Six Feet Under

:For the band, see Six Feet Under (band)

Overview

The show, created by Alan Ball, stars Peter Krause as Nathaniel ("Nate") Fisher, the son of a funeral director who becomes a partner in the family funeral business with his brother David, played by Michael C. Hall. The Fisher clan also includes mother Ruth (Frances Conroy) and sister Claire (Lauren Ambrose). Other regulars include mortician and family friend Federico Diaz (Freddy Rodriguez), Nate's wife, (longtime girlfriend) Brenda Chenowith Fisher (Rachel Griffiths), and David's boyfriend Keith Charles (Mathew St. Patrick).

Related Topics:
Alan Ball - Peter Krause - Funeral director - Michael C. Hall - Frances Conroy - Lauren Ambrose - Freddy Rodriguez - Rachel Griffiths - Mathew St. Patrick

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The show revolves around the world of Fisher & Diaz Funeral Home, a fictitious mortuary set in present day Los Angeles, California (2000–2005).

Related Topics:
Los Angeles - California - 2000 - 2005

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On one level, the show is a conventional family drama, dealing with such issues as relationships, infidelity, homosexuality, and religion. At the same time, it is a show that is distinguished by its unblinking focus on the topic of death, which it explores on multiple levels (personal, religious, and philosophical), rather than treating it as a convenient impetus for the solution of a murder. Each episode begins with a death—anything from drowning or heart attack to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome—and that death usually sets the tone for each episode, allowing the characters to reflect on their current fortunes and misfortunes in a way that is illuminated by the death and its aftermath. In Season 5, the episode All Alone was the first ever to open without a death, focusing instead on a death revealed at the end of the previous episode. The only other episode that did not feature an opening death scene was the series finale, Everyone's Waiting, which instead began with a birth, and ended with the future death scenes of all of the main characters.

Related Topics:
Relationships - Infidelity - Homosexuality - Religion - Death - Drowning - Heart attack - Sudden Infant Death Syndrome - Series finale

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A recurring plot device consists in a character having an imaginary conversation with the person who died at the beginning of the episode. Sometimes, the conversation is with other recurring dead characters, notably Nathaniel Fisher Sr., and, more recently, Nate's former wife Lisa. They represent the living character's internal dialogue by exposing it as an external conversation. In the later seasons, another device is also used where a real conversation between two living characters slips into the imaginary and becomes unrealistic. The shift cannot be clearly distinguished from the normal flow of the scene until an abrupt cut brings us slightly back in time and reveals the imaginary nature of the past moment.

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In November 2004, series creator and executive producer Alan Ball announced that the fifth season would be the show's last. The producers and writers felt that after 63 episodes they had told their "story". The series concluded after five seasons, with the finale airing on August 21, 2005.

Related Topics:
2004 - Alan Ball - August 21 - 2005

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