TV Roundup: Six Feet Under, #9
We're back - after a brief hiatus - at the TV Roundup, my personal countdown of my top 21 favorite shows of all-time.
So far, the list looks like this:
The Big Marine!
21. Kids In The Hall
20. Taxi
18. Dexter
17. The Simpsons
16. The Daily Show
15. Mad Men
13. 24
11. Lost
10. Cheers
I must say, I'm quite happy with the list so far, and by definition it only gets better from here. My 9th favorite show of all-time is incredibly unique, and helped launch the careers of several great actors. It is both deeply moving, haunting and hilarious and rightfully belongs inside my top ten.
That show, of course, is Six Feet Under.
If you watched the show, you know what I'm talking about - and if you haven't, you need to - now. As with all of my writeups, I'll try to be relatively spoiler-free, but I make no promises.
Six Feet Under is the story of the Fisher family - the father, Nathaniel (Richard Jenkins), dies in the pilot episode. His business is a funeral home that his younger son David (Michael C. Hall, who we've already seen in this roundup) has been working in and his oldest son Nate (Peter Krause, who we'll be seeing again later) reluctantly joins. The funeral home is also literally the Fisher's home, with mother Ruth (Frances Conroy)
Each episode begins with a death, something that never failed to be entertaining and ranged from the horribly disgusting to laugh-out-loud funny. The other conceit of the show is that many characters have "conversations" with the dead, whether it's father Nathaniel or the "Dead Body of the Week."
You may notice that unlike some other shows I've listed, the photos I've chosen thus far are of the majority of the cast (though I have yet to find a single one with everybody) -- that's because the caliber of the acting in this show is truly phenomenal. In addition to the actors I've already named, Lauren Ambrose, Rachel Griffiths, Mathew St. Patrick and Freddy Krause roundup the "main characters" brilliantly. The show also is the first place I saw actors like Rainn Wilson (featured earlier in The Office), Jeremy Sisto, Eric Balfour, Joanna Cassidy and Ben Foster, not to mention countless smaller roles by equally brilliant actors.
Dealing with serious issues like mental and sexual disorders, family secrets and, of course, death, Six Feet Under managed to show some of the craziest characters and yet seem like the most "real" family on television. The show tapered off a bit in the third season, but corrected course quickly and ended with what very well may be the best finale of any of the shows on this or any other list.
The transformations that each main character takes during the course of the series are both amazing, real and important. Whether it's David learning to come out of the closet and embrace a real relationship with his cop boyfriend Keith, Claire growing up as an adult, Brenda dealing with her literally insane brother and her own sexual dysfunction ... I could and would go on.
In thinking about the show, I really got quite nostalgic for it -- seeing truly dark moments of some of my favorite characters, getting to know and care for them ... while I've loved every prior show on this list, this is the first show I think I can honestly say that about with the possible exception of Lost. Six Feet Under was, without a doubt, a show made for cable TV -- the themes would never survive on network television, let alone the graphic details, language and imagery that made this so powerful.
If you haven't seen the show, I implore you: DOÂ NOT WATCH THE BELOW VIDEO. But if you have, here's the last six minutes of the show ... truly brilliant and beautiful.
Six Feet Under was a groundbreaking, landmark show that deserves every plaudit it has received. It's a happy addition to my top ten, and my ninth favorite show of all time.