“It’s been the creative gift of my life to be able to write two complex, flawed, imperfect women who are not all good and not all bad,” admits creator Liz Feldman about her Netflix comedy hit “Dead to Me.” Watch the interview with Feldman above.
“Dead to Me” stars Emmy winner Christina Applegate as grief-stricken Jen, whose husband was killed in a hit-and-run accident, and Emmy nominee Linda Cardellini as free spirit Judy, who we soon discover is suffering with her own demons. They meet at a grief support group and become instant friends, but their lives take unexpected twists and turns over the 10 episode first season of this gloriously dark, twisted and unpredictable comedy.
When Feldman created the show, which was also executive-produced by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, she wanted to strike the perfect balance between comedy and tragedy, drawing on personal experience to give the show a more authentic voice. “Every writer in the room came to that room with real stories of heartbreak and grief,” Feldman explains. “Hopefully what you feel when watching the show is that there’s a lot of heart and a lot of really personal stuff in there for people to connect with.”
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“We wrote from a place of authenticity. It is weird that you are laughing and then something dark happens. That is how I see life. That’s how I personally experience the twists and turns of life,” she reveals. “We never wanted to force the humor. The humor had to come from a real place, and the twists and turns too. The dark stuff had to feel like it was organic, like it was happening for a reason and not just happening because we needed a twist.”
“My experience of life is that my expectations are always being subverted. Just when you think one thing is going to happen and you’re like of course X, Y or Z is going to happen, in my experience it’s always the exact opposite!”
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