My Sad Dead, a new Argentinian drama on Netflix, starts with a mostly silent scene of an elderly woman dying. That might be the least off-putting scene in the entire first episode. But the episode is off-putting in a good way.

MY SAD DEAD: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: An overhead shot of an elderly woman breathing her last breaths, surrounded by the mess made taking care of her. Her daughter is at her bedside.

The Gist: Emma (Mercedes Morán) is a doctor who just retired from the hospital where she worked. Her first move is to go to her mother’s house, in a rough neighborhood in Buenos Aires. Only a few weeks after her death, she’s going to clean the house in order to move in. One of the reasons she wants to live in her mother’s house is to keep her mother’s ghost company. Yes, Emma can see and hear the dead, often overwhelmed by their moans and cries. Her daughter Carolina (Dolores Fonzi) did not inherit that power.

A first bit of business is that she’s getting a visit from her sister Lidia (Alejandra Flechner), whom she doesn’t really like and hasn’t seen in years. Lidia is coming down from Oregon with her husband Tomas (Carlos Portaluppi) and daughter Julie (Carolina Álvarez). Lidia and Tomas plan to leave Julie in Buenos Aires to get her treatment for two of her biggest issues: her morbid obesity and her mental illness. Emma, though, can see that Julie has the same “gift” that she does, though much more intense. Julie also interacts with the spirit world in a much different way, mostly involving sexual activity.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Strangely, My Sad Dead, directed by Pablo Larraín and based on Mariana Enríquez’s novel, feels like a bit of a companion piece to the Thai thriller Delusion, which also came out today.

Our Take: Much of My Sad Dead is designed to make the viewer uneasy. There are lots of quiet passages punctuated by a soundtrack that makes you mute the TV because you think the noise is coming from somewhere in your house. The color palate is muted and faded. The neighborhood is dangerous. The ghosts aren’t exactly happy-go-lucky, but mostly in excruciating pain. But Larraín paints a pretty effective picture of a woman who isn’t particularly happy that she has this otherworldly ability, but is fascinated with how Julie’s version of the “gift” is different and more intense.

In her own very tragic way, Julie will soon provide that power to the entire neighborhood of Piedrabuena, which will come into play after the murder of three teenagers. We expect that the show is going to continue to play out in this deliberate fashion, showing people slowly gaining a form of the abilities that Emma and Julie have. The very detached, washed out manner in which Larraín has chosen to tell this story will continue to fuel the melancholic feeling that projects from Emma at all times, because being able to hear from the dead isn’t exactly a gift anyone really wants.

Performance Worth Watching: Carolina Álvarez plays Julie with more dignity than we see from most people of size play, even in 2026. She knows she’s not mentally ill in the way her parents think she is, but she does suffer from an extreme depression that is going to come to the fore by the end of the episode.

Sex And Skin: There is some nudity when we see Julie interact with ghosts on her sexual level. Another scene in a locker room also has some nudity.

Parting Shot: Julie climbs to the top of a water tower in the projects in Piedrabuena, opens the hatch, and lets herself fall in.

Our Call: STREAM IT. My Sad Dead is definitely creepy and strange, and a little hard to wrap your mind around at first, but it’s also a raw and unsparing look at death and mental illness.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.