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fandomhigh_ooc2009-03-29 09:32 pm
swipedthatfoot.livejournal.com) wrote in fandomhigh_ooc2009-03-29 09:32 pm
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Spotlight on Six Feet Under
Hi there!
I'm supposed to tell you about Six Feet Under, which was a drama that aired on HBO for five seasons between 2001 and 2005. It was about the Fisher family of Los Angeles and their loved ones. They own a funeral home and a lot of crazy shit happens to them.
Too short?
All right. I come bearing visual aides.
From left to right:
Rico Diaz is Nathaniel Fisher (don't worry, we'll get to him)'s protege. He's been working for the funeral home since high school and is a "restoration artist." Which means that if your face gets horribly mutilated when you die, Rico's the guy who can fix you up. He is married to a woman named Vanessa and has two young children, Julio and Augusto. After the end of S2, he owns half of Fisher & Sons. Played by Freddy Rodriguez.
Keith Charles is David Fisher (we'll get to him, too)'s boyfriend. He starts out as a cop, gets fired over a violent incident, and ends up in private security. He's the most traditionally macho character on the show, and the most traditionally heroic a lot of the time. He also, as Claire memorably noted, looks like "big black sex cop." Played by Mathew St. Patrick.
David Fisher is the younger Fisher son and the one who followed in his father's footsteps most closely. A young Republican type in college, he is coming out of the closet inch by inch during S1. He is uptight to the point where, if you don't know him well, he seems like he has a huge stick up his ass, but he's tremendously kind and vulnerable under that. And he is amazing with kids. Played by Michael C. Hall.
Claire Fisher is the only daughter; her brothers were in high school when she was born. Over the course of the series, she goes from an angsty, whiny pothead teenager to ... well, she's still angsty, but she's worked through her apathy and pessimism some and is on her way to actually becoming an artist. She is sarcastic, hates just about everyone and everything, and has a chip on her shoulder the size of Kentucky, but, if you get past all of that, you find an idealist who would like to be kinder to people but is terrified of vulnerability. Played by Lauren Ambrose.
Ruth Fisher is the living parent. She married Nathaniel very young and is still child-like in many ways. She clearly loves her children and does her best to relate to them; she's just on her own little planet a lot of the time. Played by Frances Conroy.
Nate Fisher, Jr. is the main character, as much as the show has one. He starts the show being forced into the funeral director role after his father's death, and ends up kind of digging it. He's the kind of person so good at saying the right thing to everyone else to make them feel better that you don't realize at first how fucked up, douche-like and petty he can be. Also, I spent most of S4 and S5 wanting to stab him repeatedly. Played by Peter Krause, who gave interviews back in the day indicating he also wanted to stab Nate repeatedly. (Spoiler alert: We sort of got our wish.)
Nathaniel Fisher, Sr. is the patriarch. He dies in the first episode, but he still hangs around in characters' hallucinations, so he's in almost every episode. He's mostly a bastard to Nate and David most of the time, but flashbacks and Claire's hallucinations show a kinder man. It's also heavily implied that none of the children really got to know him. Played by Richard Jenkins.
Brenda Chenowith is (in order) Nate's "fuck puppet", girlfriend, fiancée, ex, and finally, wife. She is brilliant to the point where a book was written about her as a child, she has a close relationship with her brother that dances riiiiiiight up to the edge of incest, and she cheats on Nate with half of L.A. because she's so wounded. But even though it's easy to snark about Brenda in a sketch like this, I like her a lot -- I think she sometimes tries so hard to be rational that she ends up doing the wrong thing. Also, she and Nate have INSANE chemistry, to the point where I always end up OTPing them against all reason. Played by Rachel Griffiths.
The Fishers talk about their sex lives over dinner. Ruth's idea. FUN.:
Claire is in love (and visualizes a Broadway routine about it). Her mother thinks she's bulimic:
Blood spits out of the drains. David and Claire react characteristically. And yes, Office fans, that is Dwight you see for a second at the start of the clip.:
Opening credits. I just think these are cool. They won an Emmy in 2002.:
Why you should watch: The acting is completely amazing, even when the plotlines teeter on soapiness. They got a very, very good cast, and used it well. The writing is, mostly, excellent -- it sells you on the plausibility of the situations even when, well, see above about soapiness. It's HBO, so there's a lot of swearing and some nice, hot, sex scenes. The hallucinations are hard to describe, but they add an extra layer of texture to the show -- you know what's going on inside the characters' heads.
Also, the deaths at the start of each episode tend to be these insane comic (and occasionally tragic) set pieces; it's worth watching just for those.
