Her quirky show helps fill a comedy void

When it comes to comedies, TV has turned upside down.
Now it’s the broadcast networks that fail to be funny. And it’s the streamers or a basic-cable network that fill the void.
Already arrived are FX’s “English Teacher” and Hulu’s “How to Die Alone” – a delight (shown here) that we’ll get back to in a minute.
Coming next are the second seasons of the “Frasier” reboot and “Colin From Accounts” (Sept. 19 and 26, both on Paramount+) and “Shrinking” (Oct. 16, Apple TV+). Also, there’s the final season of the delightful “What We Do in the Shadows” (Oct. 21, FX), with more coming.
And broadcast networks? At the peak, ABC and NBC each started a season with 18 situation comedies. This fall, NBC and CBS have four apiece (none starting before Oct. 17); ABC has one, Fox has (cartoons excluded) zero.
A few shows – ABC’s final year of “The Conners,” Fox’s clever “Animal Control” – will wait for mid-season, Meanwhile, streamers – known more for dragons, superheroes and star trekkers – are inching further into comedies.
The only catch is that they have short seasons; “How to Die Alone” packs all eight episodes into three Fridays, ending Sept. 27. The first four ran Sept. 13 and you can catch them now, with two apiece on Sept. 20 and 27.
At the core is Natasha Rothwell (shown here), 43, who’s known for two HBO shows. She was a writer and co-star on “Insecure” and an Emmy-nominated actress in “White Lotus.”
Now she co-wrote this and stars as Mel, an airport worker who had a very bad 35th birthday. For one thing, she smashed her cart into a big-apple sculpture, which rolled away menacingly; for another, she built an Ikea-like bookshelf that promptly collapsed on (and almost killed) her. Worse, the latter happened when she was alone on her birthday.
Then came some surprises that sent her in new directions. For the first time, she told the world, she’ll focus on herself.
She’s not very good at it. There are times when she’s cruel or unthinking in dealing with her brother … or her ex-lover (played by Jocko Sims, who was a surgeon on “New Amsterdam” … or to her best friend Rory, who also makes a cruel request of his own.
Throughout it all, however, she and the others are wonderfully likable. We root for these people as they scramble through life.
“How to Die Alone” shifts tone sharply for its fifth episode (Sept 20), set on Thanksgiving, and for its final two (Sept. 27). I can’t say I’m fond of the ending, but before that we meet complex characters with makeshift lives. We also get plenty of laughs, helping fill TV’s comedy void.