Drop Dead Diva is supposed to be empowering for average size women but what smart, professional woman wears no makeup and eats donuts EVERY day? Jane [Brooke Elliott] looks harried; her hair is stringy and not presentable for high-powered meetings and court appearances. No self-respectable attorney would show up to court without pulling her hair away from her face or brushing it into a better style. The premise of the show is this: a size 16 attorney [Jane] gets shot and simultaneously a vapid size 2 model, Deb [Brooke D'Orsay] gets killed in a car accident. Her soul returns in the body of the attorney. She gains the attorney’s brains but retains many of her own memories. For a show that is embracing the body you have, Jane/Deb wakes up every day and looks in the mirror and is horrified at the body that she now has. She tells her guardian angel that she’s not sure that she can do this. She wants out. She doesn’t want this body. She likes being smart and remembering things and being a lawyer but she definitely liked the perks of being a beautiful woman. One of those “perks” was her engagement to Grayson, a lawyer, who just happens to be a new associate at Jane’s firm.
Drop Dead Diva is full of clichés: besides the donuts and éclairs that Jane consumes; she has a wardrobe from Lane Bryant; and she has a picture on her wall of herself and her cat as well as decorative plates. Jane is now acting weird after the shooting. It is all because she is confused by what is going on. She has confided her secret to her best friend [Well Deb’s best friend] Stacy [played by blonde, baby-voiced April Bowlby quite like a sweeter version of Ugly Betty’s Amanda.] While Stacy seems thrilled to have her best friend back, she knows the clubs the duo used to haunt wouldn’t even let Jane in and some of their old friend would wonder why they are friends. Stacy does bring Jane lunch one day but it is so over-the-top unrealistic. A salad. Okay. But then a baggie with three raisins in it for a “snack”?
Let me take a moment to compare this plus-size gal to another on one of my favorite [and recently canceled] sitcoms, Samantha Who? Dena [Melissa McCarthy] is definitely chunky but she hardly lets it keep her down. She dresses appropriately. Dena frequents bars and clubs with Samantha and Andrea. She’s not afraid to speak her mind and she and her boyfriend adore each other. Sure, sometimes she gets down about things but the show never makes a huge issue out of her weight and she doesn’t have image issues at every turn. The creator and writer of Drop Dead Diva is a man, Josh Berman, which, honestly, could be its problem. How could a man be sensitive to what a woman who is 10, 15, 50, or even five pounds overweight really goes through on a daily basis? How does he know what she sees and feels and thinks when she looks into a mirror?
In Drop Dead Diva, most of Jane’s inspired ideas at the law firm have come from Deb, the skinny girl in the fat body. What this is teaching viewers about appreciating the body they have or to have better body image is lost on me. Eating oatmeal for breakfast and taking a walk every once in a while would do wonders for Jane. What makes Jane fun and attractive is that Deb now inhabits her body. In other words, this show seems hesitant to drop the diva any time soon. Deb adds a refreshing spontaneity to the character. Drop Dead Diva is predictable and falls flat.
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