Six Feet Under

i too find the girl the most anoying, shes kinda emo adn tahts like eew

I just met a girl tonight who is a mortician. rock on.

It's the best goddamned show on tv and you should watch it honey.

And Federico turns me oooooooon.

he, of course, had never seen the show and only went for the free booze. grrr.

I really like Rachel Griffiths but her character on this show hasn't struck a chord with me. The mother is excellent, though.

P.S. My sister had a friend in school who lived the not so popular funeral parlour girl lifestyle. The family kept some of their food - like the cake at the bday party- in the death bits fridges.

Shows on HBO have enormous advantages over shows on network TV. There is less fear of being cancelled quickly (thus writers can feel more comfortable spreading out plot arcs, having quieter episodes, etc.), there are no ads (thus fewer constraints on pacing), and there is a world of content that would otherwise be forbidden. I think this show makes great but limited use of these advantages. I wish the crises wouldn't come so soon and so often, and I wish the very accomplished subjective camera style was parcelled out at wider intervals.

This Tv show and the other dramas on HBO now represent an established mode of "Quality TV" so I suspect they will become an easy target for would-be populists if they're not already. I hope that doesn't obscure their real virtues. I really like watching this show, even if I don't typically think about it much afterward.

Did anyone see this year's season finale?

I think the mother is not well-drawn. Actually I think I liked her better at the beginning, when she was bigoted and needy. They've made her "mature" and "grow beyond" her faults and I think she's less of a character for it. Also the stuff they're doing with Nate is a shade over the top. It would probably be more affecting if it were pitched lower. Rico is a great character, but he sort of exists on a different level of stylization--more broad--than the Fisher family. Like all the best dramas these different levels can coexist well but one has to be very careful if they are going to actually *interact* in some meaningful way.

X-post. Mary: I think I mostly agree with yuo. I think what this show has going for it, aside from a few pretty well-done characters, is a really confident visual style.

Sopranos seems more acute, more observant and more interested in the world--it actually seems to want to do something with its audience, to offset the blanishments of u-m-class life with grotesque violence etc. I think that show's drifted way too much from its strengths but it is much more ambitious than SFU which is among other things emotional pornography (of the MAGNOLIA variety).

Then again, maybe this love for the show comes from my own personal experience--my mom runs a hospice.

Sorry to be all schmaltzy, but I really think this show is wonderful--and I very rarely use that word.

I have waited about a year to see these episodes, and I am not sure if it is this that makes it feel as though I have entered some sort of slightly tweaked alternate reality. All of the characters appear to have been shoehorned into situations that they seem uncomfortable in, as if they were poised to spring back into the patterns they developed during series 1 & 2. I find Nate's situation particularly puzzling, as well as his odd and unwieldy new hairstyle. Is he meant to have reached some sort of epiphany? If so, it doesn't convince. I guess time will tell. I miss angry, cursing Nate.

Claire is indeed hot as hell (I shouldn't really be saying this on a public forum, but she kind of reminds me of my wife...), although I'm still not sure how much we are meant to be laughing at her. Some of her scenes are bordering on My So Called Life teenage melodrama, but she's not a high school kid anymore! What gives?

I agree with Amateurist that the mother is the weakest character, although I like her as an idea, I find many of her plotlines a little predictable and repetitive. The family sem to be interacting with each other a lot less in this season, though I guess that a lack of communication is one of this show's primary concerns.

David is probably my favorite character, and as such, I am interested in seeing how this series deals with him in particular. I sometimes wonder if he isn't a little too much of a gay everyman, though would love to hear a gay viewer's perspective on him. His plotlines seem sometimes like an attempt at an accelerated depiction of one idea of a modern gay experience, and I worry about his character being spread too thin.

I guess what I'm saying is that I'm a little disappointed so far. Nice to see Patricia Clarkson again, though.

I don't like Arthur at all, though.

"But more so than 'The Sopranos' or 'The Wire' or even the newly minted gem that is 'Deadwood,' the greatness that welled up in 'Six Feet Under' relied almost entirely on viewers buying into an audacious, dizzying mix of deadpan drama from a laconic, disturbed family that ran a funeral home. "

Hm. Hard to argue with that.

Anyway... I thought the season opener was a big fat dud. Felt like a mere addendum to last season's finale; simply put, not enough happened to fill 60 ad-free minutes. So every moment and every emotion gets milked to death, and at times the episode would lapse into self-parody in all its portentousness.

I haven't read a review yet that's posed a compelling argument as to why the opener didn't live up to SFU standards.

The whole thing screams desperation now.

(also: Claire's new? art-school friend is hawt.)

I really wish George wasn't so lame, because I like James Cromwell so much.

(and james cromwell? wasted.)

the only redeeming part of the whole episode was when nate, all stoned, just wants to play some DOOM on the computer

Or maybe it's just a good series crumbling spectacularly under the weight of its newfound popularity. But there was no perceivable slippage toward the end of last season to predict this. Even though I've been able to watch the last two eps all the way thru, this season is still a complete disaster in my view. Uncompelling, go-nowhere plotlines; lame jokes; baffling changes of character (do you even remember who Brenda used to be?? The tortured nihilist genius, author of Charlotte, light and dark? Now she's the sweet 'n' shy girl next door!) etc

see also matt groening, or however you spell his name

I pretty much skip ahead on anything between James Cromwell and the mother, the mortician and his wife, or the gay guys.