Where to Watch: It's available on DVD, and Amazon has specials on the 5-season boxed set pretty often. It also turns up on Bravo, in edited form, once in a blue moon.
I'm supposed to tell you about Six Feet Under, which was a drama that aired on HBO for five seasons between 2001 and 2005. It was about the Fisher family of Los Angeles and their loved ones. They own a funeral home and a lot of crazy shit happens to them.
Too short?
All right. I come bearing visual aides.
From left to right:
Rico Diaz is Nathaniel Fisher (don't worry, we'll get to him)'s protege. He's been working for the funeral home since high school and is a "restoration artist." Which means that if your face gets horribly mutilated when you die, Rico's the guy who can fix you up. He is married to a woman named Vanessa and has two young children, Julio and Augusto. After the end of S2, he owns half of Fisher & Sons. Played by Freddy Rodriguez.
Keith Charles is David Fisher (we'll get to him, too)'s boyfriend. He starts out as a cop, gets fired over a violent incident, and ends up in private security. He's the most traditionally macho character on the show, and the most traditionally heroic a lot of the time. He also, as Claire memorably noted, looks like "big black sex cop." Played by Mathew St. Patrick.
David Fisher is the younger Fisher son and the one who followed in his father's footsteps most closely. A young Republican type in college, he is coming out of the closet inch by inch during S1. He is uptight to the point where, if you don't know him well, he seems like he has a huge stick up his ass, but he's tremendously kind and vulnerable under that. And he is amazing with kids. Played by Michael C. Hall.
Claire Fisher is the only daughter; her brothers were in high school when she was born. Over the course of the series, she goes from an angsty, whiny pothead teenager to ... well, she's still angsty, but she's worked through her apathy and pessimism some and is on her way to actually becoming an artist. She is sarcastic, hates just about everyone and everything, and has a chip on her shoulder the size of Kentucky, but, if you get past all of that, you find an idealist who would like to be kinder to people but is terrified of vulnerability. Played by Lauren Ambrose.
Ruth Fisher is the living parent. She married Nathaniel very young and is still child-like in many ways. She clearly loves her children and does her best to relate to them; she's just on her own little planet a lot of the time. Played by Frances Conroy.
Nate Fisher, Jr. is the main character, as much as the show has one. He starts the show being forced into the funeral director role after his father's death, and ends up kind of digging it. He's the kind of person so good at saying the right thing to everyone else to make them feel better that you don't realize at first how fucked up, douche-like and petty he can be. Also, I spent most of S4 and S5 wanting to stab him repeatedly. Played by Peter Krause, who gave interviews back in the day indicating he also wanted to stab Nate repeatedly. (Spoiler alert: We sort of got our wish.)
Nathaniel Fisher, Sr. is the patriarch. He dies in the first episode, but he still hangs around in characters' hallucinations, so he's in almost every episode. He's mostly a bastard to Nate and David most of the time, but flashbacks and Claire's hallucinations show a kinder man. It's also heavily implied that none of the children really got to know him. Played by Richard Jenkins.
Brenda Chenowith is (in order) Nate's "fuck puppet", girlfriend, fiancée, ex, and finally, wife. She is brilliant to the point where a book was written about her as a child, she has a close relationship with her brother that dances riiiiiiight up to the edge of incest, and she cheats on Nate with half of L.A. because she's so wounded. But even though it's easy to snark about Brenda in a sketch like this, I like her a lot -- I think she sometimes tries so hard to be rational that she ends up doing the wrong thing. Also, she and Nate have INSANE chemistry, to the point where I always end up OTPing them against all reason. Played by Rachel Griffiths.
The Fishers talk about their sex lives over dinner. Ruth's idea. FUN.:
Claire is in love (and visualizes a Broadway routine about it). Her mother thinks she's bulimic:
Blood spits out of the drains. David and Claire react characteristically. And yes, Office fans, that is Dwight you see for a second at the start of the clip.:
Opening credits. I just think these are cool. They won an Emmy in 2002.:
Why you should watch: The acting is completely amazing, even when the plotlines teeter on soapiness. They got a very, very good cast, and used it well. The writing is, mostly, excellent -- it sells you on the plausibility of the situations even when, well, see above about soapiness. It's HBO, so there's a lot of swearing and some nice, hot, sex scenes. The hallucinations are hard to describe, but they add an extra layer of texture to the show -- you know what's going on inside the characters' heads.
Also, the deaths at the start of each episode tend to be these insane comic (and occasionally tragic) set pieces; it's worth watching just for those.
Where to Watch: It's available on DVD, and Amazon has specials on the 5-season boxed set pretty often. It also turns up on Bravo, in edited form, once in a blue moon.
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