TV REVIEW : Man’s Romantic View of ‘Death’

There’s nothing more removed from the darkness of death than the sun-drenched patio with a stunning lakeside view where writer-host Greg Palmer narrates his four-hour documentary, “Death: The Trip of a Lifetime” (9-11 tonight and Tuesday, KCET Channel 28). It’s also where Palmer lives in Seattle, a subtle and sly visual inclusion of everyday domestic life in this global survey of how different cultures negotiate with life’s inevitable end.

Just as “Death” is actually a none-too-heavy study of world cultures and religions, it is also Palmer’s self-portrait. He emerges as a friendly guy, at turns laconic, self-deprecating and contemplative--Dave Barry with more substance. And because of his substance, Palmer’s internal intellectual conflict becomes an unresolved problem running through “Death.”

From time to time in each of the four episodes, Palmer seems to go out of his way to celebrate the pre-technological cultures of Ghana, India or Mexico while ridiculing American culture. Mexico’s Day of the Dead ritual is sacred, for instance, while our Halloween is somehow meaningless. He also falls into the dangerous trap of equating all cultures and all human projects, so that the practices of a Ghanaian sorcerer-healer are somehow as legitimate as the scientific process of a Ghanaian doctor and mortician.

It’s a classic case of Western man’s romance with the “mysterious” (Palmer’s word) Other, even though Palmer himself admits in the final episode (about the afterlife and spirits of the dead) that he doesn’t believe in a Hereafter, referring to his ilk as “cynics and supposed sophisticates.”

“Death” is thus shot through with the perspective of a worldly, well-traveled chap who is really a rationalist but hates himself for it and wishes that he were a believer. Like the Hindus who bring their dying to the holy city of Benares by the banks of the Ganges River. Like the Tibetan monks who listen to the ancient spirit possessing one of their own and speaking to the Dalai Lama. Like the Jews, Muslims and Christians in serious observance of their respective religious laws in the holy places of Jerusalem.

When Palmer takes time to observe the West’s own very thoughtful death rituals--from the English art of tombstones to the American art of embalming--he does strike a balanced view of cultural responses to mortality. He finds that there are three great ways to cheat death: through religion’s concept in final judgment, heaven, hell and reincarnation; through the passing on of genes and traditions to the next generation; and through art. “Death” is not a work of art, but it’s ultimately a frank delving into delicate, even taboo, areas for television, which loves murder and mayhem but not its painful consequences.