more Six Feet Under

[selenak]

kangeiko gave me a wonderful plot bunny for that Six Feet Under/ Jossverse crossover I wanted, and so I hastened to watch some more SFU, season 4 in order to aquire the necessary background knowledge, as this would have to be set in 2004. I got as far as Terror Stars At Home (I wanted to break off after That's My Dog, but couldn't. Daviiiiid!)



So far, it seems season 4 of SFU might join season 4 of AtS and season 4 of Alias in being one of those fourth seasons which come after a weaker third season and fill me with renewed love for the show. Not that I hated 3, but I found Nate just exasparating at the end instead of sympathizing with him, Arthur was creepy, and I couldn't undestand whatever Claire had seen in Russell to begin with, all of which irked. And there was too little Brenda (though what there was was great. Brenda and Billy both.) Meanwhile, this season I actually felt sorry for Arthur before he left, Nate is in the process of getting his act back together and I do like Edie. Plus my usual favourites, David and Claire, are getting meaty scenes. Love Claire when she's asking, re: Nate in the first episode, when she gets to self-destruct, love Claire when she's listening to David confessing what happened to him, love her when she's telling Nate to get back to working with David because David needs him. (And succeeds. Ha! Loved the look exchanged between Nate and David later, too.) Fisher sibling interaction (completely without incestous subtext - that's what we have Chenovitch sibling interaction for!) never fails to move me.

Watching David deal with his former fiancée after her father's death, I flashed back to the first season and thought how far he had come - first season David would have made either of two mistakes, getting guilt-tripped into reviving the relationship or getting defensive and lash out at Jennifer in return, but he was being just what she needed (not wanted, thank you, Joss). David's day from hell in That's My Dog, by contrast, made me flinch for him the entire time. In a good way - as it was an excellent episode - but it was incredibly painful. Jake the Psycho was frightening in a horribly realistic way, and it was just David's misfortune not to be in an action movie, where he would have turned the table, but in a show that deals with emotions and where funeral directors don't suddenly develop fighting skills.

In the middle of it all the fear, David's anger and concern for the dead woman, because of the way Jake treated her body, seemed to me to capture his quintessential decency. And hark back to one of the ongoing themes, connection and disconnection. The dead bodies he treats are real to David, he connects them with the human beings they were; no one alive is real to Jake.

And of course David goes into repression afterwards. (Those Fishers, those Fishers. Especially David and his mother.) Claire getting through to him was such a relief at the end.

Watching Michelle Trachtenberg as Celeste the teen queen is fun. Celeste is a type - popstar savvy in her spoiledness - but doesn't feel like a caricature. Keith not coming out to his collegues ,though, makes me wonder how he handled this in his police days; surely the LAPD isn't a more tolerant environment than a security service?

Comments

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

Yay for the crossover bunny --

Re: the premiere -- David saying "Everybody once to do a good thing" during the conference with the Kimmels choked me up beyond belief. It also reminded me of S2/3 Wesley at his best, professionally, when he takes on what I refer to as a "funeral director" persona (in the positive sense).

That's My Dog was widely loathed and derided as homophobic, though I never really understood that argument. I'm sure someone can link you to the discussion -- I'm not even saying I didn't agree, just that I didn't understand it. I remember watching it as I was teaching Joyce Carol Oates' "Where are you Going, where have you been?" (a classic controversial "victim" story) and thinking that it got at a lot of the same issues of fear/power/domination etc.

I also appreciate (can't say enjoy) the handling of the aftermath. Which culminates in the final scene of the season which I won't spoil but which is AMAZING and echoes a particular AtS scene (which, again, I won't spoil) in my favorite ep of THAT series.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

David saying "Everybody once to do a good thing" during the conference with the Kimmels choked me up beyond belief. It also reminded me of S2/3 Wesley at his best, professionally, when he takes on what I refer to as a "funeral director" persona (in the positive sense).

Yes, absolutely.

That's My Dog was widely loathed and derided as homophobic

It was? Because he has some fantasies about the guy at the beginning?

*is baffled*

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

I didn't see accusations of homophobia, but there were a few accusations I saw that it was simply gratuitous winding-up of angst for the sake of it.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I'm three episodes later, and as the after effects on David continue to matter, I don't think it was gratuitous...

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

And fantasies during the hijacking, arguably? It had to do with the interpretation of whether certain scenes really happened, which wasn't clear. And the phallic nature of Jake holding the gun to his mouth, and the
way that David freaks out about sex later on in the series and has flashbacks to the kidnapping.

The lit-critic Dale Peck (who's also gay) wrote a long diatribe on Alan Ball as self-loathing gay male, which received a lot of circulation, though I can't find it online anymore. As a qualifier, Dale Peck is known for long diatribes (at least one high-profile literary magazines was started with pretty much the express purpose of not publishing anything by Dale Peck) and the article had numerous canon-mistakes -- which seems to be endemic in "highbrow" writing about television. (Because God forbid anybody should fact check a television review like you would do if they were writing about something real /sarcasm).

I also didn't see the episode until some time after it aired, so I missed the A-level wank, though smashsc or buffyannotater could probably give you a rundown. I do think most of the criticism, as londonkds said, was more in the vein that it was over-the-top/ melodramatic/exploitative/gratuitous, that it crossed some kind of line, etc. Considering that HBO's other big dramatic hit pretty much revels in having its heroes kill and beat people, chop them up, etc, that struck me as a little odd.

[smashsc.livejournal.com]

Dale Peck's article is what set off the homophobic comments and while all sides got overblown I do think there were valid points raised on each side. And I, at least, never thought the payoff for "That's My Dog" was worth the episode. I don't think (ah internet archives might come back to bite me) I ever called the episode homophobic but I certainly called it over gratitous and unneeded. And I'm sure I remarked on the fact that Alan Ball's sexuality allowed him to get away with stuff that no one else would be able to.

Also, the Dale Peck article is gone from the net but by the power of LexisNexus, I can email it to anyone who wants it.

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

Yeah, like I said, I'm not agreeing or disagreeing on the homophobia argument; I just didn't follow it very well and don't remember now. I had mixed feelings about the ep itself.

[crossoverman.livejournal.com]

Peck also used "American Beauty" to support his arguments against That's My Dog, which I didn't think was warranted or instructive. It was an interesting perspective on AB, though.