But tonight's was good. Just like in Springfield, when all the characters come together and put their respective nuances on display, it's comic gold.

man we love claire! those big cute eyes!

i was so pissed off last week, but this kind of redeemed it. the only cringeworthy part was when they were all singing along to death cab for doodie.

and mena suvari, please, i only like you with bangs. any other hairstyle makes you mongoloid-ish.

I'm just rooting for every character's death, at the moment.

Claire's boyfriend is creepy as all hell.

(I was watching 'Kiki's Delivery Service' instead. Thank you very very much, koogs.)

i'd heard bad things about series 3 but it's just as 'six feet under'y as the first two to me, it has that certain something that nothing else does (which i think may be the quality-drama-NOT-about-cops thing. or maybe the cameos-by-dead-people thing). the rico bits are dull.

Also, in case you haven't heard - season five is gonna be the last one. So sez Mr. Ball himself.

Lily's disappearance was a masterstroke, less gimmick than literary device. He wanted her to go away, and then she did, and he had to live with the guilt of wanting it -- really WANTING it, that's the thing. He didn't love her, and in fact didn't even like her. (Who did?) The extremety of his self-hatred is perfectly balanced with the extremety of how trapped he felt while with her, and the show took its time to develop this. It was even subtle, despite all the wailing and gnashing of teeth. It was not just "emotional pornography," it wasn't just a tear-jerker, because for all the tears Nate shed, they were not of simple grief or even simple regret, they were from somewhere so dark and strange that they're hard to identify with. I didn't cry during season three, and to me, that's a sign of its quality. I was too uncomfortable to cry.

Best episode: The gay paintball game. I especially admired the editing of the final "showdown," which was built up as a climax, and then clipped short -- boom! and now we're in the middle of a much more boring scene -- and robbed of any hint of schmaltz, which is totally true to the spirit of the material. The three-way was the *real* climax of that sequence.

Worst episode: the finale, though it did have its moments. Claire's little journey to the cemetery was a throwaway from beginning to end. But the wedding reception was great. A small ceremony in a big empty house, with lots of shots of small people doing small things that the cinematography brilliantly communicated were very small in the larger context of their lives, despite how happy they had decided to be. Wonderful. But overall, a C episode.

They're about to start re-running season four in anticipation of season five, though I hear bad things. Lots of abuse, lots of punishment, lots and lots of tragedy. Too much tragedy. I'll watch it if only to keep up with the plot, and to be able to see the whole series as a single piece once it's over.

the david/keith story is boring but it did give us the best scene of the past two years: David's hallucination of the monster baby

Claire began the series with a good boyfriend(the guy who died), Then she dated weirdos, then she gave entirely too much time to the despicable Mena Suvari character, what lies further down the spiral?

I think that's the point.

i'm not sure how 'happy' nate is - the things he said to david during the wedding made it pretty clear he's beyond fucked up (understandably i guess).

i miss 'rico superfixerupper' and am not so crazy about 'rico superdork' even if i knew he was gonna fuck it up with that cute girl and did laff when he told his ex 'she died'.

Watching Billy freak out over his 'cool artist' friends was sad.

Nate's response to Sam's death and his distance from Tom (sp?) made me curious.

This season feels real dark.

I think they are really bringing Ruth to a dark place already. She's so full of despair and hopelessness now, she feels so trapped and her family just isn't there for her. I think it wouldn't take much for her to just give up at this point.

I have a LOT of empathy for Claire. She reminds me of people I know and care about, and her experiences in art school and the art world ring very true to me.

The third season is so best. It's when they really ease up on the DRAMA and let the characters mellow and grow a bit before throwing them in the wringer at the end. Highly recommended.

At the hands of Billy?

was maggie pregnant? the odds of that seem pretty slim, plus it was never referenced again from what I could tell in the final moments, but why was she at the doctor?

I hope Michael C. Hall continues to get work, though. He's brilliant.

im not 100% sure about what i think about the final montage.

The death sequence was ruined by how completely ridiculous they made all of the old-timers look (though I guess that's what Claire imagined them as?).

New Ruth. I don't think her voice even ventured into the upper registers once, which was a nice change.

Nice moment between Ruth and Claire, when Ruth won't allow her to give up NYC, even though it was a little heavy-handed. The intra-Fisher relationships are what I always found most satisfying about the show.

I think the show actually earned its redemption of Keith and David's relationship, which a couple of seasons ago, I would not have thought possible. The one moment in the final montage that moved me (a little against my will) was when David dies upon having a vision of young, beautiful Keith. Sniff.

But the rest of the neatly tying-up loose ends felt really forced. And why didn't Lauren Ambrose get to do anything but cry?

I was pretty happy with the episode, it provide a good amount of resolution without making everything too tidy. It brought in a lot of logical changes that had to happen, but would have made the show boring. Nicely done.

The final montage-o-death was okay I guess, but the actual death scenes were kinda iffy. I mean, David, Rico, and Brenda had more or less the same "ooops, time to fall over now" thing, but David's was sentimental, Rico's was pretty unsentimental, and Brenda's was just really funny. And all the bits with Claire driving just looked like a car commercial!

