From Alan Ball, the creator of HBO’s “True Blood,” comes a series that digs where others fear to tread. When a bus kills Nathaniel Fisher, owner of the Fisher & Sons Funeral Home in Los Angeles, the tragedy casts a pall on the homecoming of his prodigal son Nate. Together with with mother Ruth, brother David and sister Claire, they must address the family business, and the many more personal matters that arise when your life is Six Feet Under. Relive every minute of this poignantly dramatic, unpredictably hilarious masterpiece, from its powerful premiere episode to its critically-acclaimed, haunting finale.
Buy “Six Feet Under: The Complete Series” For Only $84.72
March 7, 2008
#1
Six Feet Under is one of my favorite shows and it completely changed my outlook on life. It’s depressing as hell but it’s funny and poignant. I recommend this show to anyone.
I’ve been waiting a pretty long time for the price of the bigger box set to go down and I regret not buying it when Amazon was selling it for about $88. Now it’s discontinued which I’m really frustrated about. If you try to buy the bigger box set anywhere else it’s at least $95. Anyway, I got the newer slim box set and I like how they put it together into this one book of dvds. It’s great if you like saving space. The pictures are nice but some of dvds came out scratched. SCRATCHED. I was pissed off as hell. I didn’t do anything to them. I just took them out carefully and there were a couple of scratches on some of them.
So I’m pretty sure they were scratched before I got the box set. So far, most of the scratched dvds played out fine except for a couple. So if you’re looking to buy the complete series of Six Feet Under, I absolutely do NOT recommend the newer slim box set. It’s not worth it. Really. Instead, get the older box set. I would.
March 7, 2008
#2
A plot synopsis is not a review. When you publish a review in a magazine you must analyze what is being reviewed. Maybe even add something new. To merely summarize the plot and say you love it is not a review. To post synopses of shows on Amazon is doubly ridiculous given that almost everyone who reads reviews on Amazon has already seen what they’re reading about!
Now, Six Feet Under. Let me first say that it has always amazed me how much more hype The Sopranos gets when Six Feet Under is far superior. I can rarely stomach television. Six Feet Under is so well done however that it plays more like an extremely well-made film than a TV show (yeah, a 63-hour movie)! (It was, by the way, predominately filmed by movie directors, not TV directors.)
As many reviewers here have stated, it also has a LOT to say about life. Here are the show’s main lessons, as I see them: Your life is the present. If you dwell on the past you might as well be dead, like Ruth sitting at the Formica kitchen table like a zombie before she realized she needs to let go.
People behave in patterns, and they cycle through the same patterns throughout their life. If you look at this cycle with a narrow view it may create the illusion that this person is changing. If you take a wider view you see they are really just cycling through the same pattern. People therefore seldom ever change. It is very difficult to break a pattern.
Nate for instance never changed. The minute he was with someone he lost all interest in them, as Ruth said would be the case in the first season. Nate was looking for someone to change him. He never found someone that could. Brenda made this clear when she basically said that Nate is a bad person and he is searching for someone who can make him feel like a better person than he really is.
Recognize people for who they are. If a person’s limitations outstretch their intentions, failure will result. Take for instance George’s promise to care for Ruth. He may have wanted to, but he was incapable of actually doing it.
The perfect is the enemy of the good. If you’re waiting for things to be perfect, like Nate, then you’ll never be happy because no moment is ever perfect.
Also, happiness is not a destination; it’s not something you “arrive” at. If you’re not happy now, having a kid or getting married is not going to make you happy.
It’s not so much the way things are in the world that’s your problem, but how you react to the world. There wasn’t really some hooded killer terrorizing David. David was terrorizing himself. He had a naïve view of reality and needed to realize that that is not the way the world really is.
At first I thought Nate would move home and bring his family together, proving to be a strong and intelligent, even philosophical person, ready to help strangers through their grieving. It slowly became apparent that Nate was a self-obsessed, shallow narcissist who really didn’t care about anyone else but himself and his own internal, petty drama.
