I think he was bitch slapped in a verbal way by Lisa. Several times. Try to figure out if he really deserved all of it. Seems true to life to me. Although anyone of us might be reticent to give Brenda that duty and she has issued some pretty tough criticism, I think the next season may find Nate and Brenda in a blissful relationship for the most part. I don't think Mom will be quite that lucky. Nor, perhaps, David and Keith. Or Claire and the budding romance with Brenda's off-kilter brother who now seems to have gone tame.
HBO has done it again! This series is another favorite - can't miss for me.
What I was wondering is how does one embalm half of a body when the bottom of the torso didn't appear to be sewn up? He said he had just finished... Yet, there was the open bottom of the torso showing.
"Course my two favorite openings were the "Rapture" of the sex dolls and the block of airplane bathroom ice that killed the lady in her yard. I duck everytime a plane goes over me now.
The dialogue about the body was that it didn't matter because it wouldn't show in the casket.
The block of airplane ice was truly inspired. What a way to go. I had a friend who always said the ideal way to go was to crash into the Arch de Triumph in a Silver Cloud Rolls Royce. SFU is sure making us flippant about death.
It was a great ending and I'm sure as is squinney, that next season we will learn that Maia is actually the suicide/murder brother in laws daughter.......
That's a distinct possibility now -- anyone remember any clues like Maia's resemblance to the mother but not Nate? If the brother-in-law is the genetic father, that would throw a monkey wrench into a custody issue.
BPB, I expected that. I know that Lisa was just a little too perfect.
Not sure it would do anything to custody since noth biological parents would be dead. Perhaps the sister-in-law / Aunt could try to make a claim, but I would expect it to be more about Nate dealing with Maia not being his, and a new baby on the way.
I believe the father would still trump the sister regardless of the biological father being her deseased husband. I would think the shock that her husband was responsible for Lisa's death to be devastating and she very well might end up siding with Nate.
It would certainly be an opportunity for that family to produce one more f*$ked up child, which seems to be a recurring theme....Man those people make me feel well adjusted...God bless 'em....
This was in today's paper. Anyone agree, or have a differing opinion?
ON TELEVISION
Noel Holston
September 15, 2004
Only the most die-hard fans of HBO's "Six Feet Under" would disagree that the series ended its fourth season Sunday night in grave condition. Readers and friends who watch "Six Feet" complained from the early weeks of this latest cycle that the serial about a family-run funeral home had lost its bearings or, to use the pop-shorthand expression, that it had "jumped the shark."
I agree, and I'm not really surprised by the show's slide.
There's a reason why the vast majority of dramatic series that have lived long and prospered involve cops, doctors, lawyers, rescue personnel, spaceship captains, etc.
Even though none of those vocations actually entail constant action and suspense, it's somehow easier for us to suspend disbelief when the "CSI" crew solves two or three new death-riddles every episode or the "ER" team deals with a bus wreck, a West Nile virus outbreak and a kid who swallowed Mr. Potato Head's nose all in the same shift. The externally imposed conflict seems plausible, even if it's exaggerated.
On the other hand, there's nothing trickier to pull off in TV than a dramatic series about a family that doesn't have a member or two who cracks heads or chests or, like J.R. Ewing of "Dallas," engages in blood feuds with business competitors. It's no accident that the creators of "Joan of Arcadia," CBS' family drama about a teenage girl whose ear God likes to bend, is the daughter of a police chief. The network wanted insurance.
"The Waltons," probably the most successful family drama of all time (nine seasons on CBS), had the Great Depression and World War II to generate conflict for its characters. The most successful contemporary family drama ever, ABC's initially brilliant "Family," got soapier and sillier over five seasons. One character even suffered temporary blindness.
"Six Feet Under" was that baroque in its characterization and plotting from the get-go. The Fishers, operators of a Los Angeles funeral home, were a poster-quality dysfunctional family.
The bus-collision death in the first episode of patriarch Nathaniel Fisher brought home profligate son Nate (Peter Krause), a man-child who'd never met a commitment he couldn't outrun. Along with his personal demons, Nate had to reckon with his younger brother, David (Michael C. Hall), who was grudgingly following dad's trade and secretly gay; his repressed, mousy mother, Ruth (Frances Conroy); and his petulant teenage sister, Claire (Lauren Ambrose).
Throw in Nate's new lover, Brenda (Rachel Griffiths), a sex-addict with a family even more messed up than his, and you had a petri dish of damaged humanity. All the conflict an audience could ask for was within them.
Still, there has to be a movement, a dramatic arc, and in the first two seasons, the direction, however halting, was forward and positive. Nate grew up a little and shouldered some responsibility. David came out of the closet and found a partner, Keith (Matthew St. Patrick). Ruth took assertiveness training - and a lover or two. Claire discovered her inner artist, and her ennui went into remission.
Watching the Fishers was like being a party to their therapy sessions. Trouble is, the healthier they got, the less compelling they were.
In season three, creator Alan Ball (Oscar-winning writer of "American Beauty") and his cohorts salted and stirred the broth a bit - a oddball mortuary assistant (Rainn Wilson), marriage and fatherhood for Nate, intimations of a lesbian affair for Ruth. It felt a little manipulative, but hey, stuff happens. At least they didn't get snatched by space aliens.
For the season just ended, however, the strategy felt like a rewind. Every major character tail-spun into dysfunction and ineffectualness. For Nate, the trigger was his wife's death; for David, a brutal, humiliating mugging. Ruth got married again to a man (James Cromwell) who, to the surprise of no one but her, turned out to be an emotional basket case. A trendy gallery gave Claire a show, but success freaked her out and she turned to cocaine.
The resolution of Nate's wife's death - she was murdered by her brother-in-law, who blew his brains out in Nate's presence - seemed more ludicrous than shocking.
It's all too much. While it would be unrealistic if all these bruised oranges lived happily ever after, it's disenchanting to see them all dispatched back at square one. And I don't merely mean dramatically, I mean personally. They're not my family, and I'm not their therapist or social worker. I'm leaving them to their misery.
Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc.
I couldn't agree less... I loved the ending..thought it was clever and much closure was brought while leaving many possibilities for next season...I love this show......
I agree with BPB. Who the hell is this Noel Holston idiot anyway?
I also agree with BPB and kickycan -- there just isn't any comparable comparison except, perhaps, "Dead Like Me" which has a similar premise and achieves being a bit more comic and satirical. We're not asked to believe that this family actually would exist. It's a study of personalities and character flaws or as Puck would say, "What fools these mortals be." If you think about it, there's a Woody Allen life is what life is attitude about the series. I never find it melodramatic -- even the scene with Nate and the brother-in-law displayed some true raw emotion. I'm not sure these reviewers are not focusing on human frailties that hit a bit too close to home.
Inevitably it will be compared to soap opera but there is no soap opera that is written this well with characterizations of such depth.