I liked that the final bits of Nate were all pretty positive - people remembering him at the dinner, him inspiring Claire to finally just move away and get on with it.

I liked that George remained an important part of Ruth and the Fishers lives up through the end.

I noticed that either Anthony or Durrell (I'm guessing Anthony) had an Asian boyfriend with him at Claire's wedding, and that the other was married to an Asian woman and had a mixed kid.

is that Pam from american office as rico's date in the first episode of last series? looks familiar...

The one moment in the final montage that moved me (a little against my will) was when David dies upon having a vision of young, beautiful Keith. Sniff.

Also the image of a 102 year old Claire, blind, with all her photogrpahs around her.

I noticed that George won't be aging much over the next 20 years, while Ruth will be aging twice as fast.

It occurred to me that the end was very 25th Hour.

i wondered if the shows writers read camera lucida and on photography before writing that scene.

it really irks me that lots of television shows end with cliffhangers, because is always a sleazy way to leave the door open for a sequel or some other form of cashing in on a shows popularity; it was refreshing to see them tie everything up nicely. but what else would you expect from a a show about a funeral parlor & the family who runs it? they're in the business of tying up the loose ends and making everything pretty.

for the entirety of the series, all the deaths were tragic / comedic / etc and to show that the fisher family died in relatively normal ways was an interesting twist, as if to ease the audience in their own thoughts about death.

i know that happy endings often get frowned down upon [too easy of an exit / not confronting issues],\but i cant think of a show that deserved one more than SFU, considering its plotline & characters. or at least, as close to a happy ending as we're going to get.

another interesting aspect of the montage was the final bit with claire, looking at photographs and then passing away. all i could really think about was roland barthes & sontag's writings on the relationship between photography & death.

then ari came on tv and all was good again

'Dexter' builds case
Hall to play serial killer in pilot

By DENISE MARTIN
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."

so the last season sucked

got pretty melodramatic, didn't it. the ending boosted my estrogen levels and I had to rent two seasons of The Shield to even everything back out.

yeah, it got way too macabre and the finale was pretty much cheesy bs.

I thought you would be with me on the ending ramzi. Has nobody seen one tree hill, they do that shit every episode. Coulda done without sia tho

ending was cheesey but I kinda liked it

i think one tree hill might be the worst show on tv.

the final episode was easily the best final episode of a TV show that I've seen--touching and kind of funny too. (funny when brenda died on the couch in the middle of a billy rant--how appropriate.)

ending gave me shivers

of disgust

I am disappointed in you.

you still respect me

I liked the ending

season 4 was way worse than 5

loved season 4 -- actionpacked entertainment

season 4=david gets beat up, right? bleh.

that was top five episodes definitely

traumatising

yea that was an amazing episode. some ppl thought it was too much but not me.

the beat-up episode was harrowing but I could respect it I guess

it was the Nate confronts so-and-so over Lisa finale that was fucking stupid

I sometimes see the guy who beat up David in other shows and I'm always "OMG YOU BEAT UP DAVID AND MADE HIM SMOKE CRACK".

the ending made me realize more than anything else that I'd watched six seasons of a show which started out as a cool black comedy that gradually turned into something that Oprah probably feels the same way about as I do The Wire. As soon as the Kathy Bates character showed up, I should have stopped.

yeah, that was a great episode, but his PTSD got really old after a few episodes.

It's greatness was proportional to the amount of time Rachel Griffith was on screen.

rockapads OTM, though. It did get really soap-opera-y. I really loved Brenda for the first few seasons, but she was just so damn whiney the last season especially, UGH.

yeah i agree IKR, but not so w/ regard to last season./

ugh whine

remember david plays paintball episode?

did anyone recognize rachel griffiths as one of the evil stepsisters in My Best Friends Wedding? she gets her tongue stuck to the ice sculpture? hahaha

remember david plays paintball episode?

yeah that's when they bring home SARGE

lol

lol sarge! he was hot

so hot

i'm sure there was a spike in gay paintball right after that aired

gay paintball?

that was a great episode!

I think one of my favorite scenes in Six Feet Under is in the first season when the Aussie guy comes over and Nate gets way too high and starts tripping out: "What fucking language are you speaking??"

hahaha yes

I can't believe I was fourteen when I started watching this.

I think one of my favorite scenes in Six Feet Under is in the first season when the Aussie guy comes over and Nate gets way too high and starts tripping out: "What fucking language are you speaking??"

Yeah, that was awesome.

I loved the whole Charlotte light and dark stuff, it was really fucking weird for a while there.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22gay+paintball%22

there seems to be truth in what you say....

I don't mind gay guys. Most are pretty cool, I have met some that think they are cooler than everyone because they are gay, I just say "Whatever dude...". I say, if you play good paintball, who the **** cares if you're straight, gay, bi or alien. Being a team is being a team.

certain bizarre phrases from this shit still pop in my head

"he's like the Matthew Barney of Lac Arts"

or the mom giving Claire advice on weed intake: "They say that you should treat it as a spice"

episode where Claire ran into Gabe in her dream ;__;

Narm!

terrifying

haha, NARM!

poor nate. one of the best protagonists we had.

eh i was more a david person. nate was kinda full of himself sometimes.

Ruth

yup pretty much

but you are gay. of course you were more of a david person.

