Before Netflix's Dead to Me, watch Christina Applegate in Samantha Who?

Nowadays, streaming options and contradictory recommendations are so numerous that it's hard to see through all the bullshit that you could watch. Every Friday, The edgeThe Cut the Crap column simplifies the choice by sorting out a multitude of movies and TV shows on subscription services and recommending just one thing to watch this weekend.

What to watch

"Out of Africa", an episode of season 2 of Samantha who?, a sitcom on ABC aired from 2007 to 2009. Christina Applegate plays the role of Samantha Newly, a successful but colossally selfish real estate agency that develops amnesia after an accident and undergoes a change of personality. odious she was once. In "Out of Africa", Sam is embarrassed when she realizes she can not honor her commitment to do charity work abroad. In order to preserve her new image of beneficent, she claims to make the trip while partying in Miami with her friends Andrea (Jennifer Esposito) and Dena (Melissa McCarthy). Then an outbreak of violence in the country where she is Assumed be threatening to expose the lie.

Why look now?

Because the first season of Death for me debuted on Netflix this weekend.

In this new show, Christina Applegate plays the role of Jen, a real estate agency whose life was turned upside down by a traumatic event – a bit like Samantha Newly in Samantha who?. In Jen's case, the loss of her husband in a hit-and-run offense sends her into a dark spiral of grief, rage and self-medication. When she meets the broken Judy (played by Linda Cardellini), the two women go wild in the suburbs of Jen, rushing each other into excessive behavior … while trying to protect shocking secrets.

Death for me pings between sinister melodrama and black comedy, two modes that Applegate knows how to play well. It's fun to follow her career, since at almost every stage of the course, she bypasses the obstacles that have blocked many young Hollywood stars. Applegate was filming and participating in TV shows while she was still in elementary school, but she never became a tired and sour old child star. In adolescence, she landed the role of the party girl in the air, Kelly Bundy, in Fox's long sitcom. Married with childrenbut she avoided being stereotyped as a pretext for the rest of her career.

Initially, Samantha who? seemed to be the Applegate TV project. Arriving just three years after seducing the public with her actress talents Presenter: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, the sitcom had it all: critical support, a place of choice in the program after Dance with the stars, and a premise that allowed him to play both joke and pathos. When ABC debuted Samantha who? in 2007, the show attracted a large audience, mainly during the first season. But the writers' strike was short, then in the middle of the second year, the series went on to a less desirable niche. All this happened while Applegate was fighting breast cancer.

ABC canceled Samantha who? in 2009, after the brutal fall of audiences in the second half of the second season – which is a shame, because, as evidenced by "Out of Africa", the series still had a lot of juice broth. The episode takes place exactly one year after Samantha's accident and finds her taking stock of her great self-improvement project. Not being ruthless enough to become a well-sold real estate agent, she plans to join relief efforts in Sudan and bristles when her parents (played by Jean Smart and Kevin Dunn) and her shallow best friend, Andrea. , predict that she "will take the easy way as she has always done before." When Samantha realizes that she can not cope – mainly because she is terrified of the battery of vaccines she has to endure – she wonders again if she has really changed.

For whom is this?

Anyone who likes funny ladies.

The advantage of Samantha who?The basic premise is that it allows Applegate to play a flashback on a hilarious and terrible person – as in this episode, where we see it simulate a collapsed crisis to be able to cross a crime scene and avoid turning around. block – and softer in the present. Yet, the series never assumes that "the new Samantha" is always better than the one she was. Jean Smart is very funny in "Out of Africa", playing a mother who misses when her daughter was too absorbed by herself to risk her life by helping others. And Jennifer Esposito is really poignant, as a person who was happier when her best bud was more "fun". Andrea constantly urges Sam to take action and make bad choices again. (Regarding the sabotaged trip to Africa, she says that Samantha deserves a fun holiday after her tough year. Africa to be run over by a car? ")

Contemporary comedy fans might be more interested in seeing Melissa McCarthy as Dena, Sam's closest neighbor and best friend, returning to life after amnesia. At once jovial and devaluing, Dena brings an unusual mix of kindness and need to all her scenes. McCarthy took the role right after his long run Gilmore Girls completed. Together, she has dedicated almost ten years of her career to both programs. Then in 2011 she did Bridesmaidsand everything has changed.

Where to see it

The ABC website or application, free of charge, with advertising support. For more hilarious applegate, her sitcom 2011-12 Standing all night is on the NBC website / app, also free with ads. And while Presenter is not currently available through any subscription-based streaming service, it is for sale or rental at all major digital retailers.