Extra Credit 5: Six Feet Under

Six Feet Under
Character synopsis:
Nate Fisher : Eldest child, lives in Seattle, for most of his life tried to stay away from his family.
David Fisher: Middle child, dedicated to the family business, closet homosexual, and generally angry person.
Claire Fisher: Youngest child, in high school, rebellious and problem.
Ruth Fisher: Widow, has repressed feelings, has a hard time keeping the family together.
Keith Charles: David's gay lover, level headed, police officer.
Brenda: Nates' newlymet partner, witty, keeps Nate in check.


Episodes:
"Pilot." Six Feet Under. HBO: 03 Jun 2001. Television. 16 May 2011.


The owner of a funeral home dies, leaving behind his family of four. This episode introduces this central family consisting of sons Nate and David, widow Ruth, and daughter Claire. This episode consists of everybody finding out about, and reacting to their father/husbands death.


This episode shows how no two people grieve the same way. It displays that nobody is immune to the effects of death. The show is interesting because it incorporates humor, fantasy, and drama to show what this family is going through. It also takes this complex issue of how people who are around death all the time deal with it.


"The Will." Six Feet Under. HBO: 10 JUN 2001. Television. 17 May 2011.


The will of Nathaniel Fisher, Sr. appoints Nate and David co-owners of the Fisher and Sons funeral home. Ruth receives insurance compensation. Claire has a trust fund that will pay for college. At the same time as the Fisher family struggles with their internal issues, they also have to deal with somebody having a funeral at their home with no money to pay for it. 


This episode shows the aftershocks of death. Moving past the initial shock of the death, inheriting what's left of the will. It shows a lot of the pain people go through when death occurs, it even shows how it can tear families apart. It again uses humor and drama, and this time also incorporates outsides peoples struggles with death. 




"The Foot." Six Feet Under. HBO: 16 JUN 2001. Television. 17 May 2011.
Moving on past the initial trauma of Mr. Fisher dying, the show turns it's focus towards a new conflict. Because the owner just died, there has been an offer to buy the funeral home. After first deciding that this would be the best idea, Nate decides that they should keep it and run it as a family. A second conflict arises as they are taking care of Mr. Romano who got chopped up in a giant dough mixer, and they lose his foot.


All of the episodes use the same techniques to display what happens when dealing with death. Humor and Drama. What this episode does compared to the first to is it moves away from the death of Mr. Fisher, but still shows the side effects of the death. This episode also takes the viewer deeper into the deathcare world, as it discusses centralization for funeral homes, and how they aim to maximize profit. 


Show Analysis:
I like this show a lot. It combines the truth of the deathcare industry, with belivable grief. It is raw, funny, and speaks the truth.  From episode 1 of this show, you can see a lot of the real issues we've been talking about in class. David mentions numerous times, "this is a business." 


In episode 3, "The Foot.", when a large cooperation is trying to buy out this single, independent home, the whole basis is to maximize profit. It was like something right out of The American way of Death by Jessica Mitford. This show really brings to life some of the issues with the care of the dead in America. As a fictional series, I still think it can be used to show how greedy our system is. One of the things that isn't good about this show to show real-world issues is that it's so good. It challenges some of the dominant social practices appropriately but it's easily overlooked because of all the drama. You get the specific situation, not the big picture.


This show also captures the way people are broken down when their loved ones die. It tries to stick with the different ways people deal with grief and I think it shows it well. Overall I think the show captures death well at its best and its worst.