Rachel Griffiths, mom, daughter, cop BF, Joanna Cassidy all fine, you can keep the rest of it.

but you are gay. of course you were more of a david person.

-- cutty, Monday, August 11, 2008 2:53 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

right thx for explaining

Oh, I miss this show. Brenda and Ruth were the best. I did like Claire and David though.

but you are gay. of course you were more of a david person.

-- cutty, Monday, August 11, 2008 2:53 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

this was pretty fucking stupid

i know, right?

I had to stop watching this near the end of season 2 when nate's baby mama showed up. too much for me.

^^^^this, plus we ditched HBO around this time

..started out as a cool black comedy that gradually turned into something that Oprah probably feels the same way about as I do The Wire. - OTM! I still found the emotional porn of the last few seasons highly watchable, though. I get pretty OCD when it comes to TV series on DVD, though. Gotta watch em all..

Maybe a little morbid, but my favorite SFU moment is when Gabe's friend fishes out all over the school hallway after smoking a joint that had been dipped in embalming fluid. Now that I think about it, was the whole "Gabe loses his shit" plotline ever resolved? It seemed they just wrote him out or whatever.

i have just started watching season 1 of this on dvd. cant believe i didnt watch it the first time round. shit like the girl fucking the brother in the cupboard then taking him on as a bf after he admits all his fuck ups only happens on tv tho, although it didnt seem like a corny 'this only happens on tv' type thing to happen. still, only 5 seasons to go!

YOU'RE IN FOR QUITE A RIDE

yeah it looks great. its like everything i like in a series, pretty much.

1st episode's a killer, innit? she breaks that plate and you know

I've just gone through all the episodes from the start this past six weeks, and holy fucking shit. What a great series.

snap. loved this show. it must be the most underrated of the hbo shows. sure, there were a few silly skits (ruth shooting old boyfriends, nate's rockstar music video in the final episode) but i can forgive all this because of how much i began to care about the characters - only thing that comes close is the sopranos. it was a brave and honest decision to make characters like ruth and claire (and most others) turn into dicks at times - it worked that because that's how life is.

thankfully, watching all the episodes one after another i don't notice the distinctions between series much - something which seemed to bother a lot of posters on the SFU ilx threads. i guess it did switch from a black comedy into a soap opera, but fuck, what a brilliant soap opera.

ti have 1 season left to go of this. season 4 ended really dramatically but somehow plausibly, which i think is one of the things that make 6fu so so good.

also: mia has to be the best child actor i've ever seen on tv - anthony and durrell are great too

maya sorry

*semi spoiler*

also the episode where something terrible happens to david was one of the best, most chilling episodes of any tv drama i think ive seen.

I rewatched that episode a few weeks ago. Maybe the best hour of television I've ever seen.

i found it really hard to watch. its weird how the only characters i genuinely really like (or at least find least questionable) in this now are david and keith. tho thats one of the good things about 6fu - it has a real convincing range of characters from all backgrounds (racial/sexual etc).

Yeah the first time I watched it was through my fingers. *spoiler* I honestly thought that guy was going to set David on fire at the end.

me too. *more spoilers alert* the dog thing was too much.

*spoilers within*

my feelings toward the characters changed constantly over every half a dozen episodes - i loved this, they weren't just some one-dimensional cartoon character, they came off as real people who react to events in their lives and change. i used to have such fondness for ruth but got so angry at how she treated george in that final series. same with claire, she turned into such a dick at times, esp during her artschool brat phase - but it's how people change in real life, no one stays the same and i love how the creators were willing to destroy all the goodwill they'd created around a character. although i did watch those final episodes (post-nate death) with reluctance as i didn't want the entire thing to end on such a downer - i had too much emotion invested in it. i think in time i'll appreciate it more but watching it then i just wanted good happy things to happen. but again, real life isn't like this so it works.

some of the *moments* between brenda and billy made me physically nauseous. watching each episode with my girlfriend would result in around half a dozen genuine 'involved' exclamations (laughs, gasps, horror, tears) - the sign of great writing.

also, such great casting - brenda and billy could pass for siblings, claire and ruth look amazingly alike (i guess nate and david as brothers is unrealistic though).

overall there were flaws, like the whole lisa death resolution, but the quality of characterisation more than made up for it. it does seem underrated, in the uk at least. it doesn't have anywhere near the level of fandom that sopranos or wire has, which is a shame. i was reluctant to watch it at first, probably because of the lack of guns 'n gangsters (family dynamics 'n death? zzz) and i guess this is why it isn't as lauded. (entourage is the same but that suffers from being buried in the graveyard slot on a minor cable channel)

really hated brenda almost all the way through but not for any specific reason, she wasn't really portayed as black/white bad-guy. on the other hand i can totally imagine people really identifying with and rooting for her

i dunno i think you'll still find more Six Feet Under fans than Wire fans here - the latter has only really picked up recently due to BBC showing it and SFU did well on C4 for a few years (i never got past the third series tho apart from a few random eps of s4).

really? i suppose i'm late to the party re: SFU, did it get a lot of acclaim back then? the wire is pretty much the only US tv show that people i know talk about right now, followed at some distance by CYE and sopranos

i was surprised by the sheer level of disgust aimed at SFU on ilx though. it's like 70% "series 2/3/4/5 is a heap of SHIT" vs 30% "yeah i kinda like this"

i was pretty into it when it was first shown. i kept hearing the DJ Shadow's 'Private Press' album in my head like it was the perfect soundtrack to the show (first two seasons at least). there was a Guardian post the other day mentioning that C4 were doing a 'TV of the 00s' show over the festive period and asking what are people's favourites - quite a lot of the commenters said Six Feet Under (more than e.g. The Sopranos) which was a bit surprising.

