Six Feet Under

Season 1 | Season 2 |
Season 3 | Season 4 |
Season 5 |
Related Links | Cast |

Six Feet Under (2001-2005) is a provocative drama about a family that runs a funeral home. It's funny, sexy, tragic and deep, and I don't think there's ever been a series quite like it. The writing and production values were top of line, and the cast, led by Peter Krause and Michael C. Hall, was just outstanding. If you've never seen it, I urge you to give it a try.

Just so you know: it ran on HBO and is seriously R-rated for sexual situations as well as dead stuff.

Season One

1.1 Pilot
1.2 The Will
1.3 The Foot
1.4 Familia
1.5 An Open Book
1.6 The Room
1.7 Brotherhood
1.8 Crossroads
1.9 Life's Too Short
1.10 The New Person
1.11 The Trip
1.12 A Private Life
1.13 Knock, Knock

Season Two

2.1 In the Game
2.2 Out, Out Brief Candle
2.3 The Plan
2.4 Driving Mr. Mossback
2.5 The Invisible Woman
2.6 In Place of Anger
2.7 Back to the Garden
2.8 It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
2.9 Someone Else's Eyes
2.10 The Secret
2.11 The Liar and the Whore
2.12 I'll Take You
2.13 The Last Time

Season Three

3.1 Perfect Circles
3.2 You Never Know
3.3 The Eye Inside
3.4 Nobody Sleeps
3.5 The Trap
3.6 Making Love Work
3.7 Timing & Space
3.8 Tears, Bones and Desire
3.9 The Opening
3.10 Everyone Leaves
3.11 Death Works Overtime
3.12 Twilight
3.13 I'm Sorry, I'm Lost

Season Four

4.1 Falling into Place
4.2 In Case of Rapture
4.3 Parallel Play
4.4 Can I Come Up Now?
4.5 That's My Dog
4.6 Terror Starts at Home
4.7 The Dare
4.8 Coming and Going
4.9 Grinding the Corn
4.10 The Black Forest
4.11 Bomb Shelter
4.12 Untitled

Season Five

5.1 A Coat of White Primer
5.2 Dancing for Me
5.3 Hold My Hand
5.4 Time Flies
5.5 Eat a Peach
5.6 The Rainbow of Her Reasons
5.7 The Silence
5.8 Singing for Our Lives
5.9 Ecotone
5.10 All Alone
5.11 Static
5.12 Everyone's Waiting

Related Links

Doux Top Twenty! Number 10: Six Feet Under
Five Shows that Were a Bear to Review by Billie Doux
True Blood (also created by Alan Ball)
Dexter (also starring Michael C. Hall)

Cast

Peter Krause (Nate Fisher)
Michael C. Hall (David Fisher)
Frances Conroy (Ruth Fisher)
Lauren Ambrose (Claire Fisher)
Freddy Rodríguez (Federico 'Rico' Diaz)
Mathew St. Patrick (Keith Charles)
Rachel Griffiths (Brenda Chenowith)
Justina Machado (Vanessa Diaz)
Jeremy Sisto (Billy Chenowith)
James Cromwell (George Sibley)
Brenna Tosh/Bronwyn Tosh (Maya Fisher)

Six Feet Under: Everyone's Waiting

Nate: "You can't take a picture of this. It's already gone."

When this episode began with a birth, I thought, oh no, Brenda's baby is going to die. And then when Willa lived, I thought that this would be the only episode with no death. But no. That would have been wrong for this series. Instead, everyone died.

Six Feet Under: Static

David: "I feel like my face is coming off. I keep trying to hold it on, but I can't."

Shit happens when someone very close to you dies. People are terrific. People are awful. People avoid you because they don't know what to say to you. Depression settles in, and you feel like the world is coming to an end. Things go wrong.

Six Feet Under: All Alone

Nate: "There is no death. Wasn't it a relief when you realized that?"

It was fitting that the strangest, most moving, most unconventional funeral of the series was Nate's. Especially the burial, which was actually something like Lisa's. The family lowered Nate into the ground and shoveled the dirt themselves, a contrast to the pilot episode and the dirt shakers. The last shot of the funeral was dirt falling on us. We are Nate.

