Life's Too Short (29 Jul. 2001)

While babysitting, Gabe kicks his little brother out of the room so he and Andy can get high, but Anthony Cristopher Finelli ends up playing with a gun and it goes off. Claire tries to ... See full summary »

Director:

Jeremy Podeswa

Writers:

Alan Ball (creator), Christian Taylor

Stars:

Peter Krause, Michael C. Hall, Frances Conroy

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Peter Krause	...	Nate Fisher
Michael C. Hall	...	David Fisher
Frances Conroy	...	Ruth Fisher
Lauren Ambrose	...	Claire Fisher
Freddy Rodríguez	...	Federico 'Rico' Diaz (credit only)
Mathew St. Patrick	...	Keith Charles
Jeremy Sisto	...	Billy Chenowith
Rachel Griffiths	...	Brenda Chenowith
Ed Begley Jr.	...	Hiram Gunderson
Ed O'Ross	...	Nikolai
Eric Balfour	...	Gabe Dimas
Marina Black	...	Parker McKenna
Steven Pasquale	...	Kurt
Timm Sharp	...	Andy
Wendy Schaal	...	Vickie Dimas

Storyline

While babysitting, Gabe kicks his little brother out of the room so he and Andy can get high, but Anthony Cristopher Finelli ends up playing with a gun and it goes off. Claire tries to support Gabe since no one else bothers trying, and Nate has to deal with his abusive stepfather when he arrives at the funeral. David goes with Kurt to a disco where he gets some ecstasy, and later hides it in the aspirin. Unfortunately, this appears to be a weekend where the family has a case of headaches, so he has to inconspicuously question Claire if anything unusual happened after she treated hers, and never suspects that Ruth took some on her camping trip with Hiram. Brenda gets Nate to act as a potential customer for some local funeral homes so he can get into the feel of his job.

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Plot Keywords:

camping | disco | babysitting | ecstasy the drug | abusive father | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

29 July 2001 (USA)

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Runtime:

60 min 55 min (DVD)

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Nikolai mocks Hiram Gunderson's "funny looking car" and Ruth points out that it is electric and that Hiram is very environmentally conscious. In real life, Ed Begley Jr., who plays Hiram, is an outspoken advocate of ensuring the sustainability of the environment and he used to drive the EV1, GM's fully electric car.

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Quotes

Nate Fisher: We could still leave.
Brenda: Why? What are you afraid of?
Nate Fisher: Humiliating myself, wasting someone's valuable time...
Brenda: Don't be so left-brained.

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Connections

References The Addams Family (1964)

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Soundtracks

"Little Soul"
Performed by H2SO4

User Reviews

The kind of episode that will leave you breathless.

Writing doesn't come like this anymore. If it does, its few and far between from the consistency that HBO's "Six Feet Under", "The Wire", and "The Soprano's" were able to give us. In this episode, or the episode where "aspirin" becomes a hell of a drug, its the dialogue and the mystic that carries the show. The beginning is perhaps the most devastating death so far, and it really allows for a few characters such as Claire and Nate to have some great scenes. Meanwhile, David finds himself a new guy who is much more new age than he is which leads to countless problems and a great scene with Ruth.

Overall, this has been the best episode yet, it brought back the humor of the pilot and some of the writing was simply brilliant. While Rico was noticeably absent, and the overall plot line didn't take a huge step forward, this episode stands great on its own.