I really admired the premise from the trailers but was concerned over Gina Rodriguez's performance. In watching the actual show, she's fine but the acting over all is still not good. Hannah Simone seems like she doesn't want to be there. Lauren Ash reads like a high school theatre student and I'd rank her performance to be the worst.
The premise falls apart too. Normally obituaries are written by the deceased loved ones. However in this show main character Nell writes them as her designated position, which would suggest that they have no loved ones to write obituaries for them. Yet Nell's obituaries are praised by the deceased's loved ones because it seems like she actually knew them, which would suggest they have loved ones that knew them adequately and had the ability to write their own obituaries without the risk of someone writing anything that sounded impersonal. The first episode Nell even meets the dead guy's wife--why wouldn't she write it? In another episode the influencer character dies and Nell's boss says that writing a good obituary for her would bring more press to the newspaper which no it wouldn't. Maybe fans of the influencer would read the newspaper obituary but what on earth would compel them to become loyal readers of the paper? The writing chops of the obituary writer? Besides an influencers death would get attention from Buzzfeed so there. Why did I write this review? Because I was annoyed by those things specifically. It just feels like it was written by people who couldn't be bothered.
The premise falls apart too. Normally obituaries are written by the deceased loved ones. However in this show main character Nell writes them as her designated position, which would suggest that they have no loved ones to write obituaries for them. Yet Nell's obituaries are praised by the deceased's loved ones because it seems like she actually knew them, which would suggest they have loved ones that knew them adequately and had the ability to write their own obituaries without the risk of someone writing anything that sounded impersonal. The first episode Nell even meets the dead guy's wife--why wouldn't she write it? In another episode the influencer character dies and Nell's boss says that writing a good obituary for her would bring more press to the newspaper which no it wouldn't. Maybe fans of the influencer would read the newspaper obituary but what on earth would compel them to become loyal readers of the paper? The writing chops of the obituary writer? Besides an influencers death would get attention from Buzzfeed so there. Why did I write this review? Because I was annoyed by those things specifically. It just feels like it was written by people who couldn't be bothered.