9/14/06: Six Feet Under (2001-2005)

It was a surprise to see series creator Alan Ball get a recent Emmy nomination for directing the final episode of Six Feet Under—mainly because it seems like the show’s been gone for years. Ball should've won, too, since the episode’s final ten minutes almost made up for a final three seasons of wasted opportunity.

Six Feet Under suffered the fate of any HBO production. The first two seasons were fully mapped out, and then the writing staff went nuts. Characters lacked any consistency, and plotlines would be discarded right on the air. The only consistently impressive thing about Six Feet Under is that it never succumbed to being typical Leftist television.

For those who missed the hype: The Fishers ran a Los Angeles funeral home, with staid funeral director David (Michael C. Hall) dealing with slacker brother Nate (Peter Krause) returning home after their father’s death. There was also younger sister Claire (Lauren Ambrose) and uptight mom Ruth (Frances Conroy). Things changed at a frantic soap opera pace, but the twisted family kept reflecting solid values.

The big surprise was Claire’s growth from high-school rebel to art-school student. The series delighted in goofing on all kinds of Sensitive Artists, and never spared their pathetic politics. Claire’s personal arc is too complex for this to count as a spoiler, but be warned, anyway: Her final happiness is earned when she’s cast into corporate America, where she meets the sensible Republican who becomes her true love.

David’s spirituality was quickly abandoned as the series eroded, but he started out as a dedicated—if conflicted—Catholic. His sex life is mostly built around his lover Keith (Matthew St. Patrick), and their occasional Leftist turns are always balanced by a conservative maturity. In contrast, liberal Nate is a total mess. He spends the series making consistently bad and selfish decisions. A lot of people consider the series’ high point to be when jilted nice guy Joe (Justin Theroux) lets Nate and his lover Brenda (Rachel Griffiths) know that the two emotional cripples deserve each other.

Brenda’s family is worth their own write-up as a parody of oblivious Leftist dolts. The writers weren’t kind to Ruth’s free-spirited hippie friends, either. In contrast, weirdo mortician Arthur (Rainn Wilson) seemed like a Republican voice of reason.

But the show’s most brilliant right-wing moment might have also been its most liberal display. George Sibley (James Cromwell) would rush into marriage with Ruth, and then be revealed as a paranoid psycho. His equally-troubled son was introduced to the show by his habit of mailing feces to the Fisher household.

Ruth gets the two together for dinner, and the subject is—of course—crazy liberal beliefs. George’s son is ranting about how the UK newspaper The Observer had published a suppressed Pentagon report about the eventual devastation of global warming. Before this episode aired, the blogosphere had already proven how The Observer had gotten suckered. George and his son, however, take the subject very seriously. Did the screenwriters? See, we just can’t tell. That’s reason enough to give Six Feet Under a chance.

Make it your own: The individual season sets are typically overpriced as HBO product. Hold out for Halloween, when you can get the complete series for cheap. Also, check out the swinging soundtracks.

 

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