Six Feet Under (2001-2005)

Created by Alan Ball (American Beauty), this dark drama series starred, Peter Krause, Michael C. Hall, Frances Conroy, Lauren Ambrose, Mathew St. Patrick, Freddy Rodríguez, Rachel Griffiths with occasional guest stars, Lili Taylor, Patricia Clarkson, Kathy Bates and Richard Jenkins.

I can not rave about this HBO series enough. I am still working my way through the remaining two seasons on DVD. I love the character development and the concept of the show which goes as follows: the Fishers run a funeral home in Los Angeles. The father, Nathanial Fisher, dies in the first episode and from then on, each episode opens with a death, setting the tone. The two sons, Nate Jr. and David, inherit the family business. All of the family members cope with the loss of the father in their emotionally dysfunctional way.

It is rare indeed to love each main character but I can’t help but find something sympathetic and relatable about each one. Nate, as the errant, wayward son who got away from his uptight family, comes back to face his “responsibilities” as half-owner of the mortuary. As the eldest, I totally relate to his impulses to escape and be free.

Then there is younger brother David, the closeted gay man who did everything he was “suppose to” but resents it. Isn’t there a little David in all of us?

Nihilistic Claire whose boredom and attitude is just a convenient cover-up for the attention and guidance she craves. She is an adolescent on the verge of adulthood—you just want to give her a big hug and reprimand her for hanging out repeatedly with “bad boys.”

Poor repressed mother Ruth, who longs to let her hair down and travel the unpaved road of life, is one of my favorite characters. Among other things, her sexuality blossoms after her husband dies. She has not one but two male lovers, Hiram, the hiker, and Nikolai, the Russian florist. In a great episode, Ruth is invited by her co-worker to a graduation of a self-improvement class called “The Plan” and then decides she should take the course too. The self-improvement jargon she picks up at the weekend seminar is hysterical.

Nate meets his match in super brainy Brenda and her promiscuous tendencies. Brenda’s mentally disturbed younger brother, Billy is an intriguing, reoccurring character. David and Keith remind me of many gay couples trying to reconcile being openly gay in a heterosexist society.

The music choices are superlative—they underlie the ethos of the characters and what they go through.