At its core, Dead to Me is a soap opera for the Netflix age, with every episode packed full of twists and turns that grips its audience (myself included) and forces them to binge harder than Garfield in a lasagna factory. This sort of appeal tactic is Netflix original series production 101. Therefore, I cannot judge the quality of this show based upon how fixated my eyes were to the screen, much like how I cannot judge a Disney Star Wars film by how much nostalgia inducing fan service is crammed into each scene.
The show is fairly formulaic: Establish episode premise, slowly stew over premise for majority of episode, have huge revelation at end of episode for characters to stew over in the next episode. The characters will constantly retread covered ground, making dialogue come off as time filler rather than a thickening of plot. To be fair this formula is nothing new. Shows like The Good Place have a similar story structure. But where The Good Place succeeds and where Dead to Me fails is having likable characters that you want to see through to the end.
I personally thought the main protagonist, Jen was portrayed as too unlikeable, to the point where I was happy whenever she would fail or get what was coming to her (all except for one particular scene involving the interior of a red mustang, you'll know it when you see it). I didn't want to see her succeed, nor did I care when she would be faced with heartbreak or disaster.
To sum up, much of my enjoyment of Dead to Me was surface level. The thrills and chills were gripping in the heat of the moment, but we're ultimately superficial once looked back upon, realizing that much of this five-hour, ten-episode journey, could have been summed up with better character progression in the length of a two hour feature film. Here's hoping the next season learns from its mistakes.
The show is fairly formulaic: Establish episode premise, slowly stew over premise for majority of episode, have huge revelation at end of episode for characters to stew over in the next episode. The characters will constantly retread covered ground, making dialogue come off as time filler rather than a thickening of plot. To be fair this formula is nothing new. Shows like The Good Place have a similar story structure. But where The Good Place succeeds and where Dead to Me fails is having likable characters that you want to see through to the end.
I personally thought the main protagonist, Jen was portrayed as too unlikeable, to the point where I was happy whenever she would fail or get what was coming to her (all except for one particular scene involving the interior of a red mustang, you'll know it when you see it). I didn't want to see her succeed, nor did I care when she would be faced with heartbreak or disaster.
To sum up, much of my enjoyment of Dead to Me was surface level. The thrills and chills were gripping in the heat of the moment, but we're ultimately superficial once looked back upon, realizing that much of this five-hour, ten-episode journey, could have been summed up with better character progression in the length of a two hour feature film. Here's hoping the next season learns from its mistakes.