The Fishers were all hung up on the past. (And notice that their Father only said to them what they were imagining.) Redecorating the 50s style house was symbolic of finally moving on, of letting go of the past and embracing the present.
Many people see families where the grown children are always around the parents, where they talk all the time, every day even, and think, “Gee, that’s such a nice family; they’re all so close to each other.” Actually this is typically a sign that the family is dysfunctional. In healthy families parents encourage their children to become adults and leave the nest, emotionally as well as physically. Ruth realizes this when she forbids Claire to make the same mistakes she did.
(By the way, was it just me or did the timeline of this show simply not gel? Watching the events in the show and listening to characters state how much time passed between events it seems that six or more years passed from season one to season five. However, looking at the dates at the beginning of each show, only four years passed!)
For those who want to know (MEGA SPOILER AHEAD), here’s how long each character lived as revealed in the series finale (one of the greatest hours of television programming in the history of the medium): Nate: 40yrs, Ruth: 79yrs, Keith: 61yrs, David: 75yrs, Rico: 75yrs, Brenda: 82yrs and Claire: 102yrs!
By the way, in Claire’s death scene if you look quick there’s an amusing mistake (or joke?) hanging among her photo montage on her wall. It’s a picture of David and Keith with their arms around each other, but Keith is young and David is in his 70s!
And yes, it ends with Claire driving off toward the horizon. Show creator Alan Ball wanted to make it clear that Claire is the only one who escapes the Fisher family and their dysfunction. That’s why, when she leaves, the Fishers are out of focus; they are already fading from her memory.
That is also why Nate, who is shown in the mirror trying to catch up to her, is left behind. The influence of the family is left behind and Claire goes on to experience a full and rich life.
Notice that for others, things never change. At 82 Brenda is STILL taking care of Billy, and if you pay close attention (or listen to Ball’s commentary) you’ll hear that then, in his 80s, Billy is STILL bitching about Ted, and he literally (according to writer Ball) bores poor Brenda to death.
And yes of course, the MAIN point of the show: Western civilization is a death-denying culture. We watch endless movies that show people getting killed, trivializing death, and yet most of us in real life fail to face death realistically.
We fail to realize that death is as natural a part of life as birth, that everybody dies, that you don’t know when it will happen and that accepting all of this is part of living a full life. We are not prepared to die and we treat death so seriously that we’re afraid to laugh at it, hence all the darkly comic death scenes at the beginning of each episode.
Alan Ball wanted the show to demonstrate that we are all connected in that we are all mortal; it does not behoove anyone to pretend they are immortal. As Nate says in the show, our mortality makes life important. Everything ends. If we lasted forever nothing would matter.
Six Feet Under seriously raised the bar for all television to come, almost demanding that TV airs more serious, reflective and intelligent shows with a heightened sense of realism.
March 7, 2008
#3
I thought I would chirp in and give my endorsement to this series. As far as the packaging of said series, really, as far as I’m concerned if the discs work and are quality transfers, I’m not too critical usually.
Show-wise, this is one of the best, most thought provoking and challenging programs I have ever watched. I just finished the last episode a few hours ago and I am still in kind of a state of shock at how much I have been affected by the five season story of the Fishers. This series is top tier HBO quality, setting a benchmark that only the best of the best can ever achieve. And usually when they do, it is only for a season or two at the most, but Six Feet Under maintained top notch writing and acting throughout.
A word of caution: If you are sensitive to controversial issues such as homosexuality, or get queezy with sexual content, this MAY not be the program for you. My mom, for example, would probably not make it through the first episode. If you feel that House and CSI are the pinnacle of television achievement, then Six Feet Under may be too far of a reach for you. But, if you give it time and an open mind, you may come around!
RIP Fisher family.
March 7, 2008
#4
I can’t understand how this ran for 5 years. It’s about a completely dysfunctional family who runs a funeral home. Lead character is oldest brother who meets a woman whose family makes the Manson Family look like Ward and June Cleaver. The only normal character is Rico, the mortuary assistant. I kept watching, thinking “God, this HAS to get better.” It didn’t. Can’t recommend buying or viewing this, but would suggest every cast member deny ever appearing in it. It’s one of the worst things I’ve ever seen.