Six Feet Under: Ecotone

Nate: "You're making love with somebody and your head explodes. That's a good sign."

Six Feet Under: Singing for Our Lives

Nate: "I just know that when I die, please wrap me in a shroud and plant me next to a beautiful tree so that nobody could build a mini-mall there."

Well, Nate did say he longed for peace.

Six Feet Under: The Silence

George: "Do you want to talk about your feelings?"
Ruth: "Strangely enough, I don't think I have any."

Pretty clear theme with this one: doing things out of obligation, not because you want to do them. And trying to find a way to listen to the truth inside oneself.

Six Feet Under: The Rainbow of Her Reasons

Nate: "My first love just died."
Billy: "Seriously?"

And now Nate's first love just fell off a cliff. Could we get some more foreshadowing, maybe? Geez Louise.

Six Feet Under: Eat a Peach

Brenda: "I grew up with parents who had no boundaries. You grew up with parents that had nothing but boundaries. Do you really think that was so much better?"

Lots of parenting issues. Lots of issues with emotional baggage, too. And for some reason, really weird meals. Like the Opening Death. The adoption picnic. Margaret ambushing Claire. George, with an extreme lack of tact, asking Nate if he had had closure with Lisa's murder.

Six Feet Under: Time Flies

George: "No, omen. It's pronounced 'omen'."

Nate actually killed the bluebird of happiness. I love this show.

Six Feet Under: Hold My Hand

Ruth: "He did not intend to finance you while you play house with a crazy person!"
Claire: "Look who's talking!"

Lots about mental illness. Brenda's patients. George and Billy as patients.

Six Feet Under: Dancing for Me

David: "He was run over?"
Nate: "Yeah, he ran over himself."
David: "How do you do that?"
Nate: "I have no idea."

Ruth sabotaged her chances of being happy with George with her anger over old issues. David sabotaged Keith's baby plans because he wanted to adopt, instead. Billy sabotaged himself by not accepting what being unmedicated does to him. Nate's old friend Tom wanted his youth back and translated that longing into an inappropriate yen for underage girls.

Six Feet Under: A Coat of White Primer

Brenda: "You're just bitter because you had to get pregnant to get Nate to marry you."
Lisa: "I'm bitter? Who's drunk and yelling at a dead woman?"

This one began with a wedding and ended with a wedding. Both Nate's. Both essentially tragic, too. The title was about whitewashing over your problems instead of fixing them. Symbolically, the "coat of white primer" was Brenda's wedding dress, covering the death going on inside of her.

Six Feet Under: Untitled

Brenda: "It doesn't do us any good to live in this constant state of panic."

I totally did not see the thing with Hoyt coming. It was outright shocking. It also made everything fall into place, since we never really knew what happened to Lisa. He killed her, didn't he? He must have; at one point, he said that he couldn't let Lisa tell Barb. It probably would have been more denouement-like if he'd actually confessed before putting the gun in his mouth. But like Hoyt's death, life is messy and things aren't always resolved to our satisfaction.

Six Feet Under: Bomb Shelter

Nate: "I mean, who the hell am I? Job?"

This was a disturbing circle-cannot-hold sort of episode. As soon as one humongous problem was resolved, another one took its place. Crazed legal insanity was a theme, too.

Six Feet Under: The Black Forest

Ruth: "We're supposed to stay together because you don't want to move your rocks?"

Finally, the ashes were out of the bag. So to speak. Will Nate be arrested for body-snatching? Will they have to dig up Lisa?

Six Feet Under: Grinding the Corn

Nate: "Who are you supposed to be?"
Nathaniel: "Death Man. I wanted to be the Grim Reaper, but the folks at Marvel already had a copyright on it."

The last episode was about cheating and doing things for the wrong reasons. This one was more about commitment, and doing things for the right reasons. Or better reasons.

Six Feet Under: Coming and Going

Ruth: "Marriage is not a gas station, George. You can't just pull in and fill up whenever you remember you have a wife."

David desperately needed Keith, but Keith was away. Ruth needed George to act like a husband, but he wouldn't. Claire wanted to be gay, but wasn't. Rico wanted to go home, but couldn't.

