Six Feet Under

[selenak]

One of the things I bought in London was the fifth season of Six Feet Under, which I have now finished. All in all, I'm really happy with the show, minor nitpicks aside. (About the only thing in the finale that didn't work for me was David's Luke-on-Dagobah moment. What works for Uncle George does not work for SFU, 'cause it's too blatant and obvious. ) What strikes me particularly is this show, with its incredibly messed up characters, is really quite optimistic and generous. Everyone gets their second (and third) chances, though they don't always use them. A character like Billy, who in most other shows, given his introduction in the first season, would have ended up as a designated villain, can be presented as being there for his sister when she needs him, screwed up nature of their relationships aside. And oh, the glories of the dialogue, as Margaret's idea to cheer her daughter up: "Darling, don't you think I wanted to abort you and Billy both until your father convinced me otherwise?"

One of the most poignant scenes - David washing Nate's dead body, and then Ruth his hair. Nate could be a selfish prat at times, but I suspect the main reason why he wanted that green funeral, aside from the objection to the business he had pretty much from the pilot, was that he knew David would be the one to have to embalm him otherwise, because David wouldn't be able to let someone else do it, just as with Nathaniel Senior. Speaking of Nate's less than admirable qualities, leave it to SFU to make his actual death as ambiguous as his life was, with first that entirely selfish and entirely typical announcement to Brenda, and then the dream which starts in Nate's pov and ends in David's. All in all, I'd say the relationship with David probably qualifies as the most positive Nate ever managed.

There were a lot of circular things in those last episodes - Fisher & Diaz becoming Fisher & Sons again, Claire and Ted bonding the same way Nate and Brenda did in the pilot (and Billy pointing this out, thus showing us the writers are of course being deliberate), David in the finale having that moment where he says "to hell with this, okay, let's sell" and then changing his mind again, continuing the business.

The final sequence: getting all these flash forwards while Claire leaves to start her new life, seeing how everyone will eventually die, was so fitting an ending for the show and reminded me of Neil Gaiman's words in Sandman - or rather, he lets a character think that - in the first collection, Preludes and Nocturnes: every story ends with death, if you tell it long enough. Especially on this show. So yes, the Fishers and their friends will all eventually die, some happier than others. But for now, life continues. It was a beautiful way to end one of my favourite series .

Comments

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

I didn't like the very ending of the last episode at first -- I was annoyed right away by Keith being the first to die, and then it took me a while to figure out what was going on. But looking back, it was the perfect ending.

The symmetry between where everybody was at the time of Nate's stroke, and the beginning of the series, worked really well. I thought it was a really nice move having Ted not turn out to be an asshole. (i'm still a little skeptical about Claire marrying him, though I guess odder matches have been made).

Re: Nate and Brenda, there's no way that would have been the last chapter between them -- though I did like the notion of Brenda and Billy talking each other to death. That's the relationship, ultimately, that both of them would always come back to (and maybe Brenda's crest-and-trough relationship with Nate was in some way patterned after that, the formative relationship of her life).

[selenak.livejournal.com]

The old age make-up for everyone was early Star Trek like bad, so I knew what was going on, but it worked for me because the flash forwards were so surreal with the lighting etc anyway.

Ted: yes indeed. The first of Claire's beaus not to be.*g* Also, he falls into that rare category we talked about half a year or so ago - a conservative character written by a liberal writer as someone sympathetic (and who doesn't get converted).

Yes, I agree, if Nate had lived, and gotten together with Maggie, he'd have pined for Brenda again, just as he did when with Lisa. That's Nate for you.

Brenda and Billy: yes, absolutely. That was so them. And there is both amusement and comfort and wistfulness at the thought.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

I always had a soft spot for Russell; I got annoyed with the writers for treating him so badly after his first season.

if Nate had lived, and gotten together with Maggie, he'd have pined for Brenda again, just as he did when with Lisa

I rather hoped Brenda had developed the sense not to take him back, but I was pretty sure Nate would have spent the rest of his life tacking between Lise-types and Brenda-types, and no one would have been very happy for long.

I did like Nathaniel dropping by to see the baby.

By the way, it's a very long time since I saw Star Wars, and a few months since I saw Six Feet Under, so I can't work out what David's Dagobah moment was.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

*revealing my utter geekness*

David dreams of his nemesis, the redhooded monster, finally confronts it, is about to strike, then looks at his own face and embraces his inner demon, because his greatest fear has always been himself. Now call me unfair, but this sounds just a tad too much like Luke, in Empire Strikes Back, having a dream/vision of Vader, confronting him, beheading him and staring in his own face.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Ah! I do remember now - well, I remember David, not Luke. If it reminded me of anything, it was probably a cross between Don't Look Now and Fall Out.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Hah, yes, I thought of that scene too!