March 7, 2008
#5
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2P5K0YT0PAKP Over the past fifteen years, HBO has brought production values and creative talent of theatrical quality to the small screen and presented the American public with some of the most brilliantly innovative television dramas ever created. Aside from landmark series such as “The Sopranos” and “The Wire”, other critically acclaimed programs such as “Deadwood”, “Carnivale”, and “Rome” were born on this premium cable network. The prestige and influence of HBO original programming is such that upon discovering this cheaper re-release of the “Six Feet Under” series in early 2010, I bought it without having seen so much as a single episode. I hadn’t checked out the program before because what I knew about the series didn’t sound particularly interesting, but as with all great fiction the hook that sells the show isn’t so much the plot as it is the characters.
“Six Feet Under” is an hour-long drama series about the Fisher family, who operate Fisher & Sons funeral home in Los Angeles. In the first few moments of the pilot episode, the Fisher family patriarch Nathaniel is killed in a tragic accident, and the audience is at once thrust into the affairs of the surviving Fishers and the continuing aftermath of Nathaniel’s death. Each episode briefly details the day-to-day operations and struggles of running a privately owned funeral home, but the primary focus is always centered on the trials and tribulations within the Fisher family. In the pilot, oldest son Nate (Peter Krause) has just arrived from Seattle for a visit, middle son David (Michael C. Hall) is a closeted homosexual who takes over the funeral home after his father’s death, youngest daughter Claire (Lauren Ambrose) is a troubled and confused high schooler, and their mother Ruth (Frances Conroy) is a deeply unhappy woman formerly resigned to her fate as a simple housewife.
Other major players include David’s boyfriend and police officer Keith Charles (Mathew St. Patrick), restorative artist and Fisher employee Federico Diaz (Freddy Rodriguez), Nate’s eventual love interest Brenda Chenowith (Rachel Griffiths), and her brother Billy (Jeremy Sisto). The supporting cast is equally as impressive as the principals. Some of my favorite character actors such as Rainn Wilson, Ben Foster, James Cromwell, Catherine O’Hara, Mena Suvari, Justin Theroux, and Richard Jenkins have recurring roles. No less than three “Deadwood” regulars have small parts, and even the future Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) and Mr. Spock (Zachary Quinto) both make appearances (though not together).
The cast is uniformly excellent in these roles, helping to gloss over the occasional character inconcistencies present in certain episodes. Nate is perhaps the most uneven, variously alternating between extreme compassion with strangers and extreme self-absorption around his loved ones. There’s painstaking detail devoted to his relationship with Brenda, most of which is quite well-realized but occasionally stifles the pacing of certain episodes. David and Federico are, without question, the most likeable characters. David’s continual struggle, gradual acceptance, and growing comfortability with his homosexuality is by turns heart-breaking and heart-warming to watch unfold. David is masterfully portrayed by Michael C. Hall, and it’s a testament to his abilities as an actor that he can so adroitly convince the audience he is a mild-mannered gay man as well as a cunning serial killer on “Dexter” with equal aplomb. Federico’s boyish looks and charming naivete earns him the most compassion through his own struggles, as he aims to provide more for his family than just a modest living.
Claire generally follows a rather pedestrian path of teenage self-destruction and angst, though it bears noting this is the fault of the writers and not the talented actress Lauren Ambrose. The writers script her character as if she inhabits some higher plane of individualism because she’s a ‘deep’ artist, while one of her boyfriends is portrayed as “unhip” because he listens to Top 40 radio and supports the war on terror. It’s as if the series itself is perpetuating the juvenile notion that it’s a penchant for the obscure that sets forward-thinking people apart from the hordes of conformist drones. As for Ruth, it’s a genuine joy to watch her never-ending quest to find true happiness, as she branches out in ways she never did before her husband’s death.
