Six Feet Under: The Wake Is Almost Over...

dammit!

I am still in mourning. Loved what Ruth did though, not acting as a recepticle.
Probably most of us have succumbed in a situation like that. It makes me feel used.

Sorry, LW. It's still worth the watch. I actually had missed half of it and the two preceding episodes. I watched them all last night. Really, really, good.

A suggestion:

Always declare that there are SPOILERS AHEAD! It's not even bad that you're shouting it 'cause you want to warn people before they read on! I figured someone was going to expire and with the history of the brain operation, it had to be him.

Nice one, Freeduck. Now put this on and go sit in the corner!

Thpht!

Hehehe...

did you see last night's SFU?? I didn't, I'm going to watch the rerun, but I read about it...WTF?!!! I don't want to ruin it for you, so I won't say anything yet!

Someone on this thread already ruined it. Yeah, I saw it. It was a jaw-droppingly amazing show. It was probably the best thing I've ever seen on TV.

Missed the first six minutes tonight. Waiting until tomorrow...

I have to admit even with the spoiler that during the episode the writers had me believing one thing while it actually ended with what I had originally suspected. As much as the Nate character could instill an empathy in his dysfunction with relationships with his boyish charm, he was sometimes the proverbial heel. It's going to be the response of all those close to him in the coming episodes that will reveal a lot about their characters. As I stated before, this is what Alan Ball pulled off in "American Beauty," definitely not one of the boring Oscar winners. Truly amazing writers and although they did lose their way sometimes in unabashed angst, these characters are all as real as life. As Puck said, "What fools these mortals be."

SPOILER AHEAD!


Just when Nate seems to be finding God which could have penetrated hs often warped hedonism, he loses everything or rather everyone lost him.

Finally saw it last night.
He was such a selfish prick, to the very end, but he did speak the truth about how foolish it was for him and Brenda to marry.

CONTAINS SPOILERS (if you haven't already read them )


I am already in mourning because this show is ending. And, because this season has been so good, I feel it all the more. The acting in this show is so top notch it more than makes up for some of the plot lapses.

Nate was the least focused and self directed character. He just sort of fell into things, including his marriages and fatherhood.
The series began with his returning home for his father's funeral, so it sort of completes an arc to wrap it up with his death and funeral, and the effect of that on everyone else. I think the writers would have had a hard time suggesting a definite future for Nate. He wasn't happy in the funeral business, he wasn't happy in his marriage, and he seemed to lack the energy or ambition to figure out what he wanted out of life and try to go after it. But I am sorry they killed him off. That ending was like a punch in the chest.

Will a relationship with a nice conservative lawyer help to ground Claire and give her a sense of security and more self worth? Will Ruth stop looking for love in all the wrong places? Will they sell the funeral home to Rico and leave Ruth with the money to go back to school and start a career? Will David finally go to law school? Will Brenda finally be happy as a single working mom? Will anyone start to straighten out their life?
I really wish I could keep watching these people evolve. I am going to miss them.

The quirky humor in this show was just wonderful. And they did bring it back this season, much to my enjoyment. It was one of things that made this show so unique.

I wish we could start a campaign to keep them from burying this show.

I am so ambivalent about seeing the final episodes. I can't wait to see what will transpire, but I don't really want it to end.

Did anyone see it last night? AWESOME!

I saw it. I actually had a tear in my eye at certain points. Dammit, I love these frickin' characters.

Yep, I almost cried out loud when Ruth was washing Nate's body.

That wasn't a tear jerker, it was a flood. I'm afraid it nearly went overboard but Alan Ball has this unique talent to pull back just as things seem to be going over the edge. The natural burial was shot as well as any great art film.

That was just raw, unmitigated, unrelieved grief. At times I did wish it would be interrupted, by some sort of plot turn, because it was so painful, and so real, to watch. But, in retrospect, I think that not turning away from it was probably the best course.

I think that this let us finally glimpse the reality and emotional brutality of death--including all those deaths we witnessed at the opening of each episode--as more than just a business, and without all of the cosmetics and trappings that attempt to pretty up. The sanitization of death, and the organization of death rituals, usually provided by undertakers, were gone. There were no niceties to distract or obscure from the harshness.

The irony of watching these people grapple, often quite awkwardly, with the business of burying one of their own was quite poignant on it's own. At times I felt I was watching rural people who were very isolated from any community. At other times I felt these people were going through actions which completely negated the family business that supported them. These people earned their living doing embalming, cosmetology, and selling caskets, and, in the end, Nate rejected all of it, leaving them on very unfamiliar ground. The final burial was as elemental and basic as it could get. Just put the body directly into the ground. Even the traditional cemetery was gone. This was death at it's most naked.

It was striking, but not surprising, how isolated all the main characters were from each other. This death did not draw them closer. They all seemed quite alone in their grief.

And why was Brenda not in the front row at the memorial service? Did she want to remove herself from the family? Was the family ignoring her? Why?

The dialogue in this episode--particularly Brenda's--was such a vivid expression of grief and rage that it really hit the mark.
Great writing and magnificent acting, all around. So real, so penetrating.

Now I feel even worse that this show is going off. Like kicky, I love these characters too.

It's one of the few series where I identified with more than one character and became enthralled with their problems, their happiness and unhappiness and their providences. Now is the time to begin from the beginning and explore what is essentially a novel on film.

(Too bad that "Carnivale" became a short story on film).