Cinema/tv: "Six Feet Under" is over

Six Feet Under is over. It is for me now because I just finished watching its fifth and last series. But in fact it was concluded in August 2005, although it was only now released on DVD. It was a critically acclaimed and popular television drama produced by HBO, who have already produced excellent series like “Sex & the city”. It first started on June 3, 2001 and went on for five years!

The show was created by Alan Ball and revolves around a family funeral business (the Fisher) run by two brothers, and the rest of the family and the relationships around the family. It is set in present day Los Angeles, California (2000–2005).

Although it is a conventional family drama, dealing with the usual issues as relationships, sex, infidelity and religion it is quite original and innovative, not only for its focus on a “different” topic – death – but also for the sometimes profound way it presents the characters and human relations and explores this on multiple levels (personal, religious, and philosophical). Each episode always begins with a death (with two exceptions) which will be dealt by the funeral home and which sets the tone.

Over the last months I had developed a certain anxiety towards "Six Feet Under," waiting eagerly for the final series to come out. Despite the fact that the series was not always perfect, that it was sometimes frustrating to see how it sometimes just didn’t advance or the inconsistencies of the characters (one minute George can't go out shopping by himself, some episodes later he's giving a well-prepared speech at Nate’s funeral; one minute Vanessa is manic depressive and driving Rico away, and the moment he finally cheats on her, she's gets magically cured) and other typical soap opera tendencies, it becomes addictive and one becomes “part” of the Fisher’s life and is eager to know what will happen next and will wait eagerly for the next dialogues.

After all, the ending was quite satisfying and original, for such a series, which wasn’t won in advance. The last five minutes show the death of all the central characters, in the future and was particularly moving (the final death occurring in 2087). Yet somehow at the end it is quite frustrating because we end up wondering all that would happen to the family and all the characters.

All in all, an interesting series, superbly interpreted by nearly all the actors, which makes us wait for other original series by HBO. To be recommended.

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