Can someone please explain to me what "Six Feet Under" is?

[Imhotep]

This TV show "Six Feet Under", what is it about, and why is it so great?

[REL77]

It is an HBO show about a family owned Funeral Home that is in trouble. It is the writing and acting that makes this show so great. Some of the actors are recognizable, Lauren Ambrose is probably the biggest name. It is just an over all great show, you will rarely find some one that really doesnt like, or atleast respect that show

[funkymonk]

its a death metal band

[REL77]

i have never heard of the death metal band Six Feet Under

[RichC2]

It's one of, if not thee, best show on television

Still haven't seen season 1, but season 2 was excellent.

Excellent acting, scripts, scenarios - and often filled with incredible humor.

Executive Produced, occasionally written and occasionally directed by Alan Ball, writer of American Beauty.

-Rich

[cooper2000]

Great show. Well written characters that are very complex. Not for everyone but one of the best shows around now.

[Geofferson]

Originally posted by RichC2
It's one of, if not thee, best show on television

word.

[sn9ke_eyes]

overrated is what it is.

[Draven]

Originally posted by sn9ke_eyes
overrated is what it is.

Is it? Thanks, I didn't know that. Here I was liking the show and everything, only to find out it's overrated.

I just had to ditch HBO from my DirecTV package, so I'll have to pick up the DVDs to watch more seasons. Love the show though.

[Daytripper]

Originally posted by sn9ke_eyes
overrated is what it is.

Compared to what may I ask?

[Imhotep]

Originally posted by sn9ke_eyes
overrated is what it is.

And with this description:

It is an HBO show about a family owned Funeral Home that is in trouble. It is the writing and acting that makes this show so great.

I'd have to agree. A show about a funeral home? I'd rather watch paint dry.

It takes more than good acting and writing to interest me. Both of which is still important, mind you, but subject matter is what attracts me the most to a production.

[Red Dog]

Originally posted by sn9ke_eyes
overrated is what it is.

I agree. I watched the whole 1st season and then saw it get nominated and win all of those awards and wondered WTF! To each their own I suppose.

[Draven]

Originally posted by Imhotep

I'd have to agree. A show about a funeral home? I'd rather watch paint dry.

This is one of the strangest things I've ever read. I mean, if it doesn't interest you, it doesn't interest you. Nothing wrong with that. But rather than a standard cop/lawyer/medical drama, this show takes a look at a very dysfunctional family, who are all well-written and interesting characters, but their lives are also constantly surrounded by death. I mean, corpses are prepared in the basement of their house!

That in itself is fascinating to me.

[hokejka]

Six Feet Under is this: http://www.hbo.com/sixfeetunder/

[Daytripper]

Originally posted by Draven
This is one of the strangest things I've ever read. I mean, if it doesn't interest you, it doesn't interest you. Nothing wrong with that. But rather than a standard cop/lawyer/medical drama, this show takes a look at a very dysfunctional family, who are all well-written and interesting characters, but their lives are also constantly surrounded by death. I mean, corpses are prepared in the basement of their house!

That in itself is fascinating to me.

Friggin' A! It's the most original show I believe I've seen on television in years. And for that , I tuned in. What a surprise and pleasure it was to see how extremely well written and acted it was too. And week after week. In the first two seasons, I haven't seen an episode I didn't like.

I wasn't kidding. For those who called this show overrated or compared it to paint drying, I'd like to know what dramas you find interesting.

[garmonbozia]

Originally posted by Imhotep

I'd have to agree. A show about a funeral home? I'd rather watch paint dry.

It takes more than good acting and writing to interest me. Both of which is still important, mind you, but subject matter is what attracts me the most to a production.

You dismiss a show you haven't even seen based soley on its setting?

So the setting of a tv show is more important to you than acting and writing?

[cooper2000]

Imhotep, you didnt say if you actually watch the show. I believe someone asked at the beginning of the post if it was good. Doesnt sound like you have watched it though so based on a premise, you really cant give an accurate review.
I think maybe you belong in the I Love Reality programming forum.