Six Feet Under: The Dare

Lisa: "Life is pain. Get used to it."

This episode's theme: ignoring something inside you in hope that it will just go away. David's panic attacks. Nate's grief. Brenda's "normal" relationship with Joe. Ruth's reluctance to acknowledge the difficulties of her relationship with George. Claire's feelings for Edie, too.

Six Feet Under: Terror Starts at Home

David: "I forgot to pray, can you believe that? I totally forgot to pray."
Clare: "It's okay. God saved you anyway, right?"

This episode made me so sad. When it ended, I just sat there and cried. Then again, I had a really bad week, and maybe it just hit a chord.

Six Feet Under: That's My Dog

Jake: "I must have been a serious asshole in a previous life."
David: "I don't think it works that way. Things just happen."

David was lucky. David was stupid. David was lucky and stupid.

Six Feet Under: Can I Come Up Now?

Keith: "Every woman needs to go through falling in love with a gay man. It's a total female rite of passage."

There was an interesting theme weaving throughout this episode. Wanted children. Unwanted children. Heterosexual angst.

Six Feet Under: Parallel Play

George: "It's called a folie a deux. Two people confusing a momentary insanity for love."

Really interesting title. It was about toddlers playing next to each other instead of with each other. And of course, it was a pointed comment about the relationships in this episode, not all of which were sexual.

Six Feet Under: In Case of Rapture

Dorothy: "Some people think I'm in heaven. But guess what? There is no heaven. Except right here with you."

It's not that they do twisted off-the-wall stuff. It's that they do it so well.

Six Feet Under: Falling Into Place

Nate: "You don't want to end up in a graveyard."
Lisa: "Nate, the whole world's a graveyard."

Nate has always cared deeply about respecting the last wishes of the dead. I thought the scene where Nate carried out Lisa's wishes and buried her ravaged body in the wild, all by himself, was quite possibly the most emotionally wrenching scene I've ever seen on television.

Six Feet Under: I'm Sorry, I'm Lost

David: "Is that all life is? We just go through it replacing people?"
Nathaniel: "Pretty much. Some people just do it faster and more often than others."

Nate hit bottom in a great big, self-destructive way. And after weeks of degenerating behavior and lashing out at everyone, Nate officially became a widower on the very day that Ruth remarried. Marrying Lisa was a selfish act and he knew it. He can never make it up to her now.

Six Feet Under: Twilight

David: "I'm so bored with this kind of unhappiness. I think I'm ready for some new unhappiness."

This episode got to me. It was like everyone was in limbo, an alternate reality. The "Twilight" in the title referred to Claire's chosen form of anesthesia for her abortion, which was described as, "You're not really gone, but you're not really here." Like Lisa.

Six Feet Under: Death Works Overtime

Mr. Su: "And now, she's taken away from me. How can she not be here? One minute she's there. The next, she's gone like she was never there."

There was a "center cannot hold" feel to this episode.

Six Feet Under: Everyone Leaves

Russell: "Claire, I need to tell you something."
Claire: "The words every woman longs to hear."

This episode was like one huge multiple emotional meltdown.

Six Feet Under: The Opening

Nate: "It's depressing how deluded people are about what love is."

So this one was apparently about sex as power trip. And unconventional sex. And antidepressants. And mommies gone wild.

Six Feet Under: Tears, Bones and Desire

Ruth: "You'll have to help yourselves. I'm out of control."

This episode had a couple of interesting, conflicting themes: inappropriate sexual behavior, and doing what makes you happy. There was "Daddy" with his four wives and many children. There was Ruth and Arthur redefining the term "odd couple." Olivier the teacher seducing Russell the student. And Keith and David having a paintball war as well as a threesome. Okay, the sexual behavior was mostly unconventional, not necessarily inappropriate. Except Olivier's.

Six Feet Under: Timing & Space

Brenda: "Baby's first funeral?"
Nate: "Hardly."

Reciprocal parental funerals for Nate and Brenda.

Six Feet Under: Making Love Work

Lisa: "Sometimes I feel like, when we're having sex, he secretly hates me."

Well, Lisa, that's because he does.

