She might have shot to fame playing a stereotypical dumb blonde on long-running sitcom Married… with Children, but Christina Applegate is never funnier than when playing characters with more bite.
From her two-episode stint as Amy Green, Rachel’s (Jennifer Aniston) self-involved sister on Friends, to the just as nasty “Old Sam” in Samantha Who?, the actress makes obnoxious hilarious.
There are shades of those two women in her Dead to Me character, successful real-estate agent Jen, but the mother-of-two has good reason to behave offensively – she’s mourning the sudden death of her husband in a hit-and-run accident.
For a woman who can be quite abrasive at the best of times, the tragedy removes any filter she may have previously managed to apply.
At a grief support group, Jen reluctantly accepts the friendship of fellow member Judy (Linda Cardellini), who is dealing with her own loss. As the women bond, they help each other through the process of moving on.
But this 10-part series is much more than a study of friendship and fate (although it does a good job of that), with episode-ending twists keeping the characters – and the viewers – on their toes. Welcome back to TV, Ms Applegate. (On Netflix now) 4.5 stars
