A great thing about television is how it may normalize people of color navigating their mental health or suicidality. However, one of the worst things for television is shoddy depictions of suicide for people of color. Here is my list of the top five worse depictions of suicide for people of color on television.
(This article will reveal a lot of spoilers.)
5. Curb Your Enthusiasm
In case absolutely no one has noticed Kramer’s crappy comments about suicide in Seinfield, or all of the crappy comments Larry David made about mental health all throughout Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry David’s content especially wasn’t great at depicting a person of color’s attempted suicide.
In Episode 4 of Season 5, Larry meets a Japanese man named Yoshi (Greg Watanabe) who attempts suicide after Larry accuses his father of being a cowardly kamikaze pilot in World War II. While Larry and his friends are gambling at Yoshi’s sister’s house, when his sister (Elaine Kao) and brother in law (Kevin Nealon) get a call about his attempted suicide, Larry and his friends continue to play cards.
In the end, stereotypical Japanese music plays while Yoshi’s father (Ken Takemoto) crashes into Larry with his wheelchair shouting “Banzai” as the sound effect of a plane crash also plays.
I don’t feel comfortable with how Larry David always portrayed Asian people as caricatures who are victims of his antics throughout Curb.
4. Rick & Morty
I know some may not be surprised this is on the list considering the whole well-meaning white leftist animated comedy writing that just ends up making the situations worse, but it’s still worth bringing up. Out of all of the times Rick & Morty has made fun of suicide, flippantly and casually, only two episodes out of its entire run so far presented a content warning for depictions of suicide. I will talk about one of these episodes: Episode 4 of Season 7.
Rick (voiced by Ian Cardoni) gets spaghetti from an alternate universe that is tasty for the whole family to assign once a week “Spaghetti Night.” Unfortunately, his grandson Morty (voiced by Harry Beldon) finds out that Rick has been obtaining the spaghetti from a planet where if someone chooses to die by suicide, their body’s internal parts turn into spaghetti.
When Morty brings this to the planet’s government’s attention, they turn it into a conglomerate targeting dying people of color, formerly incarcerated people, and more who are considered disposable to die by suicide so spaghetti can be sold across the universe. They also use each person’s “story” as a marketing ploy. The first “test” before the pasta goes live as a product is a Black woman who dies by assisted suicide.
I would feel differently about this episode if we as viewers actually learned something about how to remind people that they’re not disposable and that although being alive is difficult, it’s worth it. But we don’t. Instead, it’s just another episode where Rick and Morty go the equal opportunity death route because Rick deems everything worthless.
3. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Copaganda screws up once again after attempting to make this a “teachable moment” kind of episode. Even if their intention was to encourage people in and out of law enforcement to seek help, the impact involved romanticizing suicide for law enforcement and just reminded viewers why law enforcement can’t be trusted to handle the topic in the first place.
In Episode 12, Season 21, of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, we see a total of three suicides in one forty-five minute episode. One by Rachel Wilson (Holly Robinson Peete), a Black former NYPD officer who ends her life with a gun publicly at Ed Tucker’s (Robert John Burke) retirement party because of a mishandling of a sexual assault complaint she filed during her career. Another by Ralphie Morris (Saul Stein), an officer who completed his suicide two hours after being interviewed by Olivia Benson (Mariska Hartgitay) and her team. The final suicide is completed by Ed Tucker within the final minutes of the episode.
What frustrated me about this episode was the piss-poor attempt of talking about what Rachel must have felt as a woman of color while on the force. Moreover, I don’t trust writers who believe a Black woman is capable of making her suicide a spectacle for her white ex-colleagues.
2. House
Kal Penn’s character’s exit deserved so much better.
In Episode 20 of Season 5, Lawrence Kutner doesn’t show up for work at the hospital one morning. House (Hugh Laurie) sends his team members Eric Foreman (Omar Epps) and Thirteen Hadley (Olivia Wilde) to discover why Lawrence didn’t show up. The two show up at his apartment and see Kutner’s dead body from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Although we as the viewer don’t see Kutner’s body, we do see Foreman and Hadley covered in his blood.
The leading cast of House already isn’t very racially diverse. To have one of its popular characters, and only Indian character, have such an abrupt and heavy exit from the show like that was totally unnecessary. Because Penn was leaving the show to work for President Obama, the show could have written a celebratory episode of him leaving for a better medical job.
But no, the show creators wanted to display how suicide can be an element of surprise, I guess? No one can ever predict when, how, or why someone chooses to die by suicide. But to do it like this and viewers are only seeing it treated like a mystery to be solved instead of a public health crisis on a doctor’s drama. Disappointing.
Episode 5 of Season 1 involved two Black brothers: one is younger and deaf (Keivonn Montreal Woodard) named Sam; another who is older (Lamar Johnson) named Henry. They are both on the run from a resistance group because their leader (Melanie Lynskey) blames Henry for her brother’s death.
Although the brothers were able to escape the group with the help of Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey), in the end Sam is bitten by a zombie. Because he puts Ellie in danger as a zombie, Henry shoots Sam, killing him. Completely distraught, Henry kills himself with the same gun.
I know the material is loyal to the plot in the video game, but this one downright broke my heart. I’m not asking for television that will never make me sad. I am only asking for television to be more intentional when it does. I will also say, in the original video game, Sam is not deaf. So although it’s wonderful to see a young disabled Black actor getting recognition, the deliberate choice of making a character disabled as a tool to get even more empathy from viewers when he dies feels gross. And to have a beautiful love story between Black brothers end because of a suicide knowing the suicide of Black youth continues to rise hurts too much.
What would it have been like to challenge the video game’s original narrative? What would it have been like to see Henry and Sam live and fight zombies along with Joel and Ellie? What would it have been like to invite more Black writers on The Last of Us team to make Henry and Sam’s story grow?
Remember, if you or a loved one is struggling with suicidality, contact the suicide warmline 988. For Deaf or hard of hearing folks, dial 711, then 988.
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