I much prefer it to the Wire, personally.

The Sopranos >> SFU >>>> The Wire

Brenda is one of the most divisive TV characters ever, in my experience. I loved her, but some people I know haaaaated her. I guess dredging up a range of intense reactions is the sign of a good character?

It's not that hard to hate Brenda. I mean, consider that you are you, as you are now, and you bump into Brenda, knowing everything you know about her. Are you really going to buy this woman drinks and entertain her delusional personality? Even for five minutes? I wouldn't.

There may indeed be more Six Feet Under fans than Wire fans but Wire fans will. Not. Fucking. Shut up about it. And SFU is better anyway.

Brenda was always my favourite character, that series she was barely in was the worst imo.

also the episode where something terrible happens to david was one of the best, most chilling episodes of any tv drama i think ive seen.

― titchy (titchyschneiderMk2), Friday, July 31, 2009 5:35 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I rewatched that episode a few weeks ago. Maybe the best hour of television I've ever seen.

― nate woolls, Friday, July 31, 2009 5:38 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I found it pretty gripping, but I've also heard from more than one person that they considered this to be the show's shark-jumping moment.

i loved this when it was on, even when I felt like it wasn't as good as it should have been, I really didn't care. I should rewatch it, I think. The 'incident' with David was very good; I seem to remember everyone hated that though, didn't they?

I think this show holds up as a more cohesive and intriguing narrative than Sopranos did.

brenda was any rational person's favorite

the fight where she breaks up with nate

and she's like "oh if you throw that ring at me i'm gonna barf" and he goes "yeah well go barf then"

fuckin hot shit

I thought Brenda was a truly fascinating character, but nowhere near my favorite. (David was probably my favorite.)

Brenda was totally my favorite where by "favorite" I mean "one I most wanted to bone"

how bout her mom

she was okay, I'd need some drinks first

http://www.hbo.com/sixfeetunder/img/episode/season04/ep51_brenda_mom_gallery.jpg

oh BRENDA'S mom! I misread and thought you were talking about Ruth

I don't think that changes my answer tho

Brenda's mom vs Ruth's sister

http://cfs8.tistory.com/image/2/tistory/2008/07/17/21/37/487f3cec1fd91

I'm totally in love with patricia clarkson

Yup me too

I was way too hard on this show earlier on in this thread. and my Wire fanboy-isms make me cringe. this show had the ability to make me ponder the nature of human relationships and my mortality (and subsequently get me very depressed) like no other show or movie I've ever seen. That's something special.

It's unfortunate that anyone compares this show to The Wire or Sopranos just because it's up there with the other elite shows of our time. Nowadays, I'd almost compare it with Breaking Bad, or possibly Weeds though I've only see a few episodes of that.

it's better than weeds. I like weeds a lot but weeds is basically a comedy with some fucked up shit in it, but it doesn't make me ponder anything other than "wow what a fucking dumb decision that was" (usually 10 times per episode).

Nurse Jackie has been pretty good although I've only seen the first four episodes. It's a bit pat (maybe to be expected from a half hour show) but it seems to be addressing some pretty fucked up shit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VICzKMNSoG8

Aw. I thought this was a revive for the Six Feet Under movie. AKA the most unnecessary film continuation of a television series ever.

I am three episodes away from the last one.

I want to start a minor characters poll but I'll get upset if MItzi Dalton-Huntley doesn't win.

Do it.

never watched this. should i? i never hear anyone talking about it IRL but i believe it had massive critical acclaim.

I watched this very regularly. It's generally quite good.

It's much much better than quite good.

Yeah it's pretty all-time best IMO

No.

first ep is so great

it's pretty great. first two seasons are amazing. then it dips a little into "pretty good soap opera" territory but still watchable, had a low point around season ... four? five? (can't remember how many seasons there were) where it was kinda tough sledding. then the last half of the final season it got really good again.

if you're interested enough to ask, I would take a shot at it, basically

There are 5 total; the first two are a lot less dark than the last 3 or so but all of them are very solid IMO (I just watched the whole thing for the first time maybe 6 months ago)

I haven't watched any of the acclaimed TV series of the past decade-plus, but this is one of a few where I always planned on buying a box set eventually. Which I did today--got the complete series, still unopened, for $32 at a Boxing Week sale. I'm going to start in on it tonight. Hope it's as good as it always looked from stopping on it for a few minutes at a time.

Cool!!

It's pretty fucking great.

It is pretty great, I'm about three seasons in. It gets to some themes that I'm not sure other shows have done, really funny in places too.

Watched the first two episodes last night--good start. Loved the ending of #2 on the bus.

is it in the first few eps that has the beginning with the pyramid scheme guy? love that one!

Second episode, yes, with a funny detour on the cost of his casket.

