--- title: Not Dead Yet and the Future of Network Comedy description: ABC's new Gina Rodriguez vehicle isn't great, but it does capture how broadcasters are reinventing their shows for the streaming era. canonical: https://time.com/6252825/not-dead-yet-network-comedies/ author: Judy Berman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-02-08T12:00:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:53:31.983Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: What 'Not Dead Yet' Says About the Future of Network Comedy og:description: ABC's new Gina Rodriguez vehicle isn't great, but it captures how broadcasters are reinventing their shows for streaming og:url: https://time.com/6252825/not-dead-yet-network-comedies/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte7c2afb3ed318b88/698a3a1816d8846dffc3b87b/162919_0444a.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: GINA RODRIGUEZ og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What 'Not Dead Yet' Says About the Future of Network Comedy twitter:description: ABC's new Gina Rodriguez vehicle isn't great, but it captures how broadcasters are reinventing their shows for streaming twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte7c2afb3ed318b88/698a3a1816d8846dffc3b87b/162919_0444a.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Gina Rodriguez's _Not Dead Yet_ Speaks Volumes About the Future of the Network Comedy  by [Judy Berman](/author/judy-berman/)  ## Judy Berman TV Critic Feb 8, 2023 12:00 PM CUT  Gina Rodriguez in Not Dead Yet Gina Rodriguez in Not Dead YetTemma Hankin—ABC  by [Judy Berman](/author/judy-berman/)  ## Judy Berman TV Critic Feb 8, 2023 12:00 PM CUT The latest comedy to join ABC’s prime-time lineup tells what is, in many ways, a familiar story. Like [_The Mary Tyler Moore Show_](https://time.com/4649173/mary-tyler-moore-appreciation/ "undefined") and both incarnations of _One Day at a Time_ before it, _Not Dead Yet_ follows a woman starting over after a big breakup. Journalist Nell Serrano, played by [_Jane the Virgin_](https://time.com/3545682/jane-the-virgin-is-the-keeper-of-this-fall-season/ "undefined") star [Gina Rodriguez](https://time.com/5505437/gina-rodriguez-directing/ "undefined"), introduces herself by way of a headline: “Local Woman, 37, Ruins Own Life.” Fresh off a five-year stint in London that ended in a broken engagement, she’s back home in California, with a fussy roommate and a job writing obituaries for the local newspaper she left to chase romance. The twist? She meets the ghosts of her obit subjects. With its mix of time-honored TV tropes and quirky, attention-grabbing flourishes, _Not Dead Yet_, premiering Feb. 8, epitomizes an emerging generation of network comedies. As recently as the [fall of 2021](https://time.com/6094071/fall-tv-network-comedies-canceled/ "undefined"), it looked as if Big 5 broadcasters had given up on the format, which thrives on the perhaps-outdated assumption that if the jokes are good enough, viewers of all demographics and political persuasions will come together to laugh at them. But a rapidly shifting TV landscape, and one that now allows most networks to efficiently monetize their programming on their own streaming platforms, seems to be encouraging networks to develop series that appeal to younger, more adventurous and progressive streaming audiences as well as—if not more than—the aging linear viewers who reliably flock to procedural franchises and game-show reboots.  From left: Josh Banday, Gina Rodriguez, and Hannah Simone in Not Dead Yet Scott Everett White—ABC Among hour-long dramas, this transition has made space for subtle updates to the ever popular crime genre, like Fox’s new episodic courtroom anthology, _Accused_. The evolution of the network comedy has been a more delicate balancing act. To gain traction in prime time, these shows need likable characters, jokes with punch lines clear enough to cue up a laugh track, and a comfortingly familiar format. At the same time, it can take an unconventional premise to attract the attention of a streaming audience that is inundated with content and accustomed to dark, high-concept half-hours like Netflix’s [_Dead to Me_](https://time.com/6234605/dead-to-me-ending-season-3/ "undefined") and FX on Hulu’s [_Reservation Dogs_](https://time.com/6202872/reservation-dogs-fx/ "undefined"). Younger viewers, to their credit, also expect to see characters that represent a wide range of identities. Hence the hybrid that is _Not Dead Yet_. Based on English author Alexandra Potter’s novel _Confessions of a 40-Something F\*\*k Up_, the series relocates its action across the Atlantic, throws in some