MARY KILLS PEOPLE | NEUBAUER STUDIOS
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The quote above, from Mary Kills People, is startling out of context, but with a female lead. Unlike the forensic technician/serial killer from that long-running series, Dr. Mary, played by Caroline Dhavernas, isn’t a vigilante set on feeding his homicidal urges.
‘Mary Kills People’ Asks the Questions, but Doesn’t Provide the Answers
To truly appreciate Mary Kills People, it helps to have a little background information about what Mary is offering these people. “Medical aid in dying” isn’t the same as euthanasia or assisted suicide, and it’s an important distinction. The former, aka “mercy killing,” is illegal throughout the U.S. in that someone other than the dying patient administers the means of death. The latter, too, is illegal as it is someone actively helping someone else who may be depressed or have mental health issues that, although they can be paralyzing, are not terminal. Medical aid in dying is legal in Canada and in 11 States, and is a heavily regulated process that includes, generally speaking, the confirmation of a terminal illness by two physicians, hospice care while being treated, and the individual being capable of making the decision themselves, without coercion. So the reason why Mary runs the end of life hospice underground isn’t necessarily because the act isn’t legal, but because she doesn’t follow the protocols surrounding it.
What’s surprising about the show is that, despite its dour premise, there is a lightness to it, and even legitimately funny moments. Mary and her business partner/assistant, “Des” Bennett (Richard Short), cut through the red tape and offer hope to the suffering, letting them end their lives on their own terms. It isn’t a tale of a murderous nurse killing off patients one by one, or a doctor exacting justice on an evildoer. Mary Kills People shares the life of a single mother, with her own personal issues, who is firm in her belief that what she does is important, graceful, and caring. And she’s likable, not a cold automaton who doesn’t share the conflicting emotions someone in that position would feel. The series may be about medical aid in dying, but it doesn’t force a perception on its morality. It would be easy to turn a show like this into a poster board for the pro-end-of-life crowd, but it doesn’t. It lays out its cases without advocating if what Mary does is right or wrong, but allows the viewer to make up their own mind. In that regard, Mary Kills People is a little bit like Dexter: Does the fact that Dexter only kills evildoers justify the fact that he kills at all?
American dramas will address controversial, morally gray topics, but more often than not it happens in a single episode, not across an entire series. New Amsterdam addressed the controversial overturning of Roe v. Wade in one episode, only for it never to be brought up again. Will Halstead (Nick Gehlfuss) opened a safe injection site illegally in the Chicago Med Season 5 episode “The Ground Shifts Beneath Us,” a great ethical dilemma if ever there was one, but instead of focusing on the moral implications, Halsted ended up in bed with Dr. Hannah Asher (Jessy Schram). Mary Kills People, however, keeps the ethical dilemma driving the narrative throughout, tackling a taboo topic without undermining it with a distracting sidebar or dropping it altogether.
And it’s not the first Canadian drama to do so either. The best example would be Degrassi: The Next Generation, which took off in the States thanks to its commitment to present the uncomfortable situations teens deal with regularly without prejudice. Nothing was off-limits, including a school shooting episode, one that didn’t happen randomly but was built up over the episodes before it, exploring the hows and the whys, where American efforts to do the same were largely non-existent. Mary Kills People, like other Canuck exports, shares that same boldness. And well, by the way: the series has a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Mary Kills People is available to stream in the U.S. on Prime Video.
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