Drop Dead Gorgeous: Representations of Corpses in American TV Shows

Previously only ever seen, briefly, at the scene of their demise, corpses have become a central part of many popular American television shows in the twenty-first century. From CSI to Six Feet Under, extended portrayals of dead bodies—in the morgue, in the embalming room, or in pathology—now confront viewers, eliciting not only anxiety but also fascination. Shedding new light on media’s ideals of beauty and the body, Drop Dead Gorgeous analyzes representations of corpses on TV through cultural, sociological, and historical lenses and compares them with depictions of the dead from films, paintings, and photographs.