Dead to Me has lost its charm. While it is admirable that Christina Applegate pushed through her multiple sclerosis symptoms to bring fans another season of the Netflix favorite, the third series disappoints.
The first strike against the series is that the first two seasons were enjoyable, but not memorable. That presents a problem when there is a year and three months between seasons. Unless you’re a huge fan that has been rewatching the series in the interim, you probably only remember that Judy (Linda Cardinelli, Freaks and Geeks) accidentally killed Jen’s (Christina Applegate, Bad Moms) husband and, through a series of mourning and bizarre events, they became friends against all odds.
Since Netflix doesn’t adequately recap past seasons to provide context for season three of Dead to Me, you’re either forced to rewatch everything or are lost for the first new episode. While you will eventually remember details thanks to flashbacks, you’re piecing together the puzzle of the first two seasons as you’re trying to follow the developing plot.
It’s a catch-22: you need to rewatch past seasons in order to fully understand this season, but Dead to Me Season 3 isn’t compelling enough to make you want to revisit the past. Even though the overarching plot of Dead to Me moves forward, it recycles storylines by simply changing the bad actor and the victims. At some point, it gets tiresome and ridiculous as the characters become less compelling and start to become exhausting.
Unless you are a huge Christina Applegate fan and want to watch what may be her last hurrah, skip the final season of Dead to Me.
