'Dead To Me' star Christina Applegate pulled a comedy out of immense sadness
For those who don't know (and we can't imagine how since you'd have to be living under a rock to be sleeping on the brilliance of a show like this), 'Dead To Me' is a dark comedy that follows newly widowed Jen and mysterious mourner Judy, who meet at a grief counselling group, after which their friendship takes off on late-night phone calls and a shared affinity for "The Facts of Life."
Created by Liz Feldman, the show started streaming on Netflix May 3 and quickly became a hot favorite. The shows stars Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini share a complicated friendship that forms the crux of the gripping mystery.
But what drove Applegate to the show was that it didn't confine itself to any specific category. "Liz Feldman [the creator] came to me and said what the show is going to be. I just had not read anything quite like it! Tone-wise, the show doesn't fit in a box," she told MEA WorldWide (MEAWW) at the premiere of the Netflix series.
'Dead to Me' should also be applauded not just for its treatment of female friendships but also how it deals with grieving, more specifically, how women grieve their loved ones.
"I like the fact that it [the show] was looking at 'grieving' [a loved one] the way that the society wants women to not grieve and not feel pain the way that we women need to feel pain," she said, adding that the show is about a beautiful relationship between two women who find each other in that very pain.
Each episode is a rollercoaster with twists and turns and cliffhangers stitching a gripping narrative. But twists and turns were secondary for Applegate, "secondary to the character study of these two women together. And what it feels like to be in that much pain and when the world wants you to stop feeling that much pain."
A thriller, mystery, dark comedy, the show was pitched to Applegate by Feldman as a comedy. And her first thoughts were that it isn't one! "I read it and thought 'wow, this is very sad!' But it ended up being [not sad]. We were able to pull the comedy out of that sadness and I think that that seems to work," Applegate said.
Oh, we know it did. Apart from the praise 'Dead To Me' has received from fans and critics alike, it ended it on a cliffhanger, so it looks like a second season is imminent! In the meanwhile, we're going to go watch the first season all over again.
You can watch her chat with MEAWW here:
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