Six Feet Under (Rolling Season Five Thread w/ SPOILERS)[now also NSFW]

*Not really.

maybe, but among the people i know who watch the show it was the concensus.

I think the only TV I've ever cried at in my life is the end of the first episode of Season 4, with the burial and all. My gf had also just unexpectedly decided to move away, too, so it was a bit about the timing, I suppose. But still gives me the chills.

still, it does feel like the show needs to come to an end, doesn't it?

Also, they're moving it back to SUndays, since apparently no-one is watching it this year

But, yeah, this week's was great. The scene between Billy and George on the front stoop was somehow really moving.

Also, I can't get over my sudden fixation with Ileana Douglas after her cameo 2 eps ago. Jesus. So hot.

exactly. OTM about everything in that post, actually, esp. ileana douglas.

I would watch it on HBO if I could, of course.

But yeah, "Singing For Our Lives" is an instant classic. I'm excited to see how the final four are going to go down. Should be pretty intense.

The storyline with Mena Suvari was pretty right on and realistic, esp. when Claire had to realize that she just couldn't commit to anything beyond a surface flirtation with bisexuality.

this season has been so good.

Also, I really liked how they managed to tie up a few things there.

are you new to the show?

and yes, this is the last season.

Not really, I didn't watch it for one season and I didn't really like it until this season. Lots of shows have drama and bad shit happen, like Desperate Housewives for instance, but this one had a very obvious method of creating a comfortable situation and then destroying it and creating something new out of it.

Hopefully there will be many more episodes of this last season.

I liked this episode, but my aggravation with Nate has reached such an insane high that I was almost glad he died. Breaking up with your pregnant wife from your hospital bed, with your daughter in the room, right after she's spent the entire night in the hospital worrying about whether or not you'd be OK = instant fucking douchebag classic. So, yeah, I can't say I was exactly mourning his departure.

I do love Claire & David this season, tho.

Bullshit. I don't know who you know, but I assure you that there are most certainly a lot of people like Ruth and David and Rico in this world. Fuck, I relate to David quite a bit. God, what a horrifying world if everyone was as self-centered and narcissistic as Claire and Nate!

Sorry, but there only three more left, and the final episode apparently takes place mostly in the future.

01 A Coat of White Primer
02 Dancing For Me
03 Hold My Hand
04 Time Flies
05 Eat A Peach
06 The Rainbow of Her Reasons
07 The Silence
08 Singing For Our Lives
09 Ecotone
10 All Alone
11 Static
12 Everyone's Waiting

We just saw "Ecotone" on Sunday.

I feel bad hating on the likable little old lady.

Please, watch the show in CONTEXT before you start saying that it's ridiculous.

they referenced this in the last episode!

In seasons four and five she has:

Adjusted to married life with George, slowly realizing that she made a horrible mistake as his behavior became gradually more insensitive and erratic. She kept trying to reach out to him and learn more about his family and past, but he kept pushing her away. He eventually slips into full-on paranoid schizophrenia, and he gets the the electroshock therapy, and she takes care of him. Her resentment for being put in the situation of being responsible for him grows and grows until their relationship totally collapses and she leaves him. (In the meantime her relationship with Claire is in bad shape, mainly because Ruth is terrified that she will make some of the same mistakes that she has.)

Following the break up, she finds out that George already has a new fiance and she tries to tell that woman the truth about George. She kinda freaks out, but why the hell not? She bonds with her sister and her female friends, but takes the whole "let's form a commune for women!" thing too seriously. She tries to go out and date and mingle at a party, but feels old and silly and out of place and humiliates herself. She decides to revisit Hiram, but that goes badly.

Wacky?

nate's whole "man, i am so fucking wise and in touch"

He was being honest with his feelings. You must be the most uptight motherfucker around.

well, at least he died the way he lived. being a selfish, smug asshole.

And Nate a selfish asshole? Take a look at who he's been with. They were all much worse, including Brenda. I looked at my gf when Nate told Brenda he was done with her and we both went, "Yay!" with big smiles on our faces.

I don't disagree that Brenda was awful, but I think my aggravation with Nate stems from the way he goes about things. I feel like he has a pattern of getting something he thinks will make him happy, then becoming almost immediately dissatisfied with that one thing and convincing himself something better is out there without ever trying to work to improve the situation he's in. His pattern is that when things get tough, he bolts. I don't get the sense that his character has any understanding of the idea that life is difficult, relationships take work, and the godlike "peace" ideal isn't something you discover, it's something you work to create.

