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Deadline, TVWeek

New Sitcom Is Set in Purgatory

Mar 31, 2016  •  Post A Comment

Purgatory has been mentioned before in TV shows and movies, but this may be the first time it provides the setting for a comedy series.

“Writers Noelle Valdivia & Corinne Kingsbury and Brillstein Entertainment Partners have sold a half-hour comedy about the afterlife to TV Land,” Deadline.com reports. “The project, tentatively titled ‘Elsewhere,’ centers on a successful but shallow woman who, after dying in a car accident, realizes she prioritized all the wrong things in her life. Now, she has a second chance to achieve enlightenment against all odds — in purgatory.”

Loosely defined as a place where souls are sorted out before being sent to heaven or hell, the idea of purgatory famously formed the premise of the 1991 Albert Brooks movie “Defending Your Life.” The concept has also been featured in TV shows from “Supernatural” to “South Park.”

Deadline notes that Valdivia, who has worked on “Ash vs. Evil Dead,” “Manhattan” and “Masters of Sex,” and Kingsbury (“The Newsroom”) are longtime friends who usually work solo. Robin Schwartz of BEP is executive producing.

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2 Comments

  1. Just for clarity – purgatory is not a staging area for hell; in fact, it’s believed to be more of a state of being or a process than a location. It is the purgation process – burning off or cleansing – of sin as the final step of purification before reaching heaven. All souls in purgatory are (eventually) destined for heaven, at least according to Catholic teaching.

    • Sure, but we can’t presume the writers stuck strictly to one teaching.

      dL

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