Six Feet Under? More Like Dick's Meat Blunder!

[spectralbovine]

I was never very interested in Six Feet Under when it was on, as it didn't seem to appeal to me at all (some show about a family who owns a funeral home? O...kay, good for them). About the only thing it had going for it as far as I knew was that it was created by Alan Ball, and I had loved American Beauty. Over the years, several things happened

Comments

[tamarai]

How long did it take you to watch the entire series? I agree with you about almost every assessment you made, except that overall the magical realism elements worked for me most of the time.

Man, that finale was stunning and brutal and, yes, perfect.

Hope you're healing well!

[spectralbovine]

How long did it take you to watch the entire series?
About two weeks.

[afrocurl]

Now I have a desire to watch some of S1 again. Thanks, Sunil.

I missed parts of S3 to S5 when I was in college, but despite the subject, this show managed to get my entire family to sit down and watch.

There was something about all of the characters that never really made me love any of them, but they all had moments when I really liked each of their fucked up situations.

[scripted22]

You feel like they're real people you know because you watch them go through so much.

Exactly! Of all the movies and TV shows I have seen and all the books I have read, the Six Feet Under characters remain the most real to me.

I also loved the finale. I have watched it three times and it still makes me cry.

[spectralbovine]

Of all the movies and TV shows I have seen and all the books I have read, the Six Feet Under characters remain the most real to me.
I think because there's so much focus on the minutiae of everyday life. They're just regular people living their regular lives, fighting about stupid things like we all do. We get to see a lot of different sides of them as they get put in different situations.

[miniglik]

Like you, I was never excited by the premise.

You almost convinced me to watch. Almost. It sounds good.

However, five seasons is A LOT. Maybe if this writer's strike goes too long and we're all desperate for new shows?

[spectralbovine]

Five seasons, but only twelve or thirteen episodes a season! It's not that much! And it is good. I'm glad I was almost convincing. The acting is uniformly excellent, and the characters are complicated and interesting. Don't watch with the boys around, though! ("Mom, what does 'Fuck me harder' mean?")

I was actually just thinking that if the writers' strike goes on really long and everything gets into reruns, I would make a post linking to all my pimping posts so people had something to watch.

[sophia_helix]

I watched the first season as it aired, and was completely enthralled (this was back when the whole HBO TV concept was still new, and only the Sopranos and SatC were around). Then I went back to college, didn't have Tivo, and never got to see the next four seasons. I've been kind of curious about it since then, though, especially because I love all the actors and a bunch of actors I also love have guest-starred, but I did hear it had some serious low points. Maybe once I catch up on some other shows I will try it again.

[spectralbovine]

I don't know how serious the low points are, but there were definitely storylines I wasn't happy with, and at times, it gets really depressing, but I think you should give it a try if you loved the first season and the actors.

You know, it's funny. I mention Oz up there as showing me how amazing premium channel television could be, but I watched Sex and the City before that. Heh. I liked it, but I guess it wasn't as impressive.

[rachelmanija]

I really disliked much of the last two seasons, though the finale was brilliant. But they're probably much more tolerable on DVD than once a week.

[spectralbovine]

Yeah, there was a time when Claire's art school storyline was the saving grace of the show (until it ended up making me hate her for a spell).

I suppose most shows are more tolerable when mainlining because you don't have to dwell on the bad for as long, and it passes more quickly. It's just part of the story. And that's what I liked, that the storytelling was pretty organic even when I didn't always like the directions it went.