Examples like Six Feet Under are few and far between because the Hollywood ending that many of us find so terribly satisfying is the one which sees the protagonist defy his natural condition. And is this state of affairs really so very surprising, given that the most populous religions of the early twenty-first century - namely, Christianity and Islam - hold fast to the belief that there exists a painless, immortal state in direct contrast to the condition of life on Earth?
Interestingly, the founder of Buddhism, Siddartha Gautama, was raised in a world in which pain and suffering, old age and death were hidden from sight. His idyllic world came crashing down when he finally witnessed these conditions at firsthand. His existential shock was of such profundity that he left his family in order to seek an answer to the flawed state of human existence.
If we too are to face the mirror of mortality, or any other condition which modern society would prefer put aside, then we need to start bringing that mirror just a little closer, so that we may consider our reflection in more detail and appreciate what we are: mortal beings prone to error and equally capable of great acts of kindness and cruelty.
Turning a blind eye to those of our fellows who cannot or will not conceal the naturally imperfect condition of the human being does not relieve us of our problem - for our problem faces us each day in ourselves, our own reflection.