# Drop Dead Diva (2009)

> A vain model wakes in the body of a brilliant plus-sized attorney and must prove herself in a big law firm.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/17143

## Facts

- Seasons: 6
- Episodes: 78
- Episode runtime: 43 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: comedy, drama
- Created by: Josh Berman
- Network: Lifetime
- Cast: Brooke Elliott, April Bowlby, Jackson Hurst, Kate Levering, Margaret Cho, Lex Medlin, Carter MacIntyre, Josh Stamberg
- TMDB rating: 7.5/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1280822/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: mild
- Complexity: simple
- Violence: none
- Tone: breezy, sincere, comforting, witty

## What critics say

Audiences rate the series positively for its light, warm take on a body-swap premise and its lead performance, with ratings holding steady across six seasons.

## Synopsis

Drop Dead Diva (2009-2014) is a US Lifetime network comedy-drama series created by Josh Berman. A shallow Los Angeles model named Deb dies in an accident, and her soul ends up inside the body of Jane Bingum (Brooke Elliott), a brilliant plus-sized attorney at a law firm. The engine of the series is Jane's struggle to hold her own in a competitive firm while her new body and her old vanity collide. Each episode mixes courtroom cases with office rivalries and romantic tangles involving colleagues Grayson Kent (Jackson Hurst) and Owen French (Lex Medlin), with Stacy Barrett (April Bowlby) and Teri Lee (Margaret Cho) rounding out the ensemble. The show runs six seasons of thirteen episodes each, a standalone serialized comedy-drama with ongoing romantic arcs rather than strict case-of-the-week structure. Its setting is a contemporary Los Angeles legal world, and its tone is warm, breezy and sincere, with a lightly fantastical afterlife framing. Fans of Ally McBeal, Ugly Betty and Ghost will find resonance in its blend of legal workplace comedy, self-acceptance and gentle romance.

## Shows like Drop Dead Diva

- [Family Law (2021)](https://ember.film/tv/103486)
- [Ally McBeal (1997)](https://ember.film/tv/1396)
- [Samantha Who? (2007)](https://ember.film/tv/2603)
- [Come Back Alive (2016)](https://ember.film/tv/57789)
- [Big (2012)](https://ember.film/tv/39315)
- [Oh My Venus (2015)](https://ember.film/tv/56929)
- [Ugly Betty (2006)](https://ember.film/tv/4404)
- [Selfie (2014)](https://ember.film/tv/54241)
- [Partner Track (2022)](https://ember.film/tv/111525)
- [The Bold Type (2017)](https://ember.film/tv/60981)

---

Site overview: https://ember.film/llms.txt