February 8, 2023 (2023-02-08) – April 24, 2024 (2024-04-24)
Not Dead Yet is an American television sitcom created by David Windsor and Casey Johnson for ABC. It is based on Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up by Alexandra Potter. The series premiered on February 8, 2023.[1][2] In May 2023, the series was renewed for a second season which premiered on February 7, 2024.[3][4] In May 2024, the series was canceled after two seasons.[5]
Plot
Season 1
When Nell (Gina Rodriguez) comes back to work at her old job at SoCal Independent she finds out she's assigned to writing obituaries. Then, she finds out her best friend, Sam (Hannah Simone) is now also close friends with Nell's boss and enemy, Lexi (Lauren Ash). When Nell gets her first assignment, Monty (Martin Mull), she meets his widowed wife, Cricket (Angela E. Gibbs), who owns a bar. Nell and Cricket become close friends and Nell almost tells Cricket she sees ghosts. During Season 1, Nell and Edward (Rick Glassman), her roommate, become enemies to friends and help each other with relationships. At the end of Season 1, Nell's ex-fiancé, Phillip (Ed Weeks) comes to Pasadena, California. First, Nell is still very mad at him as well as Sam and Dennis (Joshua Banday), but they make up and start dating, until Nell tells Phillip she sees ghosts and he says they should move away and she should quit her job. Nell breaks up with Phillip for good. Dennis and his husband Ben start fostering twins at the end of Season 1.
Season 2
At the beginning of Season 2, Lexi's father, Duncan (Brad Garrett), whom she always tries to impress, visits their office. Duncan asks Nell to help him write his obituary and help him be a better person, but Nell finds out it's just to make Lexi work harder and he has not changed. Sam and her husband Keith (Adhir Kalyan) start having marital issues and eventually get a divorce. Lexi and Edward start hooking up, but Edward doesn't tell Nell. They later start officially dating. Nell meets TJ (Jesse Garcia), a coworker, and they start dating. But, when Nell brings babies into the conversation and looks into freezing her eggs. TJ reveals he never has wanted to have kids and they decide to break up but are still friends. That same episode, Edward finds out Duncan is selling SoCal Independent and tells Lexi and Nell. Everyone goes into a panic. During all the chaos Duncan collapses and is taken to the hospital but also appears as Nell's ghost. Duncan has heart surgery and survives. Lexi decides to take matters into her own hands and buy out the company. Duncan and Lexi's relationship slowly restores as he understands that Lexi is grown up.
Cast and characters
Main
Gina Rodriguez as Nell Serrano,[6] a journalist whose wedding plans with Phillip fell apart, resulting in her moving back to Los Angeles from London. Her full first name is Penelope. She's best friends with Sam.
Hannah Simone as Sam, Nell's best friend who is the style editor at the SoCal Independent. In Season 2, she has marital issues with her husband.
Lauren Ash as Lexi, Nell's boss and the editor-in-chief at the SoCal Independent
Joshua Banday as Dennis, Nell's co-worker and an associate editor at the SoCal Independent. He assigns obituaries for Nell to write. Starting at the end of Season 1, he and his husband foster two children.
Angela E. Gibbs as Cricket, a widowed owner of a bar that specializes in wine. She is the widow of the first ghost Nell meets.
Brad Garrett as Duncan Rhodes (season 2),[7] the publisher of the SoCal Independent and Lexi's father
Recurring
Maile Flanagan as Tina, a gruff, somewhat antisocial co-worker at the SoCal Independent
Jimmy Bellinger as Mason, an intern at the SoCal Independent
Jesse Garcia as TJ (season 2), a sportswriter at the SoCal Independent and die-hard Cubs fan[8]
Notable guest stars
Martin Mull as Monty, the first ghost Nell encounters and Cricket's late husband
Lexi's father, Duncan Rhodes, arrives at the SoCal Independent and promptly takes over, ratcheting up Lexi's anxieties, especially when he starts to favor Nell, who is tasked with writing his obituary on top of writing one for her latest ghost, Teddy, Pasadena's number one realtor. Lexi and Edward form an unexpected connection.