ghosts to zhuzh up the premise, and recasts a conspicuously younger Nell as a Latina writer in a postracial, LGBTQ-inclusive office. Her roommate, who turns out to be on the autism spectrum, is played by Rick Glassman, an autistic actor last seen in Amazon’s groundbreaking neurodiverse dramedy [_As We See It_](https://time.com/6142146/best-tv-shows-january-2022/ "undefined"). The show has a weakness for inspirational platitudes (“We’re all a work in progress”), and its depiction of a newsroom might be even less authentic than its depiction of the afterlife. But Rodriguez makes an irresistible lead, backed by sharp performances from Glassman, Hannah Simone as Nell’s work wife, and Lauren Ash as the paper’s nepo-baby editor. It’s not a fantastic show, but it’s punchy enough to hold your attention.  Ana Gasteyer in American Auto Jordin Althaus—NBC It’s not alone, either, in coming off as a compromise between two very different sets of sensibilities. NBC’s _American Auto_, now in its second season, casts Ana Gasteyer as the clueless CEO of a car company, who reigns over a diverse, long-suffering staff of millennials. Like creator Justin Spitzer’s previous NBC sitcom, [_Superstore_](https://time.com/4170769/eva-and-america-return-but-without-the-spark/ "undefined"), the show flirts with critiquing capitalism. But its reluctance to risk the truly subversive Big Business satire most recently perfected by Comedy Central’s [_Corporate_](https://time.com/5505440/black-monday-corporate-anticapalist-tv/ "undefined") hobbles both its commentary and its humor. Eliza Coupe, Maggie Q, and Ginnifer Goodwin led the cast of last year’s _Pivoting_, an irreverent Fox comedy about three women re-evaluating their lives in the wake of a childhood friend’s death. An initially promising series that never quite struck a balance between conventional sitcom beats and a more morbid strain of humor, it was canceled after a single 10-episode season.  Tyler James Williams and Quinta Brunson in Abbott Elementary Gilles Mingasson—ABC So far, this new school of broadcast comedy has yielded just one great show: [_Abbott Elementary_](https://time.com/6214182/abbott-elementary-season-2-review/ "undefined"). With the exception of CBS’s hit-or-miss _Ghosts_ (a Britcom remake about a young couple who move into an old house overrun with apparitions that kind of bring to mind the occult elements of _Not Dead Yet_), [Quinta Brunson](https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people-2022/6177794/quinta-brunson/ "undefined")‘s ABC sitcom about an underfunded Philadelphia public school is also the only title that can fairly be called a breakout hit. Like _Not Dead Yet_, it balances progressive values with old-school, hugging-and-learning sentimentality. But, midway through its second season and already renewed for a third, _Abbott_ stands apart because its specific mix of political engagement and humanistic warmth feels organic, grounded as it is in [Brunson’s own upbringing](https://time.com/6145151/quinta-brunson-abbott-elementary-interview/ "undefined") and her mother’s experiences as a teacher. An exceptional comedy, on any platform, does what even the most thoughtfully cast intergenerational compromise hashed out in a boardroom could not: it rings true. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6252825/not-dead-yet-network-comedies/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6252825/not-dead-yet-network-comedies/"},"headline":"Gina Rodriguez's Not Dead Yet Speaks Volumes About the Future of the Network Comedy","datePublished":"2023-02-08T12:00:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:53:31.983Z","description":"ABC's new Gina Rodriguez vehicle isn't great, but it does capture how broadcasters are reinventing their shows for the streaming era","url":"https://time.com/6252825/not-dead-yet-network-comedies/","keywords":["Television","culturepod"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte7c2afb3ed318b88/698a3a1816d8846dffc3b87b/162919_0444a.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Judy Berman","jobTitle":"TV Critic","url":"https://time.com/author/judy-berman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte7c2afb3ed318b88/698a3a1816d8846dffc3b87b/162919_0444a.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"GINA RODRIGUEZ","caption":"GINA RODRIGUEZ","creditText":"Temma Hankin—ABC","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/television/","name":"Television"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6252825/not-dead-yet-network-comedies/","name":"Gina Rodriguez's Not Dead Yet Speaks Volumes About the Future of the Network Comedy"}}]}] ```