Capo2002

I am a huge fan of Six Feet Under and I think it is without a doubt the best show on television right now. There are other shows that are very good and I have a great deal of respect for such as The Sopranos, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Law and Order, The Wire and CSI, but Six Feet Under just seems to be superior to these shows at the moment. The acting, writing and directing on this show are just superb and I definitely think it deserves all the praise it gets. What do you guys think?

nny

Six Feet Under has always been good, but I've never seen it as great. By far the best shows on TV right now are Angel, The Shield, and Gilmore Girls.

Daytripper

I agree with you Capo2002. I think it is the best show on television. Not only now, but in recent memory. And I certainly don't feel this way because HBO tells me so. As USAToday suggests (see excerpt below). No, I drew my own conclusion f you very much. Just what network *doesn't* promote their shows in a positive light!? I truly hate the "critics" of that paper more than Entertainment Weekly.

Despite what you'll hear from HBO about its outsized morticians, Six Feet Under is not one of TV's great dramas. It's far too pleased with its own ladled-on eccentricity, too willing to substitute quirkiness for truth and cleverness for emotional depth.

das Monkey

Yeah, the crusade USA Today has taken against this show is really pretty sad. In a way it reminds me of Deep Space Nine fans who try to tear apart Babylon 5 or the reverse. They have no interest in evaluating the show; they've simply made up their mind that they hate it and will now do or say anything to try to support that. I expect better from a supposed news outlet.

Anyway, to the question at hand ... I often shy away from proclaiming something as the definitive best show on television, considering the wide variety of programming and quality out there. I will say, however, that Six Feet Under is among less than a handful of shows I'd even consider part of the discussion.

das

Alyoshka

I think it's up there as one of the top five right now. Among others are the shield, malcolm in the middle, gilmore girls, and perhaps, if Fox will allow it, Andy Richter controls the universe. Those are the ones I think are overall the best on tv right now.

db27

just discovered this, got it from netflix cuz I don't have HBO. watched season 1 in about 3 days, i'm dying to watch season 2 but have no way of doing so.

LOVE it, one of my favorites for sure. I also love CSI (not miami), 24, and That 70's show.

Geofferson

Yes, best show on right now.

IMO

tasha99

Hmmm . . . maybe I should rent this. My favorite shows on tv now are Farscape, Angel, Coupling and The Shield, but I can't say if they're better or worse than 6 Ft. Under since I've never seen it.

tasha

Tom O' Bedlam

I agree it is the best show on television right now, although this season sure is starting off strangely. I can't wait for Brenda to come back.

nny

I didn't want to start this thread off by attacking the first post, but I have to say I definitely don't feel SFU's always been good. I thought the second season was pretty bad except for the season finale and all of Alan Ball's scripted episodes have been terrible except the season 3 premiere. Even with the season 3 premiere I felt that a lot of the clues people were looking for this being a dream were just examples of Ball's horrible writing.

I loved the first season, but I think it might have been more the fact that I just came off the greatest season of TV ever and there was nothing else on during the summer. So, since it was just about the only new show on, every week I looked forward to SFU. Even as much as I liked the first season, there was always one huge problem with the show that still continues. That problem is there's no consistency with the characters. Every episode, characters say and do things I never would think they would say and do. I don't know if this is true with a lot of TV shows, but I don't think there was ever 2 episodes in a row written by the same writer. This show really pisses me off more than any other show I've ever seen because there's so much potential and it seems like it's being wasted. Brenda, Nate, and Claire are exactly the kind of characters I want to watch, but one episode they'll be having intellectual discussions and the next they act like complete idiots and will have nothing remotely interesting to say.

I'm used to having different opinions from the majority, but it still bugs me when I see such universal praise lauded on something so mediocre. I have discovered at least one reason why my opinion is so far off the norm. I've always felt Ruth was the worst character on the show. To me she seems like bad comic relief, HBO's version of Jar Jar Binks. I was talking to one of my friends about that and he, like many others, said that her character was so well done and she reminded him of people he'd known. That was a complete shock to me. I guess all my relatives and friends must be incredibly boring because Ruth seems like a complete cartoon of a character and completely unrealistic. Of course the fact that I can identify with Brenda, Nate, and Claire should offset the fact that I can't identify with Ruth at all.