Six Feet Under: The Trap

Olivier: "Have you ever committed infidelity?"
Claire: "No, not yet. But someday, hopefully."
Olivier: "Infidelity is not funny, Claire. It's tragic. All betrayal is tragic."

Gee. You think this one was about feeling trapped?

Six Feet Under: Nobody Sleeps

Nate: "Is this party seeming weird to you?"
David: "On a scale of one to ten? Ninety."

This episode beautifully captured that feeling of euphoria you get when you have a really special experience.

Six Feet Under: The Eye Inside

Lisa: "It's not good for Maya to be around that kind of hostile dementia. If that's what I wanted for her, I'd be living with my mother."

Don't pretend to be what you're not. Which is exactly what Nate is doing.

Six Feet Under: You Never Know

Keith: "Can you believe Lisa? I've never met anyone whose self-perception is so far removed from reality."

How we see ourselves, and how others see us.

Six Feet Under: Perfect Circles

Nate: "Just tell me. Am I dead? Yes or no."
Nathaniel: "Yes. And no."

What just happened?

Six Feet Under: The Last Time

Ruth: "You're everything. You don't even know. You're everything to me."

At the end of the first season, Nate discovered that he could be dying. Here, at the end of season two, they left us with Nate going under anesthesia, a white light, and the Bus of Death stopping to pick him up. I love Nate, dammit, and I hate this. I don't want him to die. Maybe he's just flirting with death. Nate is a chronic flirt, after all.

Six Feet Under: I'll Take You

Margaret: "And so now, we have to stop walking alongside one another, and turn and face each other, and move through the world face to face."
Brenda: "But how will you see where you're going?"

Many break-ups.

Six Feet Under: The Liar and the Whore

Brenda: "Okay. Can I just say that I think total honesty is not always the best thing?"

This one was about the importance of telling the truth. And the consequences of telling the truth. And about Brenda still not telling the truth.

Six Feet Under: The Secret

Taylor: "Secrets are so stupid. People always find out about secrets."

It wasn't just Karla's ugly hit and run, of course. It was also Nate not telling Brenda about his imminent accidental fatherhood, and Brenda not telling Nate about her new sexual weirdness that just escalated into threesomes with strangers in Orange County. You can practically feel the two of them about to implode.

Six Feet Under: Someone Else's Eyes

David: "Does the term 'mixed messages' mean anything to you?"

This one was about the "lie of romance." That we need someone else to complete us, someone else to observe and tell us the truth about ourselves.

Six Feet Under: It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Nate: "I guess we've got a lot to be thankful for."
Nathaniel: "Either that, or we've lowered our expectations so much, we've given up on anything better than this."

Don't fear the reaper. Got it.

Six Feet Under: Back to the Garden

Rabbi: "Maybe your soulmate is the person who forces your soul to grow the most."

Keith and David may be soulmates. Nate and Brenda? Not so much.

Six Feet Under: In Place of Anger

Sarah: "God, there is so much emotion to navigate where family is concerned. Vicodin, anyone?"

I loved Ruth's sister, Sarah. Impulsive, irresponsible, fun, oddly tragic, going about life on her own unusual terms. Ruth and Sarah were so different. On a basic level, the problem with their relationship is that they envy each others' choices. They're also threatened by each others' choices.

Six Feet Under: The Invisible Woman

Melissa: "It's not healthy or unhealthy. It just is."

How sad. Having a perfect stranger pick out what you'll wear for eternity in a box.

Six Feet Under: Driving Mr. Mossback

Claire: "You know, people don't just spaz out and hork all over their shoes for no good reason, Nate."
Nate: "Two words: tofu meatloaf."

The Bus of Death returned for the Opening Death scene, which of course was a precursor to Nate's seizure. I don't know about you, but Nate's seizure was so real and unexpected that it freaked me out. Having to drive Mr. Mossback from Seattle to L.A. was just a vehicle :) for the main plot, which was Nate connecting with his past while facing his possible lack of a future.

Six Feet Under: The Plan

Nate: "But there's no plan?"
Brenda: "No, there's definitely no plan. Just survival."

Last week, Nate faced the fact that he might die soon. This week, it got metaphysical.