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Pop Culture Portrayals of Grief (and End Of Life) That Aren't Grossly Inaccurate, Weird Or Using Mom Death Only As A Plot Point
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items If you saw Bambi way too young (say…around age 45 or so), you've undoubtedly not just scarred, but truly misinformed by the amount of misinformation (disinformation?) within pop culture of death and grief. Here's a few things to watch/read/etc that k...
Coco is a groundbreaking film in many amazing ways but it's also a touching portrait of how ongoing grief can be a part of a full life and that we don't have to “get over” grief to be happy.
Coco
This memoir includes great descriptions of the way grief comes through in the five senses! It's also available as an audiobook, which is read by the author and amazing!
Crying in H Mart: A Memoir a book by Michelle Zauner
This graphic memoir isn't all one thing or another, and I think that's why the grief feels realistic. It's hopeful without being full of toxic positivity or slipping into triteness. It's also just so beautiful to look at! Not many graphic memoirs con...
Something, Not Nothing: A Story of Grief and Love a book by Sarah Leavitt
As a person with a lot of 12 step overlap myself, I really appreciated some of the ways addiction and recovery are lovingly and sometimes realistically portrayed on the CBS series Mom (now on Netflix). Their take on grief and death was excellent as w...
Christy is responsible for the death of Jodi (reddit commentary on OD death in TV show Mom)
Just its inclusion on this list might give away parts of the plot, but since this movie has been out more than 8 months as of the writing of this list so I'm pushing forward. What I really like about new take on an old trope (older self giving advice...
My Old Ass (spoiler alert)
A friend said about Nomadland “all the main characters have lost…a lot." Available at this writing on Hulu
Golden Globe winner ‘Nomadland’ is a portrait of late-stage capitalism in America
A friend said about this book: “…The book is incredible, particularly the child narrator parts where it flips to how an adult views what is happening.” Also this is for the book, not the movie which lost a bit of the plot, grief wise.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close a book by Jonathan Safran Foer
I appreciate this as a memoir because it deals with an out of time parent loss with a self-deprecating humor. So real.
Dancing at the Pity Party a book by Tyler Feder
Mr Hooper dying was really how a whole generation first learned about grief and death.
Sesame Street - Goodbye Mr. Hooper
This episode of the cult classic series Buffy The Vampire Slayer is praised for being realistic (even though it's literally fantasy) because of the very raw physical manifestations of grief that the characters display.
The Body |
A friend recommended this movie as an accurate portrayal of grieving and when I looked at the amazon reviews there were almost warring factions: people who hadn't lost a child thought it was unrealistic or sentimental and people who had lost a child ...
Rabbit Hole
I'm not a Ricky G fan, but Afterlife has some moments that are so real!
After Life (2019) Review
Six Feet Under was a 90s made for HBO series that pops up on different streaming services. It shows some ridiculous deaths but it also shows death and grieving as just a regular part of regular life. It's funny in parts as well, and the characters ar...
r/SixFeetUnder--people talk!
A friend said of Pushing Daisies “lighthearted comedy on its surface but lots and lots of grief abounds (and diverse representations of living with grief/loss)” Currently streaming on Max and Hulu.
Pushing Daisies
This post is actually about the book, but I've included it here because the commentary is great and shows how culture really can shape how we manage and deal with death and grief. A friend said “the way the main character in Harriet the Spy deals wit...
I Learned Everything I Know from Harriet the Spy - TueNight.com
Dead To Me is a murder comedy (such an interesting combo) but I'm especially fond of the way the silliness of grief “treatment” is portrayed here. One of the smartest people I know described it this way: “Dead to Me does a pretty good job. It spirals...
Netflix's Dead to Me-- how it captures grief
I would have never thought of this but a friend suggested it and including video games here is a GREAT idea. Lots of folks play games who don't really consume other kinds of media. My friend said about this game and Spiritfarer referenced below: “Bot...
Gris. Yes. A video game
See notes about Gris for more commentary but I'm going to check this game out because it looks GORGEOUS!
Spiritfarer-Yes another video game
When I asked friends for specific suggestions of realistic grief (emotionally realistic specifically) a lot of folks mentioned this movie. And apparently this film is even used FOR grief counseling in groups and such. This is one of my favorite piece...cellomuseum.org/truly-madly-cello
The Cello Museum – Truly, Madly, Cello