Six Feet Under

As I was reading through the comments about Six Feet Under I was struck by how many people expressed how this series made them FEEL. And how many people admitted to tearing up or even crying while watching the show. I admit I have done the same.

From the very beginning …no before that… From the moment I heard that Six Feet Under was created by Alan Ball, I knew I would like this show. I figured how could the maker of American Beauty go wrong? Boy am I glad I figured that.

To some degree I can relate to all of the characters on the show. And that speaks volumes because all of the characters on the show are kinda messed up in the head. And that is what I think speaks to so many people. I mean before Donahue was the most popular show on TV, I don't think most Americans even knew the word ‘dysfunctional' as applied to the family unit. Then it seemed a badge of honor to wear. And it was ok to go about telling people that you are from a dysfunctional family just to be ‘in'. Now after all this time and openness about our dysfunction, we begin to see how very much alike we all are. And that I feel is one of the binding elements of the watchers to this program. We sit each week and watch, basically, a part of ourselves work through personal issues, prejudices and shortcomings. Not always pretty, not always successfully but always openly, to us, the viewers. For me, to watch these characters struggle through some of their problems (which usually make mine look like a day at the beach) and let us come along with them to learn about their weaknesses and fallibilities and humanness is a lot like therapy for me. And in the end it only costs the subscription rate for HBO (no, I don't work for them).

I have never been that attached to the boob-tube (my father's word for the television) before. I have never had a reason to be. The programs that where on never more that mildly held my attention until now. I HATE commercials, I think they speak down to the public. So now I have no excuses and for that I am grateful.

Bottom line: I'm looking forward to the next few sessions… uhm I mean seasons. That's my take, what's yours?

What a series. What a last season. What a finale!

I started watching it without knowing too much about it, I just knew from hearing about it a few years ago that it was one of those "Amazing HBO series" and that it was about a family owning a funeral home.

The actual "plot" is indeed about a family-owned funeral home in which the father of the family dies (this is at the very beginning of the first chapter, so I'm not spoiling anything), and the series follows the life of the rest of the family: The 3 sons (2 male of 30ish and the girl who is in the last year of school), the widow wife, and some supporting characters

If you ask me, the acting and the writing are everything in this show. Characters are complex, they evolve they don't always move forward - sometimes lessons need to be learned multiple times, as real people do. And each actor does an amazing job in portraying their character.

Each one has 2/3 major arcs throughout the show, so it is very interesting to see them navigate them.

Different topics are touched across the episodes, many of them very controversial, but the show portrays them in a very serious way. There's some dark humour though; after all it's about a funeral home where death comes with customers in every episode.

Definitely a must watch. And even though it is more than 20 years old, it has aged very well.

It's hard to describe to those who haven't watched this brilliant show what it's like. Six Feet Under is simply in my opinion, the best hour on television, and one of the best shows ever. Of all time. Brilliantly written, brilliantly told, brilliantly acted, brilliantly brilliant. I've never used brilliant so much in a review before.

First off, it's a show about a very real family, with very real issues to deal with. The family, who have just recently lost the father consists of the mother Ruth, two sons Nate and David, and sister Claire. The two brothers run the business prviously owned by the father, a funeral parlor. I just love this show. There is not a single bad actor on the show, in every role. The family is probably one of the most real ever portrayed on TV, the characters being all easily relatable to, I myself can relate to two of them in particular. It's fresh, at times funny, at times sad, at times everything. Every single actor is amazing in their roles from Brenda to David to Keith to Ruth to Frederico to everybody. And the story lines are just so brilliant, dealing with life and it's purpose, seen throught the eyes of these people who work with death in a funeral home. It's just amazing.

I could rave on and on for hours about how great this show is and how much I love it, but I have to stop sometime. If you haven't yet watched Six Feet Under please do yourself a favor and do. I love it and it's one of my all time favorite shows. Simply, yes, you guessed it, brilliant.

As a viewer and human, Six Feet Under is an incredibly moving experience that goes beyond traditional television drama. It's a show that doesn't just entertain but also challenges and provokes deep reflection about our own lives and mortality. Watching the Fisher family navigate the complexities of death, grief, and personal growth is both heart-wrenching and enlightening. The series skillfully captures the bittersweet nature of human existence, blending dark humor with poignant moments that resonate on a profoundly personal level. It's a testament to the power of storytelling to explore the most fundamental aspects of our humanity and remind us of the beauty and fragility of life.

Six Feet Under is meticulous, beautiful, daunting, and powerful. One way or another, it will connect with you, perhaps in places you didn't expect and aren't willing to expose. At times wrenching, at other times cathartic, but always staring back at you knowingly, this show stands head and shoulders above the advertising-driven fare that clogs network TV with mediocrity, token minorities, and jarring commercial breaks. It changed the way I view television, and I recommend it to anyone who's tired of the same old crap.

After watching the series finale (which I won't spoil, don't worry), I sat in bed, unable to sleep. After poring over everything I'd seen over the past season, it struck me that SFU is the most raw and personal television show I've ever seen. Even more, there are no stand-alone episodes for easy syndication. Every single installment is part of a huge puzzle, or a few more miles on the Fisher family's road. I've always found Peter Krause to be a disappointingly flat performer, which is unfortunate because his character anchors the show, but the other actors are often transcendent. Regardless, every one of them radiates with a sometimes painfully familiar pathos. The cinematography is also staggering sometimes, taken from film rather than typical 3-camera TV work. If that's not enough, the music they choose to score the episodes is almost symbiotic; it seems ingrained into the film itself, even when you know it was just licensed.

This is not really a family-friendly show, though, encompassing profanity, nudity, violence, drug use, "alternative lifestyles" ... So in other words, it's just like real life. And despite the interpersonal conflicts that fuel the narrative to the point of melodrama, the show isn't afraid to pause every once in a while and let the show communicate without dialogue.

I feel very gratified to have watched SFU, and I've never felt that way about any other show in the almost-27 years I've been alive. Hopefully it will start a trend, if only on premium cable.