You have to remember that Alan Ball is coming from the
homosexual plague years of the mid-1980s until 1990s.
During that time HIV infection was nearly a death
sentence with a 90% chance of dying in ten years.
Lots of gay culture in those years was infatuated with
death like the other magnificient HBO mini-series
Angels in America. By 1996 enough drugs were
discovered to cut the death rate more than 75%.