I've never cried as much during a tv show as I did during the series finale of this. Would echo most of the consensus from upthread, there are lulls over the whole run but some terrific episodes in every season and a wonderful cast playing fascinating characters. Enjoy yr viewing, clemenza :)

Finished Season One, very much on board. I haven't liked it unreservedly--the Billy stuff is a bit much at times, sometimes Nate and Brenda's ups and downs seem forced, Frances Conroy lapses into affectatiousness--but lots of good stuff to offset that. I love almost every Richard Jenkins scene. My favourite character is probably Frederico. And the ending of the final episode, where Nate stands there looking around the room, was very moving.

#teammitzi for life

Took me a couple more episodes to get Stevie D's post above...Frances Conroy gets so much better Season Two, and I honestly think everything connected to "The Plan" is more interesting than anything espoused in The Master. The ending of the third episode, with Conroy looking at all the old photos, was so good.

damn, frances conroy's only 12 years older than peter krause

The ultimate resolution of _______'s death at the end of season __ (respecting your newfound viewerdom here, clemenza) is still maybe the most jolting moment of television I've seen. Well, maybe tied with Maddie's death on Twin Peaks and the end of the first series of The Kingdom.

Love this show so much and need to rewatch it badly.

Along those lines (xpost), my only recollection of Rachel Griffiths going in was as Johnny Depp's mother in Blow (2001, same year). She's five years older than Depp.

Thanks for holding back on the name. I've been avoiding old posts--I cheated once and took a quick peek at the synopsis for the last episode, found out how Nate/Brenda end up, but that's about all.

Season Two was a work of art for almost the whole way--there was maybe one or two episodes that didn't quite reach the level of the others. This is corny, but I've never watched a TV series that got me thinking about my own life so much. Everyone seems to think Two was the peak, so I'm resigned to the likelihood that there'll be some falloff from here.

Just watched this a few months ago, and it's not as quickly downhill as you'd think. Season 3's definitely when it shifts from uniquely-toned dark comedy to more of a soap opera, but that one still has a lot of good stuff in it. 4 and 5, they're a lot more hit-or-miss.

Eh, the "dropoff" feels more to me like the show failing to live up to some people's expectations than failing to maintain its high quality. There's definitely some dicey episodes (particularly That One), but I love the entire series unreservedly.

I want to know what "that one" is! I haven't watched it since it aired.
I loved this show so, so much.
The only real subplot I thought was too presposterous was the [SPOILER?] thing where whatshisname/Dexter gets abducted by the crack addict and he keeps having PTS over it - maybe Season 4?

Hush!

The only thing so far I've found less than credible was Ruth paying off Nikolai's debt, handing it over in cash (doesn't the Russian mob at least provide receipts?), and then, well, it didn't seem to be that big a deal between them that she'd just volunteered her life savings.

looking back, the first couple seasons were definitely a little odd, what with the spontaneous musical fantasy interludes and all?

Watched this all the way through when it aired. Now 4 eps into S3 on the rewatch. Digging it but finding myself deeply annoyed by Ball's habit of stacking the deck against characters he dislikes. A kind of dramatic bullying that makes the actual drama less interesting.

Walter Galt, the episode that launched the subplot you're talking about is The One being referred to I'm sure (probably the most divisive episode of the series)

personally I thought the episode itself was audacious and not terrible, but everything that came after got tedious, they really dragged that plot out too long

definitely a little odd, what with the spontaneous musical fantasy interludes and all?

I've been thankful that these have been kept to a minimum. There were maybe four spread out over the first two seasons.

there is one musical interlude in the later seasons that i actually really enjoyed but it's pretty hilarious and lauren ambrose can really sing

dmr is correct, both in assuming which episode was That One and in his assessment that the episode itself wasn't as iffy as its immediate aftermath. That whole plotline felt kinda inorganic and out of sync with the rest of the show.

Got through the first three Season Three episodes. First two were fine. They seemed to be missing those really quiet, poetic moments that came out of nowhere and made Season Two so amazing, but then the ending of the second episode, with Frances Conroy and Kathy Bates on the hammock, was perfect. I thought the third episode was the first somewhat clunky one, but there was one great moment even there: when David and Keith singing "Tiny Dancer" turns into Elton over the credits.

i'm near the end of s3. v odd season. not a great deal happens. good though, nonetheless. some of the stuff about relationships and commitment goes way beyond where other shows have gone.

I watched seven or eight episodes this weekend and finished Season Three. With a few reservations, mostly strong.

Occasional detours weren’t necessary; I thought the worst example was Keith and the other security guy at the mansion. The art teacher was pretty much a parody of such a character, a straw man for Claire to set straight (even though I enjoyed it anyway when she did). And Nate’s story goes off the rails the last two episodes. But that was saved in the end by the season-ending shot.

I’m continually caught short by how moved I am by certain moments. There were a couple of scenes between Ruth and Claire that really got to me--all I could think about was my own mom. The paintball episode had maybe the two funniest lines thus far: Ruth’s “Help yourself--I’m out of control,” and Keith’s “Jeanne...Triplehorn,” the best tagline Arnold Schwarzenegger never got to say. Arthur’s right out of David Lynch, but he makes me laugh anyway. Joanna Cassidy and Patricia Clarkson and Kathy Bates and Lili Taylor were all great. The rehabilitation of Brenda as a character--she’d become a total drag at one point--was deft. I like her again.