Sure, I sure Six Feet Under wouldnt appeal to everyone but watch it before you rate it.


I didnt like the Vietnam war but loved the Show China Beach. I was only in my early 20s at the time but I loved Thirtysomething.
Come back when you can really give us an opinion, that is if those Pain Fumes havent gotten to you.

[nny]

Hehe, Imhotep is the one who asked if it was good.

I also feel the show is very overrated. I actually really enjoyed the first season, but I think it might have been more that I was starved for some decent TV during the summer. My only problem with the first season were the Alan Ball episodes. After that horrible first episode, I wouldn't have kept watching the show if it hadn't been for a great ending to the episode. Every episode in the second season was a huge disappointment until the season finale which I loved. I couldn't believe it; I finally see a great episode and the season ends. All that being said, I'm still looking forward to the next season. There's some great characters and I'm always looking for good dramas that aren't about cops, lawyers, or doctors. After all, you can like a show and still think it's extremely overrated.

Also, for Daytripper, the best dramas I've seen since Six Feet started are Angel, The Shield, and Once and Again.

[big whoppa]

I watched an episode after all the hype of this show. It was OK and not at all what I was expecting. OK but nothing spectacular. I may give it another try.

Maybe it's me but I didn't get "Sex in the City" either, another HBO drama.

[marty888]

Originally posted by Imhotep
A show about a funeral home? I'd rather watch paint dry.

Well, at least if you're watching paint dry, you won't have to think about family relations and interactions, sexual tensions, issues of trust, what "loving" someone really means, etc, etc, etc,

That's some of what Six Feet Under is about.

[sn9ke_eyes]

Originally posted by Daytripper
Compared to what may I ask?

compared to the rating that everyone I talk to gives it ? OMG IT'S THE BEST SHOW ON TV !!

reference 90% of the posts in this thread.

I'm not saying it's the worst show ever, I am saying that I don't think it's as good as most people would have you believe. Maybe it's because I have no interest in dysfunctional families, gay love, drug use, or funeral homes.

[Jadzia]

Originally posted by big whoppa
Maybe it's me but I didn't get "Sex in the City" either, another HBO drama.

I guess you REALLY didn't get it, since it's a comedy.

[cooper2000]

Its a show about Death and life.
You might learn something if you gave it a chance.

[das Monkey]

• Quoth sn9ke_eyes •

---

Maybe it's because I have no interest in dysfunctional families, gay love, drug use, or funeral homes.

---

Kerberos?

das

[grunter]

I've always thought that opening shot of the two clasped hands being torn from one another in slow motion (along with the plinking quirky theme song) was just the perfect visual metaphor for the whole concept of the show.

But I understand the trepidation some feel in not wanting to watch a show set in a funeral home. I had zero interest in the series during the first season. I refused to accept - for a time - that anything on HBO could match the power of the writing and the acting of "The Sopranos." (I mean - for crying out loud - they kept "Arli$$" running for all that time.) But then I started getting caught up in the plotline while catching re-run episodes of the first season on Sunday evenings this past summer.

It does take some doing to get involved in the lives of the Fischers. A lot of the "action" that takes place could conceivable be fodder for soapy day-time television. It's not whizz-bang shoot-em-ups and snappy one-liners like "The Shield" or cheap rollercoaster thrills like "24." There's much, much more subtlety to the stories and the characters than that. But the level of craft that's exhibited in the telling on "Six Feet Under" is just so far beyond what can be expressed in some soundbite encapsulation of what makes the show so good. You just have to go with it. Pick a character and root for him or her . . . and eventually the rest of the Fischer brood will become familiar and involving.

I suggest starting with Claire (one of the most realistic teens being depicted on television right now) or Brenda (whose psychological "mis-development" was literally the subject of a best-selling book (on the show, silly)). And then branch out from there.