Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Buried By The Bernards’ On Netflix, A Funny Reality Sitcom About A Memphis Family That Runs A Funeral Home

Buried By The Bernards isn’t the first reality show set at a funeral home; Family Plots was on A&E in the mid-’00s. But this is a different breed of funeral home reality TV. The Bernards respect the families that trust them with their loved ones’ sendoffs, but they are definitely not a solemn bunch. In fact, they could own just about any business and be just as entertaining. Read on for more.

BURIED BY THE BERNARDS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Scenes from Memphis, and the exterior of R. Bernard Funeral Services. Inside, Ryan Bernard makes sure everything is just right for the camera crew coming in.

The Gist: R. Bernard Funeral Services has been open since 2017, and is best known for being one of the first funeral homes to provide drive-through viewings. Ryan, the owner/funeral director, admits that opening a funeral home was more the idea of his mother Debbie and uncle Kevin. “I didn’t really like the idea,” he admits. “But my mother has a way of persuading and… here we are.”

Still, he seems to love being in charge of this family business — well, by title he’s “the boss,” but in reality Debbie is “the boss.” He’s even got his daughters working there. Deja, 24, works as an apprentice to her dad; she puts in full days despite being pretty far along in her pregnancy. Raegan, 18, is basically doing her grandmother’s bidding as an office assistant. Ryan, a single dad, wants to leave the business to his daughters. Uncle Kevin, who’s about as eccentric as they come, is the “facility manager,” which means he does just about everything you can imagine.

In the first episode, Debbie gets on Deja’s case about how things are arranged for a service, but then wonders where the family is; she then realizes she never sent a car to pick them up. She eventually gets that car out there, but not before Ryan digs her about how she micromanages Deja. The funeral turns out well, anyway, and Miss Debbie is cited in a Google review by the family. Later, during one of their spats, Deja quits, but she pretty much does that all the time; she comes back the next day as if nothing happens, Costanza-style.

Ryan wants Raegan to get more experience than just filing for her grandmother, so her wants her to trail Uncle Kevin for the day. He pulls up to her school in the hearse and tells her to get in and drive. She’s creeped out, but he keeps telling her to “respect the hearse” while he eats an orange in the passenger seat. They go to pick up a body, which of course completely weirds out Raegan. She wants to be part of her father’s business, but not if she has to haul bodies into the hearse. Ryan tells her that “sometimes you have to get into the mud” to succeed in business.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Buried By The Bernards is a “reality sitcom” in the mold of shows like Pawn Stars or the funeral-home set series Family Plots.

Our Take: Who knew that the funeral business could be so fun? That’s the thought that kept popping into our minds when we watched Buried By The Bernards. It’s pretty obvious that, while respecting the deceased and their families, the Bernards aren’t your usual vision of the solemn funeral directors, speaking in hushed tones. Of course, that also means that situations are semi-planned and/or semi-scripted. But that doesn’t make the show any less entertaining, because you know that the chemistry between the Bernards is real, because they’re family.

It may seem strange that you see this family arguing with each other as family does, then saying loving things and hugging as their “customers” lie in their caskets (thankfully, their faces are obscured out of respect). It can be a bit creepy to see reality show shenanigans going on around dead people. But that’s the nature of the business, and it’s a business that serves a community that needed to have a funeral home that met their needs at reasonable prices.

What’s endearing about the show is that Ryan, who didn’t at first want to go into the funeral business, has jumped into it with both feet, enjoying his office and the massive canvas of his own image that Deja and Raegan got him. Deja and Raegan love their dad and grandma and are not working at the business out of obligation; they truly want to take it over when Ryan is ready to give it to them.

It’ll be fun to see the rest of Deja’s pregnancy journey and Ryan meet his grandchild, and we can’t get enough of Uncle Kevin. We’ll talk about him more in a second.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: Debbie apologizes under her breath for being so hard on Deja, who she thinks is doing a fine job. “Can I get a tape of that?” Deja laughs as she hugs her grandmother.

Sleeper Star: Uncle Kevin, all day. Ryan is right; at first we didn’t understand his musings but by the end of the episode we understood (most) of what he was saying. He is nonplussed by being around dead people; he even revels in the fact that he’s “seen everything,” including heads and limbs blown off.

Most Pilot-y Line: There are some edits that are a bit unclean, like the aforementioned closeup where Debbie says she’s sorry. She’s very obviously wearing a different pair of glasses than in the two-shot of her and Deja. So it could have been shot later that day or another day. Considering we’re not expecting a documentary, it’s fine, but that lack of continuity doesn’t do the show any favors.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Buried By The Bernards is a funny and warm look at a family business that we don’t often get an inside look at.

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.

Stream Buried By The Bernards On Netflix