Dead Sons

My two favorite TV dramas, “Rescue Me” and “Deadwood”, wound up their 2005 seasons by killing off a major character’s young son in a bicycle accident. I thought the device was appropriate in the Victorian confines of “Deadwood”, over the top in “Rescue Me” where the characters are already spinning out of control with no need for a deus ex machina.

But the bigger question is how two inspired screenwriting teams settled on the same out-of-the-blue plot device. I think it’s more than coincidence. Going back to Orestes, the classic dramatic arc is that the parent dies, there is a struggle, then a son (or daughter) emerges as the successor tested by fire. (True, Abraham did offer to sacrifice his son, but God spared him.)

To go the other direction, with the child dead before the parent, is an tragedy that’s maybe symptomatic of these writers’ world view and, if we keep seeing it, maybe of our culture. The death of a child, whose life is the older character’s reason to live on at least some level, represents an implosion. There’s no longer an heir to the world the character is striving to create. The hurt can diminish with time, but never go away. One goes on, but one’s world is smaller.

I know, this doesn’t have much to do with advertising. Unless you see popular culture as a mirror of current moods, in which case our customers and prospects could use some good news and cheering up.