A common response to complaints like this would be to tell me not to watch it. I watch several shows that I have major problems with, but they all manage to put something in every episode to keep me coming back, SFU included. Also, this season is already better than last season. There was only one episode that I thought was good last season and this season already has 2 episodes that I like.

I didn't want to be a threadcrap, but I felt season 2 was just so horrible that I needed to get a few things off my chest.

the aftermath

The star of the best show on tv


The man has single handedly restored my faith in sketch-based tv shows.

Capo2002

Thanks for the replies, and nny that is certainly your opinion and you are entitled to it. I still think the second season of SFU is far better than you give it credit for. I thought it developed the characters pretty well, and it did a good job of keeping me interested throughout. That being said I do think the first season of SFU was superior and I have been very impressed with the first two episodes this season. I really like where the show is going this season, and I think there are going to be some big surprises.

scarredgod

i was just telling my friend that this season of Six Feet Under has been terrible, so i decided to come here and see what other people thought, it looks like im in the minority on this. i just cannot find anything remotely interesting this season and i hate the addition of lili taylor (whom i do like in general), i hope brenda gets back soon.

JaxComet

I couldn't agree more. I've found very little to like about the first three episodes. It's kind of suffering from "Sopranos season 4" syndrome.....

das Monkey

And I, of course, loved The Sopranos' 4th season. It seems people want these shows to adhere to some formula all the time, but as with life, they continually evolve. I absolutely love the subtleties of what they're doing here in the 3rd season of Six Feet Under.

das

JaxComet

Unless this season is going nowhere fast. The Lisa and her boss (Home Alone mom) characters are unbearable. However, If the above spoiler is true, the season could have a brilliant ending....

das Monkey

While I have my belief of where I think the overall story is heading, the episodic stories are excellent. From Keith and David's relationship and why each is the way he is ... to Nate's emasculation and impending explosion as he tries to be a responsible father ... to Claire coming into her own as an adult ... to Ruth rediscovering life ... to Rico slowing coming to grips with who he is as a person and perhaps why he's that way ... all of them intertwined, each in his own way a distorted mirror of another. It's not the happiest of shows, but I don't find it overly dramatic either; it's just life ... and death ... and while it's nice to think otherwise, this is what our existence is like for better or worse, and I appreciate the high level at which Six Feet Under approaches both life and death.

das

nny

I really enjoy that this season they've gone more to a slice-of-life feel than anything else I've seen, but when I break it down to the individual stories, I don't really like anything that's going on. I really like the slice-of-life genre and the show is well-made, so I'm definitely enjoying this season.

But, das mentioned, "Rico slowing coming to grips with who he is as a person and perhaps why he's that way" and I don't think we're seeing that at all. That's one example of my point about no consistency with the characters. Besides the nice moment of Rico at home, he was a complete ass last season and in the first 2 episodes this season and all of a sudden he's a totally normal sane person this week. Sure, Rico isn't being treated as well as he should, but by the first 2 episodes of this season, he'd become a complete caricature.

thecrazydude

i tried to watch it, but to me its not that good. I prefer "Curb" or the "Sopranos".

Frank TJ Mackey

It will be in when the fifth episode of Season III
airs on March 30.

The return of Brenda (Ep. 5)

yes, i agree that Lili Taylor sucks in this role and I've enjoyed her work in the past.

I don't like Nate at all this season mainly because he's stuck walking circles around Lili Taylor's character and the baby.

Kathy Bates who I adore is not doing it for me on this show either.

Enough with the special guests.
You already had a great show without them.

Roto

I still have to give Scrubs the nod for best show right now.

adamblast

I think she's been doing a great job... just playing a role we're supposed to feel very ambivalent about... I mean last year it was clear Nate had little or no interest (or respect) for her, before the pregnancy... Plus they never showed us a moment of sincere courtship or romantic love before the marriage... We're *supposed* to find this smothering and uncomfortable, just going thru the motions, and we do...