How two network comedies about death teach us to live a better life

In case you haven’t heard, 2016 is the worst year ever.
That certainly sounds true, as far as manifestos that can be condensed down to five words and a number go. The evidence is certainly abundant in tragedies, election updates, a peppering of celebrity divorces and deaths. In our disturbingly polarized culture, all parties seem to share a general sense of impending doom.
Even America’s go-to dealer of sugar-coated escapism, the network television comedy, has been infected by our na