Not Dead Yet – Season 1 Episode 1 “Pilot” Recap & Review

Pilot

Episode 1 of Not Dead Yet starts with Nell sleeping on her bed, narrating how she ruined her life. She’s 37 years old, and 5 years back she gave up her career for love. Obviously, the relationship didn’t end well and now she is back and living with a weird, passive-aggressive roommate who makes her walk his dog.

She ends up late for her job interview and gets into a minor accident in the parking lot. Her day is simply nothing but disastrous at this point but she is hanging in there. Lucky for her, Sam already made a great excuse for her being late and even got her a plant to celebrate her first day back at her old job.

Her other friend, Dennis is now one of her bosses and decides to put her on obituaries. He shows her to her office which is a tiny room that would work best as a closet. Her first story is to cover the death of a famous jingle musician, Morty Waxberg.

She and Sam head out for coffee and Sam is wondering how time has flown by and things have changed. She is now a mom to two kids. She tells Nell that she can always vent about Philip and asks her what she wants for her birthday. Nell wants to recreate the good times when they partied it up like there was no tomorrow.

As they are talking, Nell sees Lexi who she used to hate but Sam tells her that she and Lexi are tight. She points out that it is hard for her to make new friends as a mom and that is how she ended up being work friends with Lexi. Lexi is the daughter of the newspaper’s owner and is their boss. Sam asks Nell to behave appropriately and try to be nice to Lexi.

Later, Nell goes home and accidentally eats the chocolate her roommate got for his girlfriend. She thought he got them for her birthday. He asks her about her plans for her birthday and reminds her she can’t throw a party in the house. He is leaving to see his girlfriend and would be away.

She heads out to a bar to meet with her friends for her birthday celebration. As she waits for them, she makes small talk with an old man who advises her to get a rebound and forget her ex. Her friends finally arrive and they brought along Lexi who makes a weird speech about being a different boss than her dad.

Sam checks in with Nell asking if she is okay with Lexi being there. Nell says that she is okay. She invites Sam to a show on Saturday night but Sam turns her down as she already has plans with Lexi. This hurts Nell’s feelings and she tells Lexi the old nicknames they had for her and Lexi leaves hurt.

With the birthday party ruined, Nell heads home regretting her life decisions. The old man from the bar appears out of nowhere and introduces himself as the dead jingle musician, Morty.  Nell is scared and denies that she can see and hear dead people. She blames the alcohol and all the food she had at the party and thinks it is best to sleep.

The next morning, she wakes up to Morty sitting by her bedside. She is startled and screams which leads to her roommate, Edward checking in on her. Nell starts to think that she is seeing Morty because she has been a little sad and depressed lately. She decides to go for a walk but Morty follows her.

Morty keeps talking to her which drives her crazy and in the end, she loses her patience and lashes out at him. Morty doesn’t take it lying down and tells her that she runs away from problems and is jealous of other people’s happiness.

Sam calls her and leaves her a voicemail asking her to understand that Lexi has been a good friend to her. She asks Nell to consider apologizing because Lexi is the boss.  Nell tries to apologize to Lexi but things go left when Lexi demands to hear the truth. They agree to tell each other what they are thinking and things get real.

Nell tells Lexi that she doesn’t think she is good enough to be Sam’s friend. In turn, Lexi tells her that she only hired her because Sam begged her to. She also tells her that if she can’t perform the job, she will gladly fire her.

Nell returns home to find Morty waiting for her. She whines to him and he insists that they go out instead of sitting in the house complaining. They head out for dinner and Morty advises her to start living her life instead of whining and complaining.

They spot Morty’s wife and he asks her to relay a message to her. She ends up having dinner with Morty’s wife and it turns out to be a good night.  She invites her to the party she wanted to go to with Sam and Morty’s wife excitedly agrees.

The next morning, Edward opens up and tells her about his autism spectrum disorder. This is why he likes having a structure and a routine. He asks her to be understanding if he is sometimes difficult to live with.

After finishing her obituary for Morty, he moves on. She gets another ghost visit from her next case. The woman seems like she will be a handful.

The Episode Review

I know that this is supposed to be a comedy… but I didn’t find it funny. Nell’s character is a tad annoying, she is too focused on whining and complaining and missing out on the fact that life goes on.

Yes, it currently sucks but she could use that energy to get on her feet. She chose to leave for London because she fell in love. It is sad that it didn’t work out but it is not the end of the world. It shouldn’t have taken a ghost to tell her that. I hope Nell will soon stop the endless self-pity and enjoy that she has a chance to pursue her dreams again.

I like Sam, she seems like a good reliable friend so hopefully that brings a bright spark in the episodes ahead!