He gave his marriage all of 1.5 episodes before he decided it wasn't working out, and the only reason he came to that conclusion was because he decided that if only he was with Maggie, then surely he would be happy. I get aggravated because I know so many 'Nate's -- always convinced that their unhappiness is caused by someone else, always bailing at the first sign of trouble, and always leaping with their full soul at the next shiny thing they're convinced is going to make them happy -- whether it's marriage, or Quakerism, or living on an organic food commune.

I can't determine if this is intentional -- if the character is deliberately written this way -- or if everyone involved with the show is also this myopic, onanistic and self-centered.

He was being honest with his feelings. You must be the most uptight motherfucker around.

sounds like something nate would say, actually.

Nate's first wife was having an affair with her brother-in-law and was murdered... You don't think that would be a head trip to live with, as you raise the daughter of that union. After you've had your head explode and disoriented for a while? Sucked back into your hometown doing a job you never wanted?

No, Nate was confused and getting better by being honest with his feelings. He made the mistake of trusting and caring for selfish people. And in the end, he decided it was important to put himself and his daughter's happiness first. Good for him.

There isn't anyone on Six Feet Under who isn't flawed, and interestingly, not a single central character who hasn't cheated. But in terms of relativity, Nate is the one who rarely had moments of maturity, much less selflessness, and everyone else has. He's by far the most selfish and immature character.

xpost haha he who can't be named is pretty funny

(Agreed that Nate was the center of the show and agreed that he was more likeable than not, but he really was all about himself in a way that not even Claire could match.)

"Agreed that Nate was the center of the show and agreed that he was more likeable than not, but he really was all about himself in a way that not even Claire could match."

Cite some points about why Nate was so much worse than everyone else. I've cited my reasons. All you've done is reaffirm your opinion. Lisa, Brenda, Claire, Brenda's bro (name escapes me at the moment), her mom, her lovers, Claire's friends, Claire's teacher, George, Ricoh (especially this season) have all shown themselves to be just as bad or much worse than Nate. Nate never tricked woman after woman into marrying him knowing full well he was schizophrenic. Nate never fucked David's wife. Nate never acted like half the selfish twat Claire has shown her to be, although perhaps when he was her age he was worse, it's hard to know for sure. Nate got involved with some very fucked up people who were very trying to deal with.

Nice safe datapoint there.

Nice safe datapoint, eh? I'm still waiting for one datapoint from you.

Nate's total self-involvement with having to move back from Seattle to help with the family business helps isolate Brenda, which feeds into her loneliness and sex addiction.

All throughout the series, Nate is a complete and total tool to Frederico whenever the subject of partnership in the business comes up, even though Rico's been there working his ass off to keep the business afloat longer than Nate has.

Billy is completely totally nuts, so okay Nate can't be more self-involved than him. YOU WIN.

Paragraph 2: typical family shit, yet here he's trying to "do the right thing" and yet it's used against him in paragraph 1 and also from another angle here. I guess he should've not tried to help the family (but then you would've called him selfish).

Paragraph 3: Nate was protecting the family business, which is not a complete and total tool move. Rico was being a tool as well.

typoh

Projection:

Psychology.

The attribution of one's own attitudes, feelings, or suppositions to others: “Even trained anthropologists have been guilty of unconscious projection of clothing the subjects of their research in theories brought with them into the field” (Alex Shoumatoff).

The attribution of one's own attitudes, feelings, or desires to someone or something as a naive or unconscious defense against anxiety or guilt.

Or, in the spirit of another ILXor:

Oh boy, a dictionary!

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This is such bullshit! Rico can be buffoonish, but his first interest is consistently to help his family and his business. The guy is intensely loyal, and had his whole family life fucked by the one time he wasn't. Unlike Nate, however, he was genuinely guilty about what he did, and has worked very hard to earn the forgiveness of Vanessa. Rico's not a perfect guy, but he's definitely a good person for the most part, full of love for his family and friends. If anything, he's the total opposite of Nate - he has a very specific morality and lives for the benefit of others, often at his own expense. (He's more like David and Ruth in this way.)

Come on, Rico was a little fuck. His wife's having major depression issues, so he starts seeing a girl on the side? It took him long enough to really feel guilty about it, didn't it? And then, he played the big macho bullshit with her about it being "his house" and "his kids" and "I don't like you going out with other people" and all this bullshit. Nate would've never pulled that crap. And Nate would've acted like the little lying weasel to manipulate Vanessa back into his life like Rico did. Because Nate's "in touch" with his feelings, "bro."