Keith and the security guard, is that the stuff with Bobby Cannavale? I remember liking that alright

I checked the name, and no--that's Season Four. I meant when Keith and the guy who works for the same company arrive late at the break-in, after the police. It seemed like a clumsy 10 minutes to show us something we already knew well: Keith has a temper.

I'm glad to get past Season Four. The last episode seemed to find the right tone again, but most of the way I felt like they weren't sure where to go. Not terrible (although there were three dream sequences that were the worst yet), just drifting. The Russell character went from really interesting to an annoying cipher lurking around the edges. I don't find Rico's problems especially compelling. The opening deaths were sometimes dropped after the first scene, and those back stories had always been important. I could go on, but the biggest loss has been an almost complete abandonment of those poetic moments I mentioned above (poetic for me--I'm sure they'd come across as precious to someone else). Nate standing beside David after he's gone back to work to help out is the only great one that comes to mind. "That's My Dog" got my attention all right. Not sure if it was too much of a break. Some great music, usually just tacked on at the end: "I Saw the Light," "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)," "Something in the Air." No idea what's going on with James Cromwell--intrigued by that.

Final season: while I don't think they ever got back to the consistent excellence of Season Two, most of the time Five held together. There was more of a return to risky emotional stuff. Sometimes these scenes were overwrought and soap opera-ish, sometimes they were very moving. "All Apologies" to end the one episode was great (its first appearance, earlier in the same episode, was a little corny). There were a couple of scenes with Ruth and Claire that got to me. And the final five minutes of the final episode did not let down (bad makeup notwithstanding).

Lauren Ambrose became too much the last couple of episodes. Same with Ruth's ups and downs with George. Bringing back the spectre of David's assailant as a symbolic plot mechanism seemed clumsy. My favourite character throughout was Ruth's sister--I wanted her in every episode.

just finished watching this myself. overall it felt like it could have been a much better show. they were quite deft at the start and dealt with death and mortality in a blackly comic way, but as it progressed it ceased to be about the funeral home, i suppose inevitably, and became more about their lives. this wouldn't be a problem but it all got a bit overwrought, plus their problems seemed to be quite one dimensional and last for an entire season. or recur. as a result the characters became annoying.

once nate passes away and it's this massive vortex in their lives that's mirrored by the vortex of charisma in the show, it's like practically everyone else is hard to like.

the final scenes were quite cool but they didn't really earn the right to that kind of payoff, if they had really hit the bullseye through the whole show that could have been amazing, but it was more like forcing myself to feel emotion rather than actually feeling for any of the characters.

??? i never thought nate was that good a character

I bounced around with Nate. Early on, he was my favourite character; he seemed like a beacon of equanimity in the midst of everyone else. Later on, after Lisa was out of the picture, I found his sourness repetitive and sometimes cruel.

he just seemed like a boring well meaning guy, i never thought about him, i preferred like literally all the women

I liked Ruth a lot, most of the time. Both Brenda and Claire were victims of some really cringey writing and attempts to make them seem cool or edgy.

Especially Claire; while I didn't often like Brenda--knowing full well I wasn't necessarily supposed to--her character seemed quite real to me. (Re Nate: as a boring, well-meaning guy, all I can say is that we take care of our own.)

That paintballing episode from season 3 was a classic, just so many different brilliant strands in one episode.

Yeah that one was brilliant.

The "best" death for me was definitely the pyramid scheme guy from season 1.

stopped watching this after the first season cos i hate every character except ruth

Been watching this fairly intensively over the past few weeks - first couple of seasons are fantastic. But I'm at the end of S4 now and the resolution to the "what happened to Lisa?" storyline was so rushed and clumsy and stupid.

I'm still on board with the Claire storyline, and David and Keith, but really could not give less of a shit about Nate at this stage. The characters of George and Lisa appear to have upset the balance of the show in ways I can't really put my finger on.

Any scene with David and Keith just hanging out is great, and the gay paintball episode is pitch perfect.

Both Brenda and Claire were victims of some really cringey writing and attempts to make them seem cool or edgy

You think? Brenda maybe, but the scene when they're burning furniture and then Claire runs upstairs and puts Radiohead on made it explicit that they were sending Claire up as a gauche teenager. Like they're still more sympathetic to her than most of the other characters but they're pretty consistently taking the piss out of her as well, especially once she's in art school.

Re Nate: as a boring, well-meaning guy

He's actually a fairly terrible person with an apparently limitless capacity for self-delusion.

there are also times where it's trying to earnestly show claire's art school journey and it's really fucking cringey imo.

Pretty sure the writers want you to cringe though, although the music and fashion choices are always going to look terrible 10 years on. Maybe it changes in the fifth season but they're being pretty direct about Claire being a psued and a bullshitter surrounded by other pseuds and bullshitters.

There are definitely parts where they are being earnest but are clearly quite out of their depth. The entire vibe of the show has a cheesiness which reveals their fairly poor taste generally.

Its inconsistency and many flaws notwithstanding, I still often think about this three months after finishing it.

I finished it yesterday and wow the fifth season really does pile on the shit and misery doesn't it? The episodes immediately after Nate's death were so unpleasant, kind of the opposite of how you'd have expected that family to behave after a death. Although the last episode was very emotionally satisfying. Poor Keith, though.

Kinda think it general it lost its way from the point at which Nate and Lisa got married, there was a real sense they didn't know quite what to do with his character for ages.

