Six Feet Under

I watched Six Feet Under when it originally aired on HBO. Hard to believe that was almost 20 years ago. At the time I remember thinking this was the best thing I'd ever seen on television. It was too good for television. It just transcended anything I had ever seen. Over the years I've recommended the show to countless others. After recommending it to another friend recently I decided to rewatch the show. I finished the series in less than two weeks and it is still one of the best things I've ever seen on TV. The effect this show has on me is even more profound today than it was the first time I watched it. This show punches you in the gut. It makes you think. It makes you reflect. It makes you question your choices. It makes you evaluate life. A lot of incredibly great television series have come along since Six Feet Under originally aired but none of them will hit you as deep as this show.

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.

And I rarely even watch television. I'm a book person.

Not since the "X-Files" has a TV show been so intriguing. Every time I watch an episode, I am struck back be depth of storyline, the intricate characters and the left-of-the-middle storytelling. I literally cannot control myself from discussing each new episode with (bored) family members.

SFU is a very introverted show - it resembles more a book or play than television. While the latter is extroverted and relies on events happening to characters (eg: the overboard emergencies of ER or the romances in soaps) to carry the story, Six Feet Under wants to communicate the deepest feelings and ideals of the people on screen. As a result, it not only stimulates the mind but also helps us analyse ourselves.

In the hands of any other creators, this would make for a very dull hour of suburban spirituality, but Allan Ball's menagerie of ghosts, (past characters influencing the present) trippy daydream sequences, surreal atmosphere and some wicked black humour make for a very entertaining show and sell what would otherwise be a marketing disaster to the masses. On top of that, every component from acting to directing to screenplay is flawless. (the dead boy's ghost in "a private life" still chills me to the bone).

Most, of all I admire the characters: some of the most complex and enchanting creatures ever to grace the idiot box. After a few episodes, they feel like a second family.

While I do have my complaints about the amount of obscenity, (I can swear that sometimes the writers want to offend us just for fun) I have to give my show the highest commendations. There are, of course, moments when I feel like throwing my chair at the television, but that is simply the consequence of watching a show that challenges me, rather than offer cheap amusement.

SFU may take a while to get into, but the rewards are bountiful.

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.

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?