Aug 4, 2025

"Not Dead Yet": A struggling journalist, a gay ghost, a bi boss, a cartoon villain, and a lot of n*de dudes

Link to the n*de dudes

The second season of Not Dead Yet has just dropped on Hulu. It's a sitcom about a journalist stuck with a low-prestige job writing obituaries. The gimmic: the ghosts of the deceased haunt her until she's done writing, and get involved in her personal life. Obituaries aren't very long, and the family furnishes all of the biographical details, so no research is necessary -- wouldn't you be done in like 30 minutes?

Every episode is stylized as "Not...yet": "Not Friends Yet"; "Not Well Yet," "Not Feeling it Yet." Episode 2.1 is "Not Owning It Yet."

Scene 1: Nell is writing the obituary for Teddy Thompson, Pasadena's Number One real estate agent, whose catchphrase is "Don't dream it..."

The ghost pops up. "Own it!" Darn, I thought it was going to be "Don't dream it -- be it," the line from "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" that inspired a generation of gay men to come out.

He hangs to brag about his 10-million dollar deals, and criticize her condo as "depreciating."

Teddy Thompson is played by Nico Santos of Superstore, who was named one of the Out 100 in 2018. He is married to transman Zeke Smith, who sits on the board of directors of GLAAD. Zeke's marriage proposal made the New York Times list of the top 10 proposals of 2023. Talk about A-Gays.

Back to Nell: Roommate Edward pops in to complain about the refrigerator stinking. "Oh, I'm out of money, so I'm eating last week's leftover soup." Don't journalists get paid?

Scene 2: At work Nell asks Sam (a girl), "Am I depreciating?" She's been there a year, and still doesn't get any major stories. Boss Lexi and her lackey Mason drop in to tell them that the Big Boss coming today, so clean their cubicles: no personal items. He hates that!

Dennis (Josh Banday) and his partner Ben are fostering, so he has a lot of pictures of the kids in his cubicle; he wants to hide them from the Big Boss in Lexi's office.

Josh Banday is married to a woman, but identifies as bisexual (his "Happy Pride" tagline is "bisexual and married").

I checked to see if Ben is actually a guy, or a girl with a guy's name as a queer tease. He's a guy, played by Rory O'Malley, who appears in two episodes.

Rory's Instagram tagline reads "Dad, husband, actor," which usually is meant to identify the guy as heterosexual, but in this case he has a husband, Gerold Schroeder.

You may recall Rory as Brian Dooley, who starts a relationship with Juan Andres on "American Princess." I use their kiss as an illustration in one of the indexes.

Back to Nell: The Ghost pops in to suggest that this would be a good time for an upgrade: ask for more responsibility. But Boss Lexi says no, it's the wrong time: "The Big Boss needs to see the best of our newspaper, and you're the worst."

Scene 3: The Big Boss, who happens to be Boss Lexi's cartoon-villain father: "You're looking more and more gruff every day!" They air-hug. After seeing Boss Lexi lambast Nell, he asks who she is: "An insignificant nobody who I hate; I gave her the worst job I could think of, obituary writer."

"Great! I'm getting older, and need someone to write my obituary, so I can screen the content in advance. I'll have Nell do it."

"But Nell is awful at everything. Her obituaries are terrible. Surely you'd prefer someone more competent?"

"Nope, Nell it is."

More after the break

"American Princess" also starred Taylor Gray (left). The reason for his inclusion in a review of "Not Dead Yet" will become apparent later.

Scene 4: They go into the meeting room and close the blinds. I expect Big Boss to hit on her, but he starts narrating his life story, bragging that he managed to cut 3,000 jobs his first year as CEO. He ended the minors' strike (yes, he meant minors, not miners).

"You're saying things that a villain would say as he lowers you into a volcano."

"Thank you!"

"How about something humanizing, like the good things you've done."

"But I'm evil -- I haven't done any good things." She suggests that he start.

"Do good so people will like me? That's the most ingenious evil plan I ever heard."

When he leaves, Nell brags to the Ghost, "The Big Boss thinks I'm fascinating!" He praises her for moving up in the world

Scene 5: While Boss Lexi is eavesdropping, Roommate Edward (Ron Glassman) drops by to deliver Nell's disgusting soup lunch "You look even less rugged in the real world," she snipes. "Has anyone ever told you that you look like a stalk of asparagus?"

"Where did you get that outfit, from Nancy Reagan's corpse?"

"No, but it's from her collection. Good luck with saving the planet."

"Good luck with the War on Drugs." Nancy Reagan started the Just Say No campaign, har har.

Are they like flirting?

Scene 6: Boss Lexi wants to take her Dad to lunch, but he's already going with Nell ("Your driver or mine?"). Lexi is horrified, but tries to pretend that it's all part of her latest evil scheme.

Running out to hide her misery, she runs into Roommate Edward, insults him, kisses him, and rushes off. He is surprised. No wonder -- she never said "You're arrogant."

Cut to the Big Boss and Nell at lunch at Crickets. She gives him instructions on how not to be insulting to the server: compliment her, but don't mention that you'd like to bang her. Maybe say "I like your shoes." He is astounded: being good is very easy.

Scene 7: Roommate Edward is in the break room. Lexi comes in and asks "Why are you here? You don't work here." He was wondering if she wanted to make out some more. "No, that was just a thing." Then she sees her father, the Big Boss, giving Nell a raise, and starts making out with him.

Big Boss calls Lexi out and asks to use her office to drink Scotch with his new friend, Nell. She fumes.

Scene 8: Nell tells the Big Boss that she feels guilty that Lexi feels so bad over being ignored. "But that's how I motivate her when she slacks off -- I find someone she doesn't like, and shower them with praise. Then she works hard to win my love."

Uh-oh, Nell wasn't special after all.

Scene 9: Nell complaining to the Ghost. I thought I was special, but I'm just a pawn in his weird scheme. Plus her lessons on how to be good didn't work at all.

But she can get even by writing the obituary he asked for: mentioning his business success and how he has no human connections. "It's not the business ledgers that matter, it's the people you affect."

Cut to a montage of Dennis from Scene 2 putting up the photos of his foster kids and Roommate Edward leaving with a smile after making out with Lexi. Later, Big Boss trying to make an emotional connection with his daughter by saying "I like your shoes." That's what Nell taught him -- her How to Be Good lesson worked! The end.

Beefcake: None of any sort. I went through the entire cast list, and all I could find were chest shots. Jason Huber appears in one episode as Conspiracy Theory Ghost; when you search for n*de photos, you get Adam Huber (top photo). I filled in the rest with a random hunk and two n*de dudes from American Princess.

Heterosexism: The Boss Lexi-Roommate Edward arguing-then-kissing romance.

Gay Characters; Brandon, out for about ten seconds. A lot of gay actors, including Dennis, Ben, the Ghost, and Ulysses Morazon, who plays office worker Jeremy (right), illustrating heterosexual privilege (hetero couples can display affection in public without worrying about being beat up, yelled at, or murdered).

It's very odd to have a LGBTQ representation in the cast, but not much on the show itself.

My Grade: A very light, flimsy A plot, and almost no B plot (Lexi and Edward kiss). The Ghost treating Nell's life as a real estate listing was sort of strained. And the LGBT representation was minimal -- one line, even though there are many gay cast members. C