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Six Feet Under
If you don't get HBO and don't care about what's on HBO, you probably won't be interested in this post.
Last night Six Feet Under came to an end. A series finale, they called it. I had given up on SFU two seasons ago because I didn't like the direction it was taking, and then came back again this year and stuck with it. The writing was edgier this last season, and I was curious to see how they would bring it all to a close.
It's hard to end a series, of course. Friends, for example, ended on a weak episode. So did Seinfeld. M*A*S*H* ended well, as I remember it.
Six Feet Under's finale was surprising, emotionally fulfilling, funny, touching, glorious.
The majority of the episode followed the major characters as they came to grips (or failed to come to grips) with personal demons following from the sudden death of Nate Fischer, the oldest of the three Fischer adult children. Some of these plot lines were handled better than others. Rachel's acrimonious arguments with Nate's ghost were disturbing and completely believable to anybody who has a new baby and a boatload of self doubt.
They all end up around the dining room table telling stories about Nate, the kind of spontaneous wake that I hope they'll have for me some day. I thought, well, that's a solid, sweet, unsurprising ending -- but it wasn't the end at all. First we get Nate in a white tux singing "I Just Want to Celebrate another Day of Living" and then things really get rolling, this time to "Breathe Me" by Sia.
The last ten minutes or so were comprised of watching Claire driving across country, intercut with flash forwards as each of the main characters reaches milestones: weddings, births, but most of all, deaths. We see each of them come to the end of his or her life, followed by the gravestone with dates of birth and death which has been the symbol of the show all along.
It was really masterfully done. The characters get older, we see them at picnics and around hospital beds and getting married and on cruise ship decks and at work. They die quietly or violently, peacefully or in pain. Sometimes in their last moments they see the people they have loved, waiting for them. Sometimes they don't. Some of the deaths are expected, some a surprise. Some are funny. A very old Brenda is listening, still, to her brother Billy's self involved ramblings about people who won't love him back. You know that this is a scene that has been repeating itself for seventy years. Brenda's eyes roll -- at first it seems she is having trouble hiding her impatience and boredom -- and then you realize she has just died. It made me laugh out loud. Perfect.
On the HBO website they've included the obituaries for all the main characters, here.
Ending a television series is in many ways like ending a series of novels. I hope when I get to that point, I will do it with half as much grace and style.
August 22, 2005 03:51 PM
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Comments
You said it all perectly. I didn't think any series finale could come close to Sex & City, but this nearly eclipsed it IMO...
-p
Posted by: Pokey at August 23, 2005 01:59 PM