“There is a reference to Dante in the TV show Damages with Glenn Close. In Season 2, episode 12 (‘Look What He Dug Up This Time’), scientist David Purcell repents for having falsified a report on contaminated water on behalf of finance tycoon Kendrik, who in exchange is protecting Purcell from a murder charge. Purcell decides to confess everything to the police after telling Kendrik about the nine circles of hell, and commenting upon the damned souls’ ability to see the future and the past, but not the present. Of course, Kendrik does not get the reference and tells Purcell that he is out of his mind.” –Matteo Soranzo, McGill University
“Supernatural” and Dante’s Purgatory
In a 2010 episode of the TV show Supernatural, the alpha vampire makes a reference to Dante citing the very real location of Purgatory. The vampire says that the King of Hell is looking for this place because it is where the souls of vampires, and other creatures, go when they die; and he is also interested in it because of its proximity to heaven. –Taylor Beaver
See the article by Sandra Gonzalez in Entertainment Weekly, November 6, 2010
Contributed by Taylor Beaver (University of Texas – Austin, ’11)
Season 5, Episode 10 of Supernatural, is titled “Abandon All Hope…” and aired in 2009.
Contributed by Stella Mattioli, University of Virginia ’15
Law and Order SVU
On a recent Law and Order SVU re-run, detective Elliot visits a (criminal) artist’s studio, and looking around at the paintings, which mix colorful abstract forms and realistic human violence, he says, “Looks like Dante’s Inferno meets Newsweek.”
The Wire
“…the literary critic Walter Benn Michaels went so far as to suggest that the beauty and difficulty of watching “The Wire” in English — the multifarious 21st-century English of Baltimore detectives and drug dealers — compares with that of reading Dante in 14th-century Italian.” [. . .] –Wyatt Mason, The New York Times, March 15, 2010
South Park
In “South Park” (episode 410), there is a reference to the River Styx condominiums in hell.
Contributed by Tyler Doherty (EHS student)
