I have been rewatching "Six Feet Under" for the past month.
My experience watching it this second time around is vastly different than the last time I watched it. I loved it the first time around. I binge watched it. I raved about it. So, what is the difference?
Well, that's simple. I hadn't actually experienced death in my own life.
Some of the most profound moments in the show were partially lost on me. Over my head. Falling on deaf ears. I didn't realize this at the time. I thought I understood the pain of losing a loved one even though I had never actually experienced it myself. Or I guess I had but just my family dog and my grandmother who died before I even knew how to wrap my head around such a serious concept as death. But now, after losing my best friend and after finding out just a few days ago that an online friend was brutally beaten by a stranger, landing in a hospital where he hung on for a week before having a stroke. Now, I understand the pain of losing a loved one.
Which makes me recognize the fucking stellar acting jobs from the cast. Frances Conroy's breakdown upon receiving the phone call gave me chills. I remembered getting that phone call that my best friend had drowned in her tub. I remembered breaking down hysterically exactly like Ruth Fisher. And I remembered the dazed, zombie like state I found myself in later. I related to Ruth standing in her kitchen staring at a frying pan.
So, in case you haven't had the pleasure of watching this amazing show let me fill you in.
Firstly, it is made by the creator of "American Beauty" Alan Ball. It revolves around the Fisher family who run a funeral home. In the first episode we watch the father Nathaniel Fisher (Richard Jenkins) get smashed by a bus while he tries to light a cigarette in his car. This won't be the last we see of father Fisher however, as he often "visits" his children in what in my interpretation is them seeking advice and guidance from their dead father, not ready to fully let go. Actually Nate, and David (the sons) often see the dead people they are working on and have conversations with them. Often times they project their own fears and insecurities onto these dead people. There is also Claire, the angsty teenage daughter that drives to school in a hearse.
Each episode starts out with somebody dying, the person the Fisher's will be working on. Sometimes the deaths are actually comical but often times they are gut-wrenching and emotional. "Six feet under" is a roller-coaster of a show that makes it's audience feel such a wide-range of emotions. You can find yourself laughing and crying all in the same episode. The characters are, in my opinion, the most well-developed television characters ever written. To this day, 14 years after the airing of "Six feet under" I have not seen characters more well-developed than the Fisher family, and their partners...
Which brings me to Brenda and her brother who happens to be named Nathaniel.
Brenda is Nate Fisher's girlfriend. He met her when he was coming home for the holidays, unaware of his dead father and having casual sex with a stranger, Brenda. They end up pursuing a relationship, rocky at times. And Nate inevitably has to deal with Brenda's incredibly unstable mentally-ill brother, Nathaniel. Brenda is a bit unhinged herself and is also a genius. She had a book written about her as a kid called "Charlotte: light and dark", which was a book about her being studied by doctors as a kid which tells of her doing some rather "crazy" things like barking at them like a dog, which she says she did just to get a reaction.
Oh worth mentioning that Brenda's crazy brother is played by heart-throb Jeremy Sisto.
hubba hubba
Oh, also before Michael C. Hall was "Dexter" he was David Fisher and he was amazing.
** Let me try to summarize the family a little more but quickly**
Ruth Fisher is devout, not all there, reserved, and has no real "life" and a lot of time to think about her lack of a life after her husband dies. Nathaniel ran off when he was barely an adult and managed a health food store. He rarely saw or kept in touch with his family but ultimately decided to stay and run his half of the funeral home that was left to him. David is gay, and for much of the first season, in the closet. He is ashamed of himself and does often dangerous things such as have unprotected sex with a prostitute. On the surface he comes off reserved, and somewhat rigid. Claire is a typical whiny teen who rebels and deals with her boredom by pursuing bad boy Gabriel. There is also Keith, David's boyfriend through-out most of the first season and friend/racquetball partner after. And maybe they get back together? I feel like they do but honestly I don't remember. Keith is a cop and he is religious, as David is, but he goes to a church that accepts gays and does not hide his sexuality like David.
Well, it would be easy to go on raving all day about what makes this show and absolute masterpiece but I will just hope I have given you enough information for you to give it a shot if you missed it 14 years ago.
It is dark, it is serious, it is humorous, it is quirky, it is brilliantly directed, it has an all star cast playing such well-developed, complex characters. Seriously, go watch it!
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