Grey’s Anatomy is an American TV Series which follows the lives of surgical interns and attending surgeons in the Seattle Grace Hospital. It is an extremely popular show which resulted in thirteen seasons. As the story takes place in the hospital, it seems obvious that the show deals with a lot of death. This is not only the case for the patients in the hospital, but also for main characters who are interns or surgeons.

The series can definitely be captured by the notion of ‘spectacular death’, may it not be through all the characteristics Jacobsen proposes in his article regarding this death mentality. As we spoke of the ‘forbidden death’ as last death mentality, proposed by Ariès, we can see that this has changed from 1990 onwards. In general, there is no taboo on death anymore and it is not kept hidden anymore. Death is exposed to us in new ways, in this case via TV. Grey’s Anatomy can be applied to the first characteristic Jacobsen mentions: mediatized visibility of death. In almost every episode someone dies, so the exposure of death to the audience is big. But as Jacobsen (2016) also says, it is kept at a safe distance. It is not experienced directly and it is not personal.

The second characteristic is commercialization of death. Jacobsen mostly talks about death-related services, but in this sense, death is used as an form of entertainment. The show is a profit making machine for the TV industry. In this way, you could say that death is commercialized.

When Jacobsen talks about the re-ritualization of death, it is quite in contradiction with the first characteristic. Also, the re-ritualization of death is not applicable to Grey’s Anatomy. The death of characters is not long discussed and we don’t get to see personal rituals after death, such as funerals. The objective view of the hospital is mostly present. 

The palliative care revolution or ‘the death awareness movement’ is visible in the show. Characters are encouraged to make their own choices about their treatment and death. As Jacobsen describes ‘(…) a notion of autonomy, personal decision-making and an increasing openness towards the previously unspeakable theme of euthanasia.’, are definitely shown in the series, is it not always without different opinions and discussion about what is the right thing to do and the right way to die.

Overall, I think TV series such as Grey’s Anatomy are good examples of spectacular death in society of today and how death developed in a ‘spectacle’.

References

M.J. Jacobsen, ‘Spectacular Death’. Proposing a new fifth phase to Philippe Ariès’s admirable history of death, in Humanities 5:2 (2016) 1-20.