Hulu’s ‘How to Die Alone’ Successfully Balances Comedy and Existential Crisis

Disney/Lindsay Sarazin

Created by and starring Natasha Rothwell, this unique comedy series from Onyx Collective follows a single, broke JFK airport employee who has an accidental brush with death that inspires her to take more risks to get out of her unsatisfying midlife rut. One interesting irony is that while Mel works in an airport, she’s never been on a plane. That is one of many fears she will have to face in this quirky, well-written comedy. It’s not a midlife crisis, Rothwell points out, but rather, a “crisis of conscience.”

“The inevitability of death really slaps her in the face and she realizes that she hasn’t really fully been living,” says Rothwell. “And so I think she wants to sort of break out of the existential crisis of why we’re here and really live it up and really figure out how to make the most of it.”

Another major theme is reflected in its title; Mel is also struggling with being alone, especially when she hears that her ex-boyfriend is getting married. As the show goes on, she begins to understand how she’s come to be so isolated.

“I wanted to sort of explore the difference between being alone and loneliness,” says Rothwell. “It’s not the alone piece that’s scary. It’s the loneliness that’s scary. We’ll see Mel realize that she is lonely because she’s not opening up and being authentic and being true to herself. Vulnerability leads to connection. In her effort to start living, [she] makes a ton of mistakes, but she keeps going. I think that’s the truest expression of the healing journey.”

One of the things that makes the show unique is its setting. Workplace comedies generally take place in hospitals, police departments or fire stations. Why the airport?

“I love the airport. It is such an interesting sort of purgatory. I’m very much a voyeur and I love watching people be reunited and the excitement of high school sports teams about to board their plane to the big championship. You see older friends that are all women that either have husbands that have died or that they’ve divorced and are just out to have a good time. It’s such an interesting microcosm of the world where you have all these cross sections of life intersecting. I just thought it would be a rich environment to play someone who’s about to start this emotional journey. And also just the fact that she’s never flown before, but she works there and helps people get to where they’re going. That tension between who she is and who she wants to be — it was the right place to have that.”

The first four episodes of How to Die Alone will be available on Hulu Friday, Sept. 13, with new episodes premiering every Friday after that.