Velroth is ethier a well paided member of the American TV Union or a really big advocator of television dramas, In Velroth's Grindhouse he'll show you the best that Amercian TV has to offer. Catch him every week discussing a new show.
This Week: Six Feet Under
Who are these people who are funeral directors that we hire to face death for us? What does that do to their own lives — to grow up in a home where there are dead bodies in the basement, to be a child and walk in on your father with a body lying on a table opened up and him working on it? What does that do to you? If death is your business, how does it affect your life? That’s what Six Feet Under is about, and we learn these things through the Fisher family and their funeral home Fisher & Sons.
An average day for the Fishers.
Ever see that movie Dancer in the Dark? This show is like that: constant, soul-crushing depression throughout. That’s not to say every frame in the show ends with you drowning in a pool of tears; when they turn on the comedy in this show it’s so charming and witty it briefly makes you forget how melancholy this show was moments before.Six Feet Under is great because it ask questions I’m sure most of us has asked, such as why people who’ve never met your recently deceased express fake sympathy towards you.
David Fisher (right) has always been insecure about his father Nathaniel’s (left) judgment
Fisher & Sons consists of Nate Fisher, an absolute loser in his mid-thirties who ran away from his life in the funeral home and ended up being a manager in a Seattle co-op, only to be forced back into the business and have to learn to deal with death and the effect it has on the families on a daily basis. Dave Fisher, played by the wonderful Michael C. Hall (Who now takes the lead role in Dexter), is the only of the sons to stay with the family and help his father Nathaniel run the business. He’s also deeply in the closet and tries his best to keep his relationship with police officer Keith Charles a secret to everybody. Keith also looks a little too much like Doakes.
This would explain why there’s so much tension between them in Dexter
Ruth Fisher is the matriarch of the family. She grew up taking care of her amputee grandmother. When she was nineteen she met Nathaniel Fisher and has since been married to him for the last thirty years. She’s also incredibly guilt-ridden throughout the first season. The last Fisher is Claire, a high-school student who tries to be a normal teenager, despite her inability to understand why other teenagers are so self-absorbed and pretentious. Her bleak outlook on life due to growing up in a funeral home causes her to be a social pariah at her school.
Claire is the only person in her school to realize none of this drama matters
The last person to mention is Federico Diaz, an absolute artist. Nathaniel put Federico through mortuary school, so he is completely loyal to the Fishers and does his best work for them. If there’s one thing to watch this show for, it’s seeing Federico make even the most disfigured bodies to look even better than they did when they were alive. One of the main aspects of the show is seeing the Fishers deal with a funeral every episode. The beginning of every episode starts with someone dying either a creative or depressingly horrific death; one of the worst is when you see two men beat a gay man to death and curb stomp him.
The Fishers hosting a gang funeral is one of the better episodes
Let’s talk about the character progression, because this show has some of the best. I have never watched a show before where I absolutely hated every single character at the beginning, only to love them as they mature throughout the series. Claire is a perfect example since she starts off as a generic teenage girl, but she becomes a fantastic character as the series progresses. One of the main plot elements is a large funeral home chain called Kroehner trying to buy out Fisher & Sons. Nate originally wants to sell, even after taking into account the fact that Kroehner just wants to make more money, but after personally comforting a family who recently lost a loved one, Nate realizes Kroehner doesn’t care about the grieving people so he refuses the deal. Though that only serves to make Kroehner try to forcefully put Fisher & Sons out of business.
Nate quickly loses patience with Kroehner
Kroehner forces all of Fisher’s suppliers to either not deal with them any longer or to greatly raise their prices, so the Fishers can barely afford their supplies. Kroehner also cuts their own prices, making the only way the Fishers can get any business is just through good service and word of mouth. Through this Nate also has to deal with his slightly-off girlfriend Brenda and her over-protective, psychotic, bi-polar brother Billy. The relationship between these three is fantastic and is one of the highlights of the show for me.
Billy tells Nate what he fantasized about doing to Brenda’s ex-boyfriend.
But seriously, I can’t really put into words how great Six Feet Under is without spoiling anything major about the characters. It’s an incredibly well written show, and it also comes in an incredibly badass
Six Feet Under lived for five seasons, passing away in 2005.
Aw.
- Velroth
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