Sheets to Die On

What 'Dying for Sex' teaches us about mortalitycore.

Jul 10, 2025

Read on to hear from Dying for Sex’s production designer about where and why he sourced those sheets.

I came a little late to Dying for Sex, the Hulu series that dropped in April. But in the maelstrom of my current existential disarray, I thought: Why not surrender to melancholy and watch something truly tragic to marinate in my own self-pity?

The show stars Michelle Williams as Molly, a terminal cancer patient who leaves her marriage to embark on a series of sexcapades (based on a true story, btw). The outcome is a given. We know the finale is going to hurt. But the real story, the one that sneaks up on you breaks you to a million pieces, is about Molly’s bond with her best friend. And my best friend, who is definitely reading this, well…you know. No words.

There is true beauty to Molly’s death and dying process. It’s funny and philosophical and tender. One thing I couldn’t stop thinking about, even weeks later, was Molly’s deathbed — like the literal bed she died in. She passes in a hospital room, which, yes, is super depressing. But she dies on colorful, floral sheets, with a multicolor plaid blanket wrapped around her body.

It immediately made me think of this artwork by John Everett Millais, depicting Ophelia from Hamlet, singing as she dies in a riverbed surrounded by flowers.

That river doesn’t look too deep tho. Just saying.

Sort of nails the whole “beauty in tragedy” vibe, doesn’t it?

It got me thinking about deathbed scenes in film and television. Always the same: pristine white sheets. As if death only arrives in rooms scrubbed of personality. The only counterexample I could think of was Beth’s death in Little Women — the bed is covered in a floral quilt and Beth is surrounded by flowers and sunny artwork.

Desperate to know more about Molly’s sheets, I got in touch with Michael Bricker, the production designer behind Dying for Sex. (I’d previously interviewed him about his work on Netflix’s Russian Doll.) He happily disclosed more details about DFS’s trend-bucking choices.

If only we could all look this good while dying. If anyone knows MW’s beauty secrets, please tell.

Schmatta: Were you given notes to make Molly’s deathbed more decorative?

Michael Bricker: Not specifically, but Shannon Murphy, the director, wanted to make sure that the room was warm and homelike, adding a layer of comfort to a normally clinical space. We wanted Molly to have familiar items from home, primarily the floral pillowcase, her lamp, a quilt, and a few other meaningful items. We talked a lot about how pending death shrinks the amount of important things around you, with only a few items making the cut.

Schmatta: What other references were you looking at as you designed that room for Molly's death?

MB: Shannon had mentioned the color lilac, and I liked how that shifted us away from the coolness of the hospital room. [Molly’s fitted sheet is lilac.] I wanted the room to feel ephemeral, as if Molly's reality on earth was already starting to dissipate and evaporate. The glass block and the wall of glass and sheers hopefully creates this sense of lightness, almost as if Molly is already partially on the other side of whatever is next for her.

Schmatta: Finally, where are those floral sheets from?

MB: The pillowcase behind Molly's head in the final episode is from The Company Store (they’re by Rifle Paper Co.). In the show, there's an old photo of Molly as a newborn, wrapped in her mother's arms, and surrounded by similar sheets. We were trying to match those as best we could. I liked the idea that her life was ending surrounded by a patterned “garden of flowers,” similar to how she was born.