TV Draft Round 4 – Pick 4 – Paula Selects – Six Feet Under

Welcome to the Hanspostcard TV Draft. The remaining 7 rounds will be posted here. I hope you will enjoy it! Today’s post was written by Paula from http://paulalight.com

Six Feet Under

Six Feet Under is probably my favorite television series of all time. But do you know what? I never want to rewatch it. I’ve rewatched Sopranos, Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, etc., but I prefer that 6FU remain pure in my mind without getting tarnished by new thoughts. Because I always have new thoughts about old faves! (Info source for this post is from Wikipedia.)

Anyway, 6FU was created by Alan Ball and premiered on HBO June 3, 2001 (my mom’s birthday). It ran for five seasons with 63 episodes. Each show begins with an unusual death of some kind and continues from there. The pilot kicks off with the death of Nathaniel Fisher, Sr. (played by Richard Jenkins), patriarch of the Fisher family, as he tries to light a cigarette while driving. Fisher is the owner of a Los Angeles mortuary and leaves behind a wife, 2 sons, and a daughter. The eldest son, Nate (played by Peter Krause) is estranged from the family but still returns for the funeral ~ on the flight he meets Brenda (Rachel Griffiths) and has sex with her. This isn’t a one-time fling, as she is a recurring character with interesting storylines of her own, including some with her psycho brother Billy (Jeremy Sisto).

Probably the most interesting character is the second son David (Michael C. Hall), who seems to be a straight-laced, rule-following conservative, but he is actually leading a double life as a gay man with a sexy boyfriend, police officer Keith (Mathew St. Patrick). David wants to keep the funeral home going, but Nate wants to sell it and skedaddle… he has second thoughts when his father’s ghost appears (perhaps his subconscious, as the show generally does not dive into the supernatural). David fights to keep his sexual orientation a secret, which upsets Keith to the point that he breaks off the relationship. David then goes on a series of dates, which I found personally amusing, as they mirrored my own horrifying dating experiences.

The mom Ruth (Frances Conroy) has a secret boyfriend and decides she doesn’t want anything further to do with the mortuary, though as a psychologist, she has opinions about everything. I found her character to be annoying and my least favorite, while others I’ve talked to about the show have the opposite opinion! Claire (Lauren Ambrose) is still in high school and consumed with the typical drugs and boyfriend gossipy drama as one might predict. She becomes more interesting as the episodes roll on and develops an attraction to Billy, which is scary. I don’t want to give away too much, but the Brenda/Billy situation is bizarre and fascinating. Federico, the corpse artist (played by Freddy Rodriguez) is interesting as well and has some funny lines.

While this show is obviously about dealing with death and the practicalities surrounding funeral arrangements, it’s also about family and relationships, and how complex and interrelated life events can be. I highly recommend it ~ and oh my gosh the finale is to die for! I’m sorry but no one can touch this ending, which is the best episode in TV history. Six Feet Under rightfully received high praise for both writing and acting and drew high ratings for HBO. It won many awards ~ 9 Emmys, 3 Screen Actors Guild Awards, 3 Golden Globes, and a Peabody. Fabulous show!

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Paula Light is a poet, novelist, flash fiction fan, cupcake connoisseur, mom, grandma, cat mommy, etc. Her blog can be found at http://paulalight.com.