Queue Tips: The Lonely Dead

When I was working at the baseball network a few years ago, there was this play where someone from right field made a throw or something and they got somebody out at the plate.  So the producers wrote in their copy something like, "They got him dead to rights!"  And they had this lady hosting the highlights show, and she just would not say the line.  Instead she would say something like, "Dead at home plate" or something like that.  And the producers kept asking her to do the line again and again, every time she wouldn't say it.  I feel like she just did not get the expression.  They were frustrated with her, but they just let it go.  She never did say it correctly.  We all just wanted to go home in the end.  I keep thinking of that when I hear the word "dead".

A few years ago, I started watching "Dead To Me".  I don't remember why I checked it out.  I don't think I even knew Christina Applegate was in it.  I think it was a pleasant surprise when I saw her.  And then that girl from "Freaks and Geeks", too, who was also in some episodes of "Mad Men".

It was very interesting at first.  I really liked the premise.  It was about a widow dealing with the death of her husband, and she kind of had this attitude about grieving, like it was beyond her.  And then she meets this woman who befriends her.  She has lost somebody also, and they bond and overcome their loneliness together.  And then it turns out the protagonist had two kids.  As a father, it was interesting to me to see what kind of a hole his death would have left on that family.  The show started out great.

And then it kind of went downhill from there.  Spoiler alert.  There turned out to be a good twist right away, as the woman friend turned out to be the killer of the husband.  So then you're kinda hooked into wondering how they could possibly survive the friendship once the truth comes out.  And then the truth comes out and it just kind of becomes ridiculous at that point.  That's sort of what I don't like about watching a series, because then you are now invested and want to know how it turns out.

So how they resolved it is they then made the main character kill the friend's husband also.  So now they're even.  And it just kinda gets sillier from there.  They end up befriending the detectives working on the case, and they end up getting away with it because of that.  And it turns out the friend's husband had a twin brother.  Dun dun dun!  And the friend also helps to bury her husband.  It just turned out to be a soap opera at that point.

Somewhere along the line, they just forgot about the original dead guy.  Who he was to their kids and to the main character was just ignored.  The focus on the grieving disappeared, and it was just about how the living moved on with their lives and got away with their crimes.  Of course, they made you feel bad about the dead so that you kind of root for these women.  The performances were great though.  Christina and the "Freaks and Geeks" girl were amazing.  And Christina's mom from "Married... With Children" also appeared in some episodes, and she was good, too.  That was the redeeming factor.  But the writing overall was not so good.