I know I totally need to catch up on Insecure, the HBO series that made a star of Issa Rae. But there are 44 episodes over five seasons of that show, whereas there are just 8 episodes of the first season of How to Die Alone, a new show that just premiered on Hulu, starring an Insecure alum, Natasha Rothwell, so I admit I chose the smaller bite. But if Insecure is anywhere near as enjoyable, easy to watch and satisfying as How to Die Alone is, those five seasons will just fly by.
Don’t be put off by the title. How to Die Alone is not a show about the best way to kill yourself. Nor is it a sequel to 127 Hours. Instead, it is a sitcom-like show about a single woman, played by Rothwell, who works at JFK airport in New York and struggles with finding meaning and love in her life. She works in an airport but has never been on a 
plane. She recently broke up with a man she really liked because she was afraid to fall in love. She had a near-death experience, and her emergency contact was herself. These are all things that she is forced to confront in very neurotic and hilarious ways and leading the charge is Rothwell, an exceedingly charismatic performer who deserves her own show and makes the most of it.
If you don’t recognize her from Insecure, you’ll recognize Rothwell from the first season of The White Lotus, where she played the sweet but beleaguered spa manager Belinda. Rothwell also was a staff writer for Saturday Night Live for a couple of seasons, and she does some of the writing for How to Die Alone as well, while also serving as an executive producer.
Rothwell is fantastic in How to Die Alone as Melissa, a neurotic, insecure mess of a person who is desperate to get her life together but has no idea how to do it. The show melds some classic sitcom tropes that we grew up on (a classic setting with great stable of characters) with a modern sensibility and flexible tone and genre, not afraid to break from the comedy hijinks for a serious conversation about feelings or social issues. The show is diverse as all get out but is as traditional a format as you can imagine. There are pratfalls, there are one-liners, there are jokes you see coming a mile away, there are some that take you perfectly by surprise. There’s romance, there’s heartbreak, there are cliches and there are predictable sit-com tropes, but it’s still all so easy to watch, no matter how much you feel you’ve seen it before.
Because it still all comes down to the writing, and the writing is top notch. Remember, comedy is hard, and think about how many sit coms that have come before this. YOU try to invent something new. What I love about How to Die Alone is they don’t try to invent something new. Instead, they take elements that they love about the genres they love, and they’ve blended them into one show to make a great show that works. It’s not fully a sit com. It’s not fully a drama. But it sure is more funny than serious, and it sure is a great combination of charming, charismatic, thoughtful, smooth, funny and edgy. Add it to your list.
How to Die Alone premiered on Friday, September 13 on Hulu. New episodes are every Friday through October 11.