is emphatically honoring life. It’s a beautiful, funny, meditative look at what makes a good life and peaceful death.

The Casketeers is without a doubt Netflix’s best hidden gem, and Season 2 hit Netflix today.

Watch The Casketeers on Netflix