Six Feet Under is SIX FEET UNDER and infested with spoilers!

[Reinhold]

before mr. fisher died and stuff?

[mogwai]

aaaah spoiler, i haven't seen season 1 yet!

[cine]

last episode was pretty good.. even nate is snapping now! awwwyea!

aaaah spoiler, i haven't seen season 1 yet!

that happens first episode of season one. it's not a spoiler..

[GodDamnImDaMan]

Is it just me or does Season 4 kind of suck compared the the the past seasons?

Given my order of favorite Seasons are...

Season 2
Season 1
Season 4
Season 3
Season 5

[grand theft sparrow]

major spoilers for last sunday's (7/24) episode

So...




Ruth is back with Hiram.

Claire has pretty much ended her stint as an artist.

Keith is trying to reach out to the foster kids even after they took the car.

Rico and Vanessa are showing signs of maybe getting on the road to reconciliation.

Nate cheats on Brenda with Maggie and promptly has a stroke.

And no "next week on..." trailer afterwards!

It's pretty safe to say that this is the frogs-falling-on-Officer-Jim's-car point of the series.

[GodDamnImDaMan]

Last weeks show fully redeemed this season.

[Sebastian Haff]

Last weeks show fully redeemed this season.

I agree. Halfway through this episode, I came close to turning it off and leaving SFU behind because I was so sick of the whining from everyone. Claire gets boned by some new guy, Ruth is still a whiny bitch, Nate is still an asshole and David and Keith are still gay.

Then the last 5 minutes of the show happened.

YES. I can't wait to see what goes down next week.

[Redlum]

The last 5 minutes are what worries me. Its the thing which has been hanging over the whole of the last two seasons, its fairly obvious that they bring a brain tumour back for the end of show and a mid-season cliffhanger.

[grand theft sparrow]

HOLY FUCKING SHIT!!!

so did not see that coming...

[GodDamnImDaMan]

WOW-ZA!

spoilers ahead.

But wasn't the show based...around Nate? How the hell could they just kill him off like that? None the less, great job six feet under season has not only been redeemed but become one of the best.

[grand theft sparrow]

***SPOILERS TO GDIDM'S SPOILERS AHEAD***

WOW-ZA!

spoilers ahead.

But wasn't the show based...around Nate? How the hell could they just kill him off like that? None the less, great job six feet under season has not only been redeemed but become one of the best.

That's what I was thinking too.  But since we're just as invested in what happens to the family as much as Nate, we need to see them start life over again without him... and the loose ends need to be tied up as well.  

It took the family an entire season to really start to heal after Nate Sr died.  Nate Jr couldn't die in the last episode and then we don't see (or briefly see) what happens to everyone.  I have a feeling that, since the funeral is next week, the last 2 episodes after that might be a few months on.  Brenda still has to have the baby and I still have a suspicion that Ruth is going to die.

But until last night, I've never been so moved by the show or by the death of a character on any show.  The idea that both of Maya's parents are dead gave me a particular twinge.  It doesn't help that she's the cutest kid ever put on TV either.

[72teeth]

What if they do a whole "Wonderful life"-"Christmas Carol" type deal, and just let Nate yonder around and let him figure out things for himself. If they did, i hope they 86 the whole angel/guide character, and I hope they don't get too preachy ala "Angels in America," although I did like the whole modern-biblics aspect and would really like to see what Alan Ball could do with it.

[grand theft sparrow]

MINOR SPOILER

What if they do a whole "Wonderful life"-"Christmas Carol" type deal, and just let Nate yonder around and let him figure out things for himself.

They sort of did that at the beginning of season 3, when Nate was under for surgery for the first AVM.

[GodDamnImDaMan]

I was just about to say they already did that at the beginning of season 3.

But I agree that Nate's death really saddened me. Afterall, the show is about the Fishers however, It did focus on Nate the most.

Do you guys think nate will take on a role like Nate Sr. does on the show?


Also, I have to admit Mya is the fucking cutest child ever in television history!

[MacGuffin]

Sorrow is sweet as show dies
The creator of "Six Feet Under" is pleased with what his series has said about death and grief.

The mourning has finally broken. Alan Ball is contemplating life after death — five seasons' worth.

Ball is coping with the final throes of HBO's "Six Feet Under," his black-humor-laced drama about a family-run funeral home that will end its run Sunday. "Six Feet Under" is one of the flagship components, along with "The Sopranos," "Sex and the City" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm," that have made the pay-cable network a critical favorite and powerhouse.

The 48-year-old Ball, who scored an Oscar for writing "American Beauty," is very much alive and kicking as he prepares to tackle new projects, including a play, a couple of screenplays and a novel he is adapting for a film he hopes to direct later this year.

For Ball, who says his characters are so real to him they haunt his dreams, fading out "Six Feet Under" is a mixed blessing.

