What are girls made of — modern girls in their thirties, under forties and a little over? From credit cards — to pay numerous bills: mortgage, purchases, tutors for children. From baseball bats — to defend your territory. From margaritas to heal wounds in the company of a best friend. Dead to Me is probably the weirdest female friendship show you’ve ever seen.
In fairness, «women’s time» in the series did not start yesterday: «Sex and the City» turned 20 last year, «Desperate Housewives» is 15 today.
However, the range of problems faced by modern heroines and female images has become wider. And at the same time — and a list of topics that reflect the realities of the modern world: an existential crisis and childhood trauma — in «Matryoshka», self-harm and delegated Munchausen syndrome in «Sharp Objects», abuse and female solidarity in «Big Little Lies», psychopathy — in «Killing Eve.» In the last two series (they are continuing right now), the focus is on relationships between women. They’re also at the heart of Netflix’s new hit black comedy Dead to Me.
What kind of friendship is based on lies and murder?
— Complex?..
Everything was mixed up in Jen Harding’s house. Her husband was hit to death by a car: the driver fled the scene of the crime, and this brings Jen into an indescribable rage; however, as it turns out later, «anger management» is not her strongest skill in general. Her children are having a hard time with the death of their father, which Jen does not know about, but she understands that she was not the best mother: all the worries about her sons lay on her husband. Business hangs in the balance: a realtor with an unbridled disposition is not exactly a client’s dream.
In a support group for survivors of the loss, Jen meets a strange person — Judy. In a matter of days, women become best friends, and although petty lies begin to emerge from the very beginning, the fact that Judy came into her life for a reason, Jen will understand only by the end of the season, much later than the viewer.
How to cope with the loss of a loved one? Is it possible to live under the same roof with a person and not know who he is and what he is going through?
The viewer generally has a hard time. Every now and then you find yourself closing your eyes, clattering in annoyance or getting angry at the characters, empathizing with them (largely thanks to the phenomenal acting duo of Christina Applegate from “Married … with children” and Linda Cardellini) or find that you swallowed three episodes, although you sat down for the computer «just for a minute.» All because «Dead to Me» was filmed according to all the canons of the genre.
And, like any good series, it is multi-layered and, as the plot develops, asks the viewer a lot of uncomfortable questions. How to cope with the loss of a loved one? The heroines have their own recipes: Judy — and in her life there were losses too — finds herself in creativity, Jen listens to hard rock and destroys reckless cars with a baseball bat. Is it possible to live under the same roof with a person and not know who he is and what he is going through? Is it really possible not to understand that we are being cheated on? Whose dreams are we living and whose lives are we living? What can guilt and the secret that we have to keep do to us?
Along the way, the scriptwriters go through spiritual quests, and esoteric hobbies, and motivational speakers — everything without which it is difficult to imagine the life of a modern person, confused and vulnerable, strong and fragile, desperate and fearless. Such as you or me.