The comedy about grief we didn’t know we needed

At some point, we’re all likely to experience the disorienting roller coaster ride of bereavement, writes Victoria Hannaford. Thankfully, Netflix’s Dead To Me manages to find comedy in the chaos of grief.

Space isn’t the final frontier when it comes to TV comedy.

Rather than probing the outer reaches of the galaxy, a far more interior landscape has suddenly become comic fodder.

It’s grief.

Clearly there are more obvious furrows to plough when it comes to serving up laughs.

But if iconic TV farce can be made about “nothing”, a la Seinfeld, it seems no topic should be declared off-limits for comedic treatment.

Sure, not every attempt at comedy will actually be funny — you only need to watch an episode of The Big Bang Theory to know that (yes, I realise some people watch that show and find it hilarious, and look, even as a committed atheist I’ve considered praying for their salvation).

Hands up if you too struggle to connect to the humour of the Big Bang Theory. Picture: CBS Television Network

And death, in its many different guises, has long proved a rich vein for police procedural shows, but the emotional terrain that engulfs people in the aftermath has thus far barely rated a mention, much less been mined for hilarity.

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So while it feels surprising that such a complex emotional state could be the foundation of TV comedy, for anyone who’s experienced the crazy, disorienting, roller coaster ride bereavement can take you on, it’s just about possible to imagine it giving rise to the absurd in the hands of a deft writer. But it could just as easily go pear-shaped.

Thankfully new series Dead To Me, which has just been released on streaming service Netflix, has managed to pull off just the right mix of dark comedy in a show about bereavement, and the result is incredibly addictive. It’s the show about grief we didn’t know we needed.

Christina Applegate stars in the Netflix series Dead To Me. Picture: Netflix

The first series, which boasts funnyman Will Ferrell as producer, focuses on an unlikely friendship between two women, played by Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini, who meet at a grief support group.

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It’s a wild, compelling ride, with surprising twists that yield as many heartfelt moments as laughs, but they’re earned, rather than the result of cheap jokes or mawkish lows.

It’s a testament to the emotional terrain the show traverses that Applegate recently confessed she sought therapy after filming the first series. It’s been getting much-deserved rave reviews too.

Similarly, Ricky Gervais’ latest show After Life, which was also released on Netflix earlier this year, finds comedy in the chaos of grief. Written by and starring the British comic, his character Tony teeters very much on the edge of a nihilistic abyss after the death of his wife.

Ricky Gervais has confirmed work has started on the second series of After Life. Picture: Netflix

In among deeply affecting scenes where Tony struggles to come to terms with life as a widower, his inability to cope is somehow funny as well — and there’s just something incredibly satisfying about a show that can make you cry and laugh in the same episode.

Gervais recently confirmed he’s started work on a second series.

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TV shows don’t need to delve into the messy depths of grief to be worth watching, but it’s gratifying to see something we’re all going to experience examined and reflected on in a way that doesn’t present it just as immutable block of pain. The best comedy offers something profound and truthful to us, even while we laugh. And if bereavement is a path we’ll all have to walk at some point, we may as well embrace its lighter moments, and use them to move through grief as best we can. That’s life, right?

Victoria Hannaford is a columnist for The Sunday Mail.

@vhannaford