History Characters / DeadToMe

* WidowWoman: The show begins with her husband Ted having been killed in a hit-and-run.

* HeterosexualLifePartners: Granted, Judy is bisexual, but this is still very much the dynamic she grows to have with Jen throughout the series. She moves in with Jen and helps to parent her sons. Both Jen and Judy have compared their relationship with their relationships with Ted and Steve respectively, with Jen saying in "I Can Handle It" that she was terrified when she hadn't heard back from Judy because "the last time someone that I loved didn't call me back, he was dead," and in "Between You And Me," after Judy says that, although Steve wasn't perfect, he was still her person:

!! Nick Pager

* MissingMom: Her mother got cancer and died when Jen was only nineteen.

* PartingWordsRegret: [[spoiler:Her last interaction with Ted was an awful, ''awful'' fight. Even after finding out that Ted was really kind of a slimebag, she still deeply regrets this.]]

* SexlessMarriage: [[spoiler:Hers and Ted's was this by the end. According to Jen, he hadn't touched her since she got double mastectomy, even though she only got it to prevent breast cancer, which killed her mother. She's understandably very hurt by this, and said he made her feel "disgusting."]]

* TookALevelInJerkass: [[spoiler: In episode 9, after Judy confesses that she killed Ted, she immediately disowns her and throws Judy out of her house, not caring about knowing the whole story. She gets better by the end though, as killing Steve causes her to forgive Judy and come to terms with her own hypocrisy.]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jen_harding.png]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/judy_hale.png]]

* HairTriggerTemper: She gets riled-up easily. As Chris points out, this has been a trait of hers since even before her husband's death and puts a strain on her relationship with everyone, be it co-workers or family, and this only worsens with the stress of the grief. [[spoiler:Chris eventually breaks their work relationship once she becomes too much for him to handle, and remembers times where this hampered their work.]]

-->'''Jen:''' ''(in a letter to Judy)'' I love you more than I love wine.

* FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: She calls her mom out on this when they talk in the season 2 finale. When her mom says she started abusing drugs because Judy was a really needy baby and that she was very young herself to be a mom:

* FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: Calls her mom out when they talk in the season 2 finale. When her mom says that Judy was a really needy baby and that she was very young herself to be a mom, she started using drugs.

* SensitiveArtist: Judy is an artist who sells paintings in her ex-fiancee's art gallery. She's also very sensitive emotionally-driven, and emotionally volatile, especially in comparison to the other main character of the show, the ill-tempered, sarcastic, crude, but ultimately [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold well-meaning]] Jen Harding. Judy is sometimes too nice for her own good, doing things like constantly giving second chances to her aforementioned jerkish ex-fiancee, and she has a hard time establishing boundaries. She can also swing wildly in her moods, from ecstatic joy to deep depression.

* ParentsAsPeople: He was far from a perfect husband [[spoiler:and was in fact pretty terrible in a lot of ways, including having had an affair with 19-year-old Bambi for over a year]], but he was apparently an affectionate father, and his sons really miss him.

* OopsIForgotIWasMarried: Sort of. [[spoiler:He told Bambi about his wife and children, but said that his wife had died years ago.]]
* ParentsAsPeople: He was far from a perfect husband [[spoiler:and was in fact pretty terrible in a lot of ways]], but he was apparently an affectionate father, and his sons really miss him.

* JerkassHasAPoint: At her most angered in season 2, she rudely calls Judy out on the fact that she gets unhealthy attached to anyone willing to give her the time of day, no matter how abusive or toxic they are to her, which explains why she dedicated so much time to DomesticAbuser Steve and her AbusiveParent. Eventually, Judy herself has to agree with it.

* {{Wrath}}: Jen has serious anger issues and is very easily irritated, causing her to have frequent outbursts.

* AbusiveParent: Her mother absent often from most of her childhood because of drug addiction. During the times when her mother did come home, she was so out of it that Judy often had to take care of her, including making sure she eats. In the present, her mother constantly manipulates and gaslights her [[spoiler: to help her get out of prison.]]

* NiceGirl: A very sweet and easy-going kind of person.

-> '''Played by:''' Brandon Scott

->'''Played By:''' Sam Mc[=Carthy=]

->'''Played by:''' Diana-Maria Riva

->'''Played by:''' Natalie Morales

* FatalFlaw: In a weird way, her optimism. [[spoiler:Judy becomes friends with Jen in an effort to atone for accidentally killing her husband and hopes it'll somehow make Jen forgive her when she apologizes.]]