In the new Hulu comedy “How to Die Alone,” creator and star Natasha Rothwell plays a 35-year-old woman working a dead-end job at the airport. She’s in a rut, but when an accident lands her briefly in the hospital, she’s inspired to make some incremental changes to her life, both professionally and personally.
Rothwell might be best known for her supporting roles on “Insecure” and “The White Lotus.” She absolutely has the talent to carry a show and I hope she gets more opportunities going forward. Even so, I found myself liking “How to Die Alone” without really loving it.
Melissa (Rothwell) drives a cart around the airport terminal, transporting people with mobility needs. It’s far from stimulating. Strangers have a tendency of looking straight through her. Also: She’s broke and her ex — who is also her supervisor — just got engaged. To top it off, her best friend at work ditches her on her birthday for a hookup. She’s never even been on a plane, despite working at JFK. Things are not going well.
After some retail therapy at an IKEA-esque store called Ümlaüt (I laughed!) she heads home to build her newly purchased shelving unit by herself, which subsequently falls on top of her and next thing she knows, in the hospital. This brush with death isn’t so much a wakeup call as a nudge in a new direction. Maybe she’ll do that management training course at work. Maybe she’ll try to make new friends and put herself out there romantically. Maybe she’ll finally step on a plane and go somewhere.
Rothwell has created a character who is warm and silly one moment, self-sabotaging the next, defined by a tangy dynamic with her nearest and dearest, including her close pal played by Conrad Ricamora (“Fire Island”), and her brother played by Bashir Salahuddin (“South Side”).
“How to Die Alone” swings from breezy, absurdist moments (one sequence mimics the surreal effects of being high on Percocet) to more grounded and heartfelt moments. None of it quite hangs together. Like “Insecure,” the episodes are a loose collection of moments, but tonally the show is all over the place, and structurally it might have benefited from a more traditional format. The season finale wraps mid-story with an awkward, unsatisfying cliffhanger, which is a trope overembraced in the streaming era. It rarely works as intended. Leaving audiences with a sense of resolution is important and I wish more shows understood that.
Airports have a way of feeling like “The Twilight Zone,” where all good sense and equilibrium goes to die, so it’s a rich setting for a workplace comedy. If travelers are often at their worst, what is that like for employees? “How to Die Alone” doesn’t fully take advantage of those opportunities, but that may not be where Rothwell’s interests really lie. Fair enough.
“How to Die Alone” — 2.5 stars (out of 4)
Where to watch: Hulu
Nina Metz is a Tribune critic