am.

I started watching Six Feet Under as season 3 aired.   I went back and watched 1 and 2 on DVD before I picked up, so from the time I started actually watching on the TV I already felt like I knew the Fisher family.  From 2002 to 2005 I watched it religiously, mostly with my friend Ben. 

When I suggested Ricky watch SFU I honestly wasn’t sure he would enjoy it.  Since his favorite shows tend to be comedies like The Office or 30 Rock, I didn’t know if he could sit and watch hour-long episodes of a fairly heavy show centering around death.  It makes me really happy that not only did he start it and finish it, he also enjoyed it. 

When TV shows end you will hear the show’s creator talk about giving the show proper closure for the sake of it’s viewers.  However, after seeing the SFU finale for the second time I realized that by “closure” what most creators really mean is an open ended, yet leading idea of what the future will bring.  Take Freaks and Geeks, for example.  Judd Apatow knew the show was getting cancelled so it was very important to him to tie up lose ends in the time he had left.  In the final episode we see Lindsey Weir climbing in a van with some hippies on her way to follow The Grateful Dead.  Although I was sad when the show ended, the finale left me with a warm fuzzy feeling that everything was going to be okay.

In SFU, Alan Ball, for the first time in television history says “here is closure, deal with it.”  Although as we watch the final montage there is room for interpretation, like how Maya was raised or how David found his new partner, essentially at the ending scene the Fisher’s story is difinitively over, like death itself.  There is no story left to be told.

In SFU I could see a little piece of myself in ever character, which I’m sure was no accident on Alan Ball’s part.  As I sat watching the ending montage for the second time in my life I tried to hold back my tears, but inevitable gave in as I was forced to confront the ultimate closer of a family that felt like my own.  With unwavering realism Alan Ball forces us to face that everything, everyone, everywhere, really does end.    

rickyv:

Ricky’s Quickies: TV Review
Six Feet Under

I’ve been watching the series on DVD and just finished up the series finale this morning. Wow. I don’t think I’ve ever cried as much in a five minute period as I did during that closing montage.

I highly recommend the show. It’s the first thing I’ve ever seen confront death so head-on and thoroughly. I believe Alan Ball, the creator, said the show was about living life while constantly in the face of death, which the characters eventually did.

Nick Denton once told me he thinks that when future cultural historians look back at our time, they won’t look at the art, music, or film being created, they’ll look at our television (in particular, HBO). I tend to agree with him, especially after digesting this series.