Six Feet Under: Season 5

And so it ends. Alright. It's time for me to finally talk about Six Feet Under. I think part of the reason I've struggled to come up with things to say about it over these past four months is because it's pretty different from most other shows I would consider high-quality dramas. When I think of great television, the kind that just sucks you right in and leaves you wanting more, I think of heavy serialization, thematic recurrences, and linear narratives. I mean, I love Breaking Bad, don't get me wrong, but for years now it's been clear that the show's sole story of importance when all is said and done will be the moral decay of Walter White. Mad Men is a little more ensemble-oriented, but it has a similar driving theme and a similar focused commitment. The Wire was just fucking beautiful, but it followed all the beats of a Shakespearian tragedy, where characters' fates often became clear to the audience just a few scenes in advance. I'm not complaining; this mastery of tragic irony is a big part of what makes The Wire the greatest show of all time. I'm just saying that it, along with Mad Men and Breaking Bad and every other great drama I can think of, just feels so heavily "written," if that makes sense.

Six Feet Under sort of doesn't feel that way. There's an openness to it. And that's not to say that it's poorly written, or that it feels especially realistic, but simply that it just unfolds in front of you at a pleasant pace without all these different layers of symbolism, foreshadowing, or connectivity. But now it sounds like I'm giving the impression that the show is sloppy and kind of made up on the fly, and it certainly isn't. I guess the biggest strength of Six Feet Under is its integrity to its own characters. At no point does plot come before character in this show; the characters are consistent, and instead of being used as pawns to set up plot devices, everything they do or say feels organic. I guess that's what I mean when I say the show doesn't feel heavily "written" or "scripted." In fact, it's the strength of these characters that made the show grow on me more and more with each passing season. Early on, I didn't hate these people or anything, but each of them was flawed in a way that made none of them immediately endearing. They were complicated people right off the bat, and like any real family, they took some getting used to. And yet, five seasons later, those same quirks and flaws that kept me distanced from these people at first were the source of the strangely poignant bond I felt with them.

I don't want to overstate things. No, Six Feet Under was not as good as the aforementioned dramas, and frankly it's a decent distance back on my list of the all-time greats. But it was still pretty damn good, and it only grew on me with time. The series finale is widely considered to be one of the greatest of all time, and while I can't say I agree, I also acknowledge that what didn't blow me away in 2013 after all kinds of hype still very well could have been an incredible series finale in 2005.

So then. Should you watch Six Feet Under, or is this family drama about a funeral home not worth your time? I can't say. It was worth mine, though. That much I can't deny! Good night.