On Valentine's Day, Cricket gives Nell love advice that convinces her to stop using ghosts to avoid pursuing love. Nell deals with the ghost of Senator Diana Fernandez, who encourages her to date her son Andres, an artist who struggles with his paintings.
Nell babysits Sam's daughter Tilly, who seems more interested in hanging out with Edward, much to Nell's chagrin. Lexi takes Sam and Dennis to an awards ceremony, which isn't what it seems. Sam reveals her marriage troubles to Nell.
Lexi combines the first two floors of the SoCal Independent, which leads to Nell sharing a desk with TJ, a sportswriter who is friendly with everyone else except Nell. Encouraged by her latest ghost, etiquette expert Mary Sue Manners, Nell discovers why and tries to mend fences with TJ.
Nell's latest ghost, an accountant named Andrew, is convinced that he was murdered. Nell's investigation into the matter catches the unsolicited help of Lexi, which leads to an unexpected bonding between the two and a surprising reveal for Nell. Dennis tries to face one of his fears and Sam craves a girl's night.
Nell becomes frustrated with Edward and Lexi's relationship, especially when Lexi begins to have doubts and tries to enlist Nell's help. A freeway fire results in the SoCal Independent pulling an all-nighter, where TJ and Nell begin to bond, Dennis leading the charge in the newspaper coverage, and Sam's desire to help results in her babysitting Mr. Rhodes. Nell's latest ghosts are bickering law firm partners Jerry Grady and Greg Blitt.
The SoCal Independent takes on KQUT, a local news station, in a softball game. Duncan makes Nell the coach due to her competitive nature, while Dennis tries to make his ex-girlfriend, who is on the opposing team, jealous. Nell and TJ continue to bond during the game, with Sam coaching Nell on how to flirt and Duncan's rivalry with KQUT head Sharon Darynson leads him to place a $1,000,000 wager on the game.
Nell decides to freeze her eggs; due to this, she cannot drink, especially when Sam celebrates her divorce, and invites Nell, Lexi and Cricket. While dealing with her latest ghost, writer Frederick P. Moreau, she also plans a date with TJ, debating how to tell her about freezing her eggs. Edward's attempts to surprise Lexi for their one-month anniversary result in him spending time with Duncan, which ends with Edward learning a secret about the SoCal Independent.
Edward tells Nell and Lexi that Duncan is selling the SoCal Independent. With no help from Lexi, Nell takes matters into her own hands, backed up by her latest ghost, former SoCal Independent editor Donna Hill. At Nell's birthday party, she invites the new corporate representative, Quentin, with whom Nell goes to great lengths to stop the sale, while Sam and Dennis attempt to hype each other up to him to keep their jobs.
Duncan has collapsed and is rushed to the hospital for heart surgery. He appears to Nell as a ghost, while Quentin, the corporate representative, attempts to poach employees from the SoCal Independent. Nell takes a shot at a job, while being coached by Duncan's ghost. At the hospital, Lexi deals with her father's health issues and unresolved feelings, with support from Sam and Edward.
Production
Development
On February 14, 2022, Not Dead Yet was given a pilot order by ABC.[32] On May 13, 2022, Not Dead Yet was picked up to series by ABC. The series is created by David Windsor and Casey Johnson who are expected to executive produce alongside Rodriguez, McG, Mary Viola and Corey Marsh. 20th Television and Wonderland Sound and Vision serve as production companies for the series. Dean Holland directed the pilot.[1] On May 16, 2023, ABC renewed the series for a second season.[3] On May 10, 2024, ABC canceled the series after two seasons.[5]
Not Dead Yet premiered on February 8, 2023, on ABC.[2] The second season premiered on February 7, 2024.[4]
Reception
Critical response
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 50% approval rating with an average rating of 6.5/10, based on 16 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "While an always engaging Gina Rodriguez is enough to ensure that this supernatural comedy isn't dead on arrival, it'll need more spark to survive viewer disinterest."[39]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 58 out of 100 based on 15 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[40]
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