"It's like having seven kids, and they all go off to college at the same time," Ball said in an interview. "This show is very dear to me. I'm letting go of something that felt very safe and familiar. It's definitely bittersweet, a growth experience, and not without some pain. But I'm really excited about moving on and doing something different."

The show's signature opening sequences — the mostly untimely demise of a future client of the Fisher family mortuary — spotlighted its exploration of how the living deal with the complicated layers of grief. The dramatic odyssey of "Six Feet Under" has been sprinkled with generous doses of sex, violence, surrealism and emotional turmoil.

Throughout the series, Ball and the writers did not shy away from pushing the envelope. One installment last season revolving around the brutalization of David, one of the Fisher brothers, provoked such outrage that some fans swore never to watch the series again. And Ball saved his most shocking twist for this season, killing off one of the series' lead figures — Nate Fisher (Peter Krause), the handsome, conflicted co-director of the funeral home — with three episodes left in the season, no less.

Fisher collapsed into open-eyed unconsciousness just minutes after cheating on his pregnant wife, Brenda (Rachel Griffiths). His subsequent death and the Fishers' grief in burying one of their own — their emotions ranging from tenderness to rage — has fueled emotional discussions in TV chat rooms and around water coolers.

Addressing the overall theme and meaning of "Six Feet Under," Ball paused.

"What the series is all about is: We die," Ball finally said. "So while we're here, let's live fully. There are lots of things that masquerade as having the key to life — religion, culture. But ultimately we have to make decisions on our own. And we will make mistakes. And that's OK, because we're human. It's a struggle to find meaning, but that struggle is the meaning."

Much of Ball's inspiration for the series was based on a painful adolescent memory. His sister was killed on her 22nd birthday in a traffic accident while driving the 13-year-old Alan to a piano lesson. Ball recalled the funeral and how his mother reacted as she approached his sister lying in an open casket.

"My mother leaned forward, kissed my sister on the forehead and started to weep," Ball said. "One of the funeral directors gently guided her away from the casket and took her behind a curtain. The implication was that grief is ugly and shouldn't be seen, it's so personal. But we need to know that everyone feels the same way."

A TV veteran, Ball previously wrote for series such as "Grace Under Fire" and "Cybill." But "Six Feet Under" evolved in ways that surprised even him.

"When I wrote the pilot, I was in an intense state of mind," he recalled. "I had had another show canceled, and I was exhausted. I knew HBO was interested in a show about a funeral home, I was two years into my TV deal, and I didn't want to write another network sitcom. I wanted to exorcise some demons while opening as many doors as possible. Although I had some ideas about what this show should be, it really became an entity of its own. I had to realize where the show wanted to take us and get out of its way."

Killing off Nate was part of that process. In Ball's mind, the character was doomed since the third season when he became afflicted with arteriovenous malformations, a brain disorder.

"Nate was always moving a step closer toward his own mortality. I got a lot of resistance from the other writers, but I always felt that nothing was as organic or as appropriate as Nate dying. And I didn't want to do that in the final episode. I wanted to have the Fishers grieve, to have them go through that loss and come out the other side. Life isn't about happy endings."

Despite the show's devoted fans, continuing bravos from critics and a mountain of Emmy nominations, some observers believe it has been overshadowed by its HBO brethren.

Tim Brooks, co-author of "The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows," said, "The audience for 'Six Feet Under' is very loyal, but the show has never had the breakout appeal of 'The Sopranos' or 'Sex and the City.' "

Brooks noted some of the criticism from fans last season for the episode in which David picked up a man who claimed to be out of gas and needed help. Though David thought his passenger might be game for some casual sex, the man turned on him and proceeded to terrorize him — robbing and beating him, forcing him to take crack, putting a gun in his mouth and threatening to set him on fire after dousing him with lighter fluid.

Instead of backing away from that episode, Ball has continued to refer to it in subsequent installments, notably the one with Nate's funeral, when David was nearly paralyzed with fear by visions of his assailant.

"I try to reflect life as much as I can," Ball explained. "When you are traumatized, it stays with you the rest of your life. To gloss over that would be a disservice. People don't want to look at what's painful. But it's dysfunctional to deny the impact."

Putting together the final episodes was a cathartic experience for the cast and crew, Ball said. "Yes, it was painful, but all of us love these characters so much it wasn't hard to access the feelings we needed to do the shows. Lauren Ambrose [who plays Fisher sibling Claire] told me that I made it possible for her to grieve the end of the show. All of those feelings were right there."

Fans hoping for revivals of "Six Feet Under" would be, well, dead disappointed. Ball promises that the end of the show really will be the end.

"I don't think you'll be seeing a Fisher family reunion or 'The Fishers Go to Hawaii,' " he said. "This is the final chapter."