That, of course, is the thread that unravels all the cobwebs and skeletons in “Six Feet Under”. It’s through Nathaniel’s demise that the Fisher family is gradually able to transform, over five seasons, from dysfunctional family-in-name-only into cultivating thriving relationships between each other. As they come to terms with their loss and the realization that none of them really knew who Nathaniel was, they’re forced to realize through his death what truly matters in life. Though the start of the series is a bit slow and occasionally rocky, the series quickly grew into what I’ve come to expect from an HBO program: top-notch cast, killer dialogue, a good mix of pathos and humor, and a myriad of interesting plotlines. Thematically it is quite obviously a platform for exploring the way people deal with death and, by extension, life. The other major themes revolve around characters coming to grips with homosexuality and attempts to understand and live with mental illness.
Every episode, with but a few exceptions, opens with the last moments of a future Fisher & Sons client. These deaths, mirroring reality, range from the mundane to the horrific. Sometimes a red herring will be employed, misdirecting the audience into believing one person will die only to realize it is actually someone else’s time to go. Within the microcosm of the program, this is a great way to illustrate how unpredictable and surprising death can be. Occasionally a cleverly scripted series of events will culminate in a fatality, like some sort of cruel Rube Goldberg machine only God finds amusing. A few are even, dare I say it, amusing in their absurdity. Unfortunately, some of the idiosyncrasies native to the series aren’t quite as clever as the writers appear to think they are. Case in point, another narrative device the program employs are surreal moments of a character acting on their most private thoughts. These can range from an emotional outburst of screaming, to characters bursting into song and dance, to one character blissfully shooting her ex-lovers as if in some sort of bizarre carnival game.
When it is necessary to provide clarification, particularly following a extreme outburst of emotion, the scene will jump cut to moments earlier, illustrating that it never actually occurred. At times this can present confusion, with the audience wondering “Which part actually happened and which didn’t?” Even worse, sometimes a truly shocking event will occur, only to discover once again it never really happened. This can feel like a slap in the face to the audience, as if being toyed with or mocked by the writers, akin to the controversial last moments of the “Sopranos” finale. Most of the time, however, the scenes are sufficiently over-the-top enough that it doesn’t ring of conceit so much as a clever manner in which to convey the internal thoughts of the characters. Yet another, more effective, method for exploring the internal conflicts within the characters has main cast members speaking to the dead as if they were alive.
This complete series set is beautifully presented in a series of paper DVD sleeves assembled like a book. This isn’t the most protective method, but is a greener and more compact way to package the series. The two soundtrack discs included on the previous complete series edition are not enclosed here, but the small character booklet is. If you’re new to the series, I strongly suggest not reading the booklet until you’ve watched all the episodes. Regarding the packaging, out of twenty-four discs, I only had a slight skipping problem with one disc. Otherwise all episodes played perfectly and the majority (but not all) of them were scuff-free. For the admittedly modest price I paid, I really have no genuine complaints in this department.
“Six Feet Under”, again mirroring reality, will not tie up every loose end, and not all lingering questions will have a definitive answer. There are a few plot threads that build incrementally only to dissolve into nothing. There are patches of weak writing, such as the puerile and impotent stabs at political commentary that betray the otherwise superlative scripting. The series does get lost in its own creativity at times, and sometimes gorges itself on certain characters who are not quite as interesting as their screen time would suggest. But, ultimately, what prevents “Six Feet Under” from a full five stars is that there are significant amounts of extraneous filler peppered within the series, particularly in later seasons. I feel that this series should’ve been four classic seasons instead of five excellent, but slightly bloated and overwrought seasons.
I can promise this: you will find yourself caring deeply about these characters, you will find your heart racing when things aren’t going as you had hoped, and you will find yourself staying up much later than you had intended to squeeze in one more episode. You will also discover one of the most satisfying television finales ever conceived, during which each character finds some place of stable contentment, bringing warm smiles to the audience, until those final ten minutes when the series delivers an emotional gut punch that perfectly summarizes the entire idea of the series. Watching those last moments unfold, I kept thinking of something Nate said earlier in the series: “Everybody dies. Everybody. What makes you so special?”
I’m glad I met the Fisher family.