The whole thing was spectacularly sour for most of that last season though, if it wasn't for the David and Keith storyline and the lols that were to be had with Claire working in an office it would have been borderline unwatchable.

The episodes immediately after Nate's death were so unpleasant, kind of the opposite of how you'd have expected that family to behave after a death.

i dunno, i feel like it had been pretty well established by that point that they are all train wrecks who struggle to deal with even the smallest emotional turmoil

i liked season 5, myself. 4 is easily the worst

Re Nate: as a boring, well-meaning guy

He's actually a fairly terrible person with an apparently limitless capacity for self-delusion.

OTM He is such a repellent character and the series would have been better off without him. Jesus the flashback scene where he is blubbing, listening to Nirvana. It doesn't always seem like the writers knew what they were doing with his character. Like they thought he was a sympathetic character rather than a manipulative, delusional narcissist.

I was pretty tired of Nate towards the end too, but didn't anyone else like him early on? I thought he was fine for the first two seasons at least. He was the one who was most empathetic to the families when he first started working, when David was still consumed by the business side and Rico by the science.

Yeah I suppose he wasn't as horrible for the first couple of seasons, but for me they could have killed him sooner.

yeah, i liked him at least up until lisa's disappearance. really, it wasn't until that final double whammy of fucking maggie and then trying to dump brenda that i decided i hated him.

He made for an exceptionally tiresome cynic in the episodes before he checked out. I guess the writers thought Lisa's death and his own medical ordeals would give weight to his words. He was just annoying.

ruth got pretty hard to take in season 5, as well

Biding my time until I'm able to get hold of the latest Leftovers, Twin Peaks, and House of Cards seasons, so I started this for a second time tonight. Not sure how it will hold up now that I've seen Mad Men and The Sopranos (hadn't yet done so the first time through), but the first three episodes were fine.

ime it doesn't hold up as well as i would have liked. still some great stuff but the state of the art has advanced.

I love Joanna Cassidy so much in this. They must have said "Have fun" to her the first day of shooting and then just left her alone the rest of the way.

Checked back on what I wrote the first time, and I didn't say much about Season Three. Second time around it struck me as so unrelentingly morose.

"So here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna play Frankie Yankovic and Herbie Hancock. How's that?"

From the Americans thread:

I tried (re)watching Six Feet Under last year and realized I hated every single person on the show and gave up.
― Johnny Fever, Monday, January 22, 2018 9:36 AM

I've watched it twice, and I think all the principals run the full gamut. Nate's a menace at times, also really empathetic with some of the families early on; Brenda's really cold early on, sympathetic towards the end. I think David's likeable most of the way. The only character I didn't like from start to finish was Russell, Claire's simpering boyfriend.

"I no longer feel the urge to speak in building metaphors."

it doesn't hold up as well as i would have liked. still some great stuff but the state of the art has advanced.
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.)

Fair. Eight years ago, I said "Season Two was a work of art for almost the whole way." Third time through, it seems to have the same plusses and minuses as S1, with two great episodes ("Back to the Garden" and the Christmas episode) back-to-back. (Which is where I am right now--maybe S2 is great the rest of the way, I can't remember.) When I posted that in 2013, I hadn't yet seen Mad Men, The Sopranos, Friday Night Lights...I hadn't seen anything. The art had indeed advanced, and I hadn't yet caught up. It's a good, sometimes great show, but I don't think nearly as often as I thought then.

George makes me think of that one ILX thread title: "Kelsey Grammer looks like a motherfucker with some dark secrets."

My friend and I did a Zoom on the music in Six Feet Under (and one on the Leftovers that was posted at the same time).

www.youtube.com/watch?v=snh7pCYuDgo

The guy who played Gabe (Claire's good-bad-not-evil first boyfriend), Eric Balfour, was Dean Tavoularis in The Offer. I think he got mad about something in every scene he was in.

Was sitting in the coffee shop I sometimes post about in the CVS thread this afternoon. There was a huge crash at one point: one of those overhead ceiling fans fell to the floor.

No one was hurt, thankfully. A few minutes before, two women and an infant baby (held by one of the women) had been sitting at a table close to where it fell; they wouldn't have been hit. The two people sitting at the table almost directly under where it fell almost got hit. I was way at the back; if I'd just gotten my coffee, though, and had been making my way to the back, I could've gotten hit.

Seems silly to say your thinking was permanently altered by a TV show, but ever since I first watched Six Feet Under a decade ago, the way that life can change in a split-second is something I regularly think about. Definitely thought about it today. Even the guy who owns the shop, nicest guy in the world, his life could have been permanently changed had someone been seriously hurt (or worse). Probably something insurance would have covered, but who knows--maybe safety inspections weren't up to date or some other loophole would have factored in. Scary.

Wow. Feeling this

Glad you are okay

Thanks--I was way at the back in a separate room almost. The only thing that made it less scary was that I don't think the ran was rotating...don't even want to think about the implications there.

It really was a Six Feet Under moment; the show was often brilliant when it came to those prologues.

"ran" -- fan, obviously

Was picturing one of those battle pennants from the Akira Kurosawa movie.

The woman eating at home alone who choked to death on her food shook me.

I imagined death as a big dramatic event but after that I realized how mundane and simple (easy) it can be.