5 TV shows like Christina Applegate's Dead to Me

Dead to Me is a dark comedy series that first premiered in 2019. The show follows Jen, a recently widowed woman, who takes it upon herself to track down her husband's killer. She soon meets Judy, who has suffered a loss of her own and the two bond to navigate grief, loss and forgiveness together. Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini play Jen and Judy respectively.

The second season of Dead to Me was released on Netflix in 2020, after which the third and final season was delayed for a long time due to the pandemic. The finale season is now set to premiere on Netflix on November 17, 2022.

While Dead to Me has been one of the finest dark comedies of recent times, with Applegate even winning numerous accolades for her performance, it is certainly not the only good one in the genre. American television has always boasted some masterpieces that explore dark humor as unabashedly as possible.

Here are five other shows like Dead to Me to watch if you're a fan of the genre.

More shows to watch if you like Dead to Me

1) After Life

After Life, starring Ricky Gervais, is another three-season long show like Dead to Me that navigates grief and how that might turn a person's life upside-down. Like Dead to Me, the lead character in After Life also loses his spouse and develops a completely new personality to cope with it by not caring for anyone or anything in life.

However, the plan predictably backfires and his close friends and family decide to step in and help him out of it. Gervais also wrote and directed the show, making the jokes and punchlines all land almost perfectly. Despite being a clear comedy, the show doesn't take itself too lightly and manages to explore the serious concepts of depression and loss quite actively.

The first season of After Life premiered in 2019 and the final season came out in January 2022. The show is available to stream on Netflix.

2) *Kevin can F**k Himself*

Kevin can F**k Himself (Image via The Hollywood Reporter)

With the first season having premiered in 2021, Kevin can F**k Himself turned the traditional format of the sit-com over its head to explore a much darker world of each of its characters. The run-time is split between a well-lit 90s sit-com and the much shadier world of Allison, Kevin's wife. Each of the characters in the show is written with nuance and depth.

Like Dead to Me, Kevin can F**k Himself explores what the institution of marriage and a very long relationship with a person can do to someone. It also has a strong feminist narrative that calls out the misogynistic undercurrents of most shows in pop-culture. Annie Murphy is excellent as Allison because she has an audience rooting for her from the get go despite her fairly dark intentions.

The final season of Kevin Can F**k Himself premiered in August 2022 and can be watched on Prime Video.

3) The Woman in the House across the Street from the Girl in the Window

The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window (Image via IMDB)

Starring Kristen Bell, The Woman in the House across the Street from the Girl in the Window, includes all the typical tropes of a traditional thriller only to make fun of the genre. All the characters fit perfectly into the prototypes that have been created by thriller films for years now. Although it is a spoof film, it still follows a funny female protagonist who indulges in her oddest fantasies to evade her depressing reality.

Like Dead to Me, this show explores themes of mental illness, grief, and longing, all while generating some noise loudIy. It is a limited series with eight episodes and was released on Netflix in January 2022.

Unlike Dead to Me, however, this one barely takes any of its characters or plot points seriously, making it more of a comedy than anything else.

4) *The End of the F***ing World*

The End of the F***ing World (Image via Dazed)

With brilliantly subtle performances, hilarious yet restrained jokes, and some wide and relatable themes, The End of the F***ing World is a near-perfect dark comedy series that deals with flawed and troubled characters at the center of its world. It follows James, a self-proclaimed psychopath teenager, who meets an emotionally detached Alyssa as the two set off on an adventure of their own.

In its own way, The End of the F***ing World comments on the emotional state of the modern generation and navigates themes of grief, depression, childhood trauma and love. The second season of the show is more similar to Dead to Me in terms of plot points as they introduce a similarly grieving character who decides to avenge her husband's death.

The two-season long show is streaming on Netflix.

5) Killing Eve

Despite being a spy thriller, Killing Eve shares some major similarities with Dead to Me in the kind of relationship the two shows explore. When Eve is assigned the job of tracking down an assassin named Villanelle, the two women begin to share a strange relationship, with Eve developing an obsession with her target.

Killing Eve also turns into a comedy when it needs to but keeps it limited to dry wit rather than exploring over-the-top sketches. It is led by some splendid performances that keep you invested in the most unlikely and probably even unrelatable situations in the show. The relationship between the women forms the crux of the plot and becomes the identity of the show.

There have been four seasons of the show so far.

Catch the third and final season of Dead to Me, premiering on Netflix on November 17, 2022.

Edited by Abhipsa Choudhury