It wasn’t so long ago that I was watching Six Feet Under for the first time as part of our Virgin Diaries series. It quickly became one of my favorite series. Even today, I usually find myself watching the minimarathons that are run on Sunday mornings on Universal HD. In fact, I had a few inspirations in writing this article: one was the marathon that I caught this weekend. It was the climactic few episodes near the end of the final season. It reminded me of just how good this show really was. The other bit of inspiration was the finale of Lost that aired just over a week ago. Any big series ender inevitably sparks memories of the finale of Six Feet Under, which is universally recognized as one of the best (and for good reason).
There was so much quality television that lead to the great finale, though. At its core, Six Feet Under was the story of a family and a story that explored death and grieving. After all, the family in question were the owners and purveyors of a funeral home. Every episode of the series began with a death. Sometimes it was a character we knew, most times it was a complete stranger. The deaths in each episode, and the funerals for them, served to frame the story that was being told about all the regular characters on the show. It was a great device that really worked.
The characters were the heart and sole of Six Feet Under. They were rich, three dimensional, and really felt like people, not just characters. There were the two brothers running the business: Nate (Peter Krause), the reluctant prodigal son who returned to the funeral home after the death of his father, and David (Michael C. Hall), the uptight gay brother. They were joined by their sister, Claire (Lauren Ambrose), the art student, and their mother Ruth (Frances Conroy). Filling out the main cast were Brenda (Rachel Griffiths), Nate’s on-again-off-again girlfriend; Keith (Matthew St. Patrick), David’s boyfriend; and Rico (Freddy Rodriguez), an employee of the funeral home. There was also a rich supporting cast that included the likes of Kathy Bates, Jeremy Sisto, Lili Taylor, Ben Foster, and James Cromwell. I don’t think I need to tell you how great the acting was.
The man behind the show was Alan Ball. I first became familiar with his work as the writer of American Beauty, a movie that I really loved. Ball is currently running True Blood, which I have yet to see, but I am curious about. With his credentials and the ravenous fans the show has, I will have to check it out one of these days. In any case, Ball brought the same character depth and somber storytelling that was present in American Beauty to Six Feet Under. After all, how cheery can a show that focuses on death be? Certainly there was a lot of drama, but surprisingly there was a good amount of humor in the show as well. Just like in life, there was a balance.
The show wasn’t perfect, but it was close to it. There were only a few story lines that I felt missed the mark, with most of the events of the series feeling pitch perfect. The character arcs, the relationships, the way everyone’s lives evolved and changed — it all felt organic and real. One thing that I really appreciated is that even when the show was dealing with heavy issues (gay rights, abortion, adoption, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and of course death) it always framed them around the characters. It never became a story about abortion or about gay right, it was always a story about the characters and their experiences.
With five seasons of great stories, the show was the perfect length. It was long enough to fully explore all the characters without wearing out its welcome. If you haven’t checked out the show, do yourself a favor and pick up season one on DVD.
Clacked by Bob Degon
on Jun 02, 2010 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
I never watched the show and then bought the massive box set when it was $60 in January of 2009. What an amazing show.
I keep meaning to watch it again, but I can’t, it’s just too depressing and can’t bring myself to because it’s so real to life.
Crazy LOST fans keep going “The ending was beautiful and the show was never about the mysteries it was about the characters”. That’s BS. The LOST ending was pulled out of the creators’ asses and didn’t fit the show at all. If the show was really about the characters it would have been more like Six Feet Under and not about all the mysteries on the show.
Six Feet Under is the best drama ever done for TV, it’s just simply amazing.
Oreo: Sixty bucks … ?!?!?
Score! Outstanding!
Amazon Deal of the Day! :)
Bob, I agree with everything you’ve written about the show. But I don’t remember any show that dealt with “gay rights”–any more than there was one that dealt with “straight rights” or “senior citizen’s rights”. There were stories about David, as a gay person, and his experiences. He never marched in a protest. He never ran for office. He never stormed the steps of city hall. He just lived his life, and went through experiences of coming out, of trying to be accepted by his father and family, of falling in love, of having troubles with his spouse, of adopting kids. I really don’t see those as “gay rights” any more than Ruth’s life experiences were about “senior rights”, or Nate’s were about “the drug war”. It’s a minor tweak in language, but it puts David’s experiences apart from those of the rest of the family in a way that really isn’t necessary.
And you forgot to mention the outstanding opening credits. Maybe that’s assumed for HBO shows, but these are just a perfect combination of images and music to set a tone for a series.
That’s fair Scott. You’re making the exact argument that I was trying to. Because everything was framed as character stories, it never devolved into a civil rights morality tale (as many shows would have). In the same way that the abortion story line was really just about Claire and wasn’t about the politics behind the hot button issue. I really appreciated that about the show. It may, in fact, be the only one that I can think of that dealt with heavy issues without ever getting preachy. Not once.
To your point, I could have said it better.
Thanks, Bob.
Also, I always wonder if the pre-credits opening of “House”–where a patient we don’t know collapses, and frequently the writers play games with us about who it’s going to be, and how–is just a direct rip-off of “Six Feet Under”. It feels that way, and SFU was on first.
Bob: Thanks for the reminder at how innovative and spiffy 6FU was.
Of all the shows I’ve seen, this one is one of the three that is closest to my heart. I loved this thing.
Yes, yes, yes. From the very first episode I knew it was special. One of my all time favorite TV lines… “My father’s dead, my mother’s a whore, my brother’s gay and my sister’s on crack. I think I win.” And that the series only GOT BETTER from there, right down to what I consider the best series finale I’ve ever seen… There is no comparison. To all who haven’t seen this gem, no time like the present!