My friend and I were talking about Rico the other night, and it's kinda icky how virtually all of Rico's major flaws seem to be attributed to his culture and upbringing. But then again, a lot of the best things about him happen to be in contrast to the liberal white privelege of the Fishers.

Oh yeah! Did you forget that? Rico doesn't seem to give a shit about the people. What about the scene with Nate's first fuck lying on the mortuary table and Rico says, "How's she holding up?" to Nate? Cool?

The way the latino casket scene happened, it just sounded like Nate was saying, "Jesus, the regular expensive casket wasn't good enough, you had to charge them an extra $300 to switch the handles?" Remember, Nate didn't know what the fuck they were saying because they were speaking Spanish, so how does he know Rico isn't just trying to sell them the most expensive stuff?

Rico totally turned it around in an instant. It's hard to tell from a script, but the way the scene was acted, it just sounded like Nate was mindlessly responding without really thinking about what race the people were. His comment was directed more toward the fact that everything was the best of the best. "We take care of our family" "Yeah and go broke doing it" ... same shit I've heard in a dozen other circumstances. It's just a comment about wasting money, not about how poor latinos are.

(you're killing yourselves...)

That wasn't the card I was playing at all because I don't think Nate was being assholish in the least. Just Rico.

Or perhaps you have never heard the following:

"A car in the city? You'll go broke on parking alone... or parking tickets!"

"Can't smoke anymore, you'll go broke."

Right here, baby.

Right here, baby.

-- Picture... wow, brilliant. (jock...), August 3rd, 2005.

Right here, baby.

What are you trying to say, anyway? Is sucking cock bad, wrong and insulting?

Right here, baby.

Thank you, sir. May I have another?

Right here, baby.

Thank you, sir. May I have another?

Right here, baby.

Thank you, sir. May I have another?

Right here, baby.

Thank you, sir. May I have another?

Right here, baby.

Thank you, sir. May I have another?

Right here, baby.

Thank you, sir. May I have another?

Could I have some hair dye tips?

Right here, baby.

Thank you, sir. May I have another?

(you're killing yourselves...)

wonder showzen!

Fuck you Alan Ball for cancelling the show! Could you perhaps consider a spin off with Olivier and Brenda's mom?

Michael C. Hall
Hall

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Showtime has signed "Six Feet Under""Six Feet Under" thesp Michael C. Hall to star in the series pilot "Dexter."

Paybox entertainment chief Robert GreenblattRobert Greenblatt also has recruited "Six Feet" helmer Michael CuestaMichael Cuesta to direct the project, one of four hourlong pilots Showtime ordered in June.

Hall will play Dexter Morgan, a Miami Police Dept. forensics expert who moonlights as a serial killer -- murdering only guilty parties. Based on the Jeff Lindsay novel "Darkly Dreaming Dexter," series comes from scribe James Manos Jr.James Manos Jr. ("The Sopranos""The Sopranos"), who will exec produce with John GoldwynJohn Goldwyn and Sara Colleton.

Other pilots in the works at Showtime are "Filthy Gorgeous," about the world of high-end escorts, from producers Craig ZadanCraig Zadan and Neil MeronNeil Meron and writer Ron Nyswaner; "The Tudors," period piece about the younger years of Henry VIII, from writer Michael Hirst and producers Ben SilvermanBen Silverman, Eric FellnerEric Fellner and Tim Bevan; and "The Bastard," revolving around a lawyer looking to wrest his birthright away from his wealthy dysfunctional family, from scribe Robert Greenwalt.

Hall's credits include the John Woo feature "Paycheck""Paycheck" and the Broadway productions of "Cabaret" and "Chicago."

Whenever you get tired of the principals (something I could say of almost everyone at one point or another except maybe David), there's always Patricia Clarkson, Kathy Bates, Joanna Cassidy, and Catherine O'Hara having the time of their lives.

Some debate over the art-school stuff above. For me, the worst--it's a parody of a parody, a meta-parody of how movies fun of art school. Much of it is spouted by Olivier: worse even than the cocktail chatter in Woody Allen's Manhattan. (If it's accurate, so be it--doesn't make it any less horrifying, just makes me glad I never went to art school.)

"movies make fun of"

The first time I watched it through I was studying for a mixed arts-style undergraduate degree and the art school stuff - Claire and Russell's self-important disaffectedness, Jimmy's on-the-nose pseudo-celebrity, the cocaine photo exhibition...that all felt very otm. Hideous, but accurate.

I guess I got a bit of that taking a film degree in the early '80s, but not nearly as over-the-top (and, except for one course, we were studying films, not making them).