November 16, 2005

• WEDNESDAY MOVIE

  Six Feet Under (1st season)

  I kid you not, one of my favorite things I’ve discovered to keep my cinema jones at bay is getting those sets of whole seasons of a series. I cut my teeth on the first season of the Sopranos from the library for free, then insatiably tore through the next three years of it as soon as humanly possible. That was awhile ago. Recently, I decided to dabble again – this time choosing another highly rated HBO series – Six Feet Under. You can’t get me to watch a series the regular way – once a week, usually late at night on some channel I can’t afford. But this is different. This is totally under my power to turn it off and on at will, savoring the best parts, once in awhile rewinding just to see if I actually heard what I thought I heard. So anyway, diving in this time I discovered the most fabulously wiggy family, totally smart plot/dialogue/characters, and subject matter unexpected and arresting. What an idea – a Pasadena family just as weird as the east coast Sopranos ever were (well maybe less violent) who live (and work) in a funeral home and are all in stages of shock and grief as the series begins at the accidental death of the patriarch of the family. There’s Mom whose been not that happy for some time and is just waiting to bust out into really expressing herself in the world; there’s Nate the prodigal older son who returns to begin to find himself a role in the business and the family and an intense relationship with mysterious and elusive Brenda whom he meets and makes out with on the plane flying in; there’s David, the younger brother who’s the Felix Unger of the group stumblingly coming out as gay; there’s daughter Claire, a loner in high school with a dangerous boyfriend; and oh yes, there’s the ghost of Dad who drops in from time to time to comment on all the zany goings on. Each episode starts with a death of someone which brings the funeral home into contact with that person’s story and adds some outside actors to the mix for that week. By the end of the first year’s fun I was hooked and am now awaiting Season 2 from Netflix. Don’t expect a frothy comedy. Six Feet Under has its hilarious moments, but it’s late night HBO and you know what that means. So be a grown-up and enjoy.
  

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  Deep Thought: “I think the best Thanksgiving I ever had was the one where we didn’t even have a turkey. Mom and Dad sat us kids down and explained that business hadn’t been good at Dad’s store, so we couldn’t afford a turkey. We had vegetables and bread and pie, and it was just fine. Later I went into Mom and Dad’s bedroom to thank them, and I caught them eating a little turkey. I guess that wasn’t really the best Thanksgiving.”
  Today I am grateful for: Having a back
  Guess the Movie: “Don’t be so gloomy. After all it’s not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love – they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.”
  Slain Soldier’s Mother Plans to Resume Protest Near Bush Ranch
  Cindy Sheehan expected in Crawford over Thanksgiving.
  by Angela K. Brown (Rest of article here.)

  • 8:33 pm
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