Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Not Dead Yet’ Season 2 On ABC, Where Gina Rodriguez’ Ghost-Seeing Obituary Writer Deals With Brad Garrett As The Big Boss

It’s amazing how much alchemy goes into creating a successful sitcom. You need to have good writing, good directing, and a cast that’s not only funny but has amazing chemistry together. When one element of that formula is even slightly off, the whole thing collapses. That’s the case with ABC’s second year comedy Not Dead Yet.

NOT DEAD YET SEASON 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Nell Serrano (Gina Rodriguez) is researching real estate agent Teddy Thompson (Nico Santos), the subject of her next obituary, when Teddy’s ghost pops up and surprises her.

The Gist: It’s a typical day for Nell; she sees the people she writes about in her obits for the SoCal Independent; she’s saving an amalgamation of smelly leftover soups for lunch; she scrambles to run to work when her forthright roommate Edward (Rick Glassman) tells her she’s late.

When Ghost Teddy tells her she’s a depreciating asset, she runs into the office and asks her buddy Sam (Hannah Simone) if that’s true, citing “mold in the basement” which Sam may or may not take literally. Before that conversation can go any further, their boss Lexi Rhodes (Lauren Ash) walks in, huffingly demanding that everyone take their personal effects off their desks. Her father Duncan (Brad Garrett), the paper’s owner, is coming to the office, and everything needs to be perfect. She even has a massive binder presentation about her achievements, which she shoves in the hands of Sam and Dennis (Josh Banday).

When Duncan walks in, though, he essentially brushes off Lexi, like he always does, and focuses on Nell, whom he calls Mel. He wants Nell to write his obituary. As Lexi fumes, Duncan and Nell talk; she tries to tell him that a good obituary contains the good, relatable things in a person’s life, something Duncan can’t really connect with. But they get along well, so he invites her to lunch. At Cricket’s (Angela Elayne Gibbs) restaurant, Nell tells Duncan to actually compliment someone, but not something about their body. So he tells Cricket she has nice shoes.

Meanwhile, Edward has come by the office with Nell’s bag of smelly soups; Lexi takes her frustration out on him, first with insulting banter, then with a big kiss. When Duncan and Nell come back, laughing and going to her office to have scotch, Edward ends up getting lucky in the break room with an even more frustrated Lexi.

Taking a cue from Sam, Nell asks Duncan about how he and Lexi relate to each other. That’s when she finds out the truth about why Duncan is so interested in her. As her usual, Nell turns to her ghost of the day for advice.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Like we said before season one, the nearest analogues we could find to Not Dead Yet are Ghosts and Dead Like Me. But in essence, the show is more of a workplace comedy, a la The Office, than anything else.

Our Take: We’ve seen the “Brad Garrett the comedy relief pitcher” concept before. It’s when Garrett is brought in to bring a surefire injection of laughs to a comedy that’s severely needs them. The best example of this was a decade ago, when it seemed like he was the only one who could stand toe-to-toe with Robin Williams in The Crazy Ones. And his addition to the cast of Not Dead Yet as the spoken of but heretofore never-seen Duncan Rhodes definitely accomplishes this feat; he delivered the biggest laugh of the first episode. The problem was, that was pretty much the only laugh we had.

There’s something about Not Dead Yet that just doesn’t feel right, whether it’s the rapid-fire gags that don’t land or just the fact that making Rodriguez play such a hapless character in Nell is the wrong move. Despite having an entire season to get the talented cast to jell and to infuse the show with gags more born from character than “here is just some funny stuff they’re saying”, the first episode of the second season repeated many the same mistakes that we saw during the early episodes of the first season.

As you might expect, the ghost-of-the-week conceit is there, but in reduced form; the ghosts don’t dominate Nell’s existence to the point where she looks like she’s off her rocker, but she still leans on them for advice to get her through whatever situation she’s dealing with in an episode.

But we were really surprised that Not Dead Yet continued to be filled with one-dimensional characters, with the usually hilarious Simone and Banday given little to nothing to do in the first episode. At a certain point, showrunners David Windsor and Casey Johnson should take their feet off the gag pedal in order to find just who all these characters are. Until then, they’re just going to say things that are supposed to be funny but end up being anything but.

Sex and Skin: None. Lexi and Edward’s break room session is represented by disturbed blinds and a disheveled Lexi walking out.

Parting Shot: Turning the tables on Nell, Duncan decides to motivate her by ingratiating himself to Nell’s irritating coworker Tina (Maile Flanagan).

Sleeper Star: We do think Lauren Ash’s Lexi has gotten a few centimeters deeper in Season 2, given the fact that she yearns for her father’s approval. Seeing her and Duncan maybe thaw some of the coldness between them, likely with Nell’s help, will make this season a bit easier to watch.

Most Pilot-y Line: Dennis has crates and crates of his foster children that he brings into Sam’s office after Lexi goes on the “no personal effects” offensive. For some reason, Sam puts them up in her office with Dennis’ help, at least that’s how it looks.

Our Call: SKIP IT. We really, really want to like Not Dead Yet. But any comedy that hasn’t learned from its Season 1 mistakes as it goes into Season 2 is one that likely won’t get a Season 3.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.