Brooke Shields stars in You're Killing Me, a six-part comedy drama on U&Drama that has been met with a scathing review, yet the show has already been commissioned for a second season. The series follows successful cosy mystery novelist Allison Chandler, played by Shields, who lives in the picturesque town of Founder's Cove, Maine, and becomes an amateur sleuth after her friend's apparent suicide. Despite the promising premise, the review describes the show as "thin, lazy and so disappointing."
A Promising Premise Falls Flat
The review, published by a major UK outlet, notes that the setup had legitimate dramedy potential, with each of the two main characters having what the other lacks in terms of skills, experience, and attitude. Allison is a novelist whose publishers are pressuring her to attract a younger demographic, while young true crime podcaster Andi, played by Amalia Williamson, dismisses Allison's work as "outdated and inaccurate." Their forced partnership, after Allison's friend Nash Gilbert (Matthew MacFadzean) dies in a fall from a balcony, could have been the foundation for a witty intergenerational comedy.
Instead, the review argues, the show relies on lazy tropes. It criticizes the writing for depicting Shields' character, who is 61, as if she were 106, with outdated reactions to modern concepts like "chatbot" or "Zoom." The review specifically calls out a scene where Allison shouts "I cancel you!" at someone, noting that someone needs to tell the writers that a 61-year-old would know what cancelling someone means.
Repetitive Plot and Missed Opportunities
The plot follows a repetitive formula, with one new murder per week, including an adulterated EpiPen at a wedding and an electrocution in a hot tub. The review suggests that an "AI monkey" seems to be in charge of storyboarding, as the narrative contrives to bring Andi and Allison together to investigate what they believe is murder, with new county detective Jack Kerrigan (Tom Cavanagh) eventually agreeing. Murder suspects emerge, are grilled, establish alibis, and then are banished until one re-emerges to incriminate himself.
The review also points out that Shields, who has proven her comedic abilities in shows like Friends and Suddenly Susan, is "thrown back on shrillness and interminably hamming it up to try to make things stick." Williamson, the review adds, is "clearly capable of much more," but her character is written mostly as an arrogant brat with nowhere to go.
Hope for the Second Season
Despite the criticisms, the review expresses a glimmer of hope for the confirmed second season. It notes that the show has "just enough charm" and enough goodwill attached to Shields that the news of a second series is met with "hope rather than despair." The review wants the show to improve, as it did slightly between the pilot and subsequent episodes, and to become the Gilmore Girls-inflected, Murder, She Wrote homage it once flickeringly promised to be.
The review concludes with a wry observation: "But they do say that it's the hope, at least as often as poisoned EpiPens, that kills you." The show aired on U&Drama and is available on U, with the second season already confirmed.
