Rave: Six Feet Under finale (finally!)

[lovepuppy]

Posted: 11/22/07 at 3:10pm

Since I missed the last couple of seasons of Six Feet Under when it ran originally due to not having HBO those years, finally, FINALLY, on on-demand, the final season has been running a few eps at a time, the last couple of months. My only rant here would be, when a show has completed, "on-demand" should mean ALL the episodes are offered. I've had to wait over a year since getting digital on-demand cable to see the final episodes of this great series!!

What a GREAT finale! I finally was able to watch it this week. You get to see how everyone died, which I had heard about, but no specifics. I had to tape the ending sequence just to watch it over again to catch all the people in the frames and scenes to see what they were doing, since it's a montage and moves pretty quick. It was interesting that none of the deaths were nearly as dramatic as each of the people who died at the beginning of each episode. Ruth died in a hospital bed of natural causes, and I loved how she saw her late husband and Nate waiting for her. Keith getting shot coming out of his security truck was violent and ironic, and David presumably having a heart attack when he had a hallucination of Keith playing football at a family reunion years later was pretty consistent with his earlier neuroses. Sorry to see Rico dying on a cruise from a heart attack, but he and his wife were finally happy. And I'm wondering if it was meant to be funny that Brenda keeled over in her 70's just from listening to Billy's incessant yammering! I loved how it was played over Claire leaving home for the first time, making her peace with the death of her brother Nate, who she had just begun to really know, and setting off on a life of her own...the angry little girl artist finally growing up to live her life and seek happiness.

A few things I noticed: at Claire's ever-avant-gard "wedding" (if you could call it that, as it was a plain white room some time in the future with no one actually officiating), David and Keith's oldest adopted son was gay, holding the hand of his Asian partner, and the younger adopted son was married to an Asian woman and they had one son. Earlier at David and Keith's wedding, it looks like Brenda finally found love with a new, unidentified (hot) man, sitting together with her growing daughters. At the family reunion, I had to review it several times to see who Brenda was sitting with, as it looked like Claire but I concluded it was one of her daughters, because Claire was much older by then. Guess Lauren Ambrose played the adult daughter of Brenda, there. Claire evidently died at the age of 98 in a highly computerized modern home, with a nursemaid by her side, surrounded by the photos she took as a young artist, including the pic of her most normal boyfriend ever, the love of her life, Ted, on the ceiling, looking down on her.

An amazing finale--as you can see, it really sticks with you. I miss that show. For all their dysfunction, they were a family who stuck by each other in the end.

[blueroses]

Posted: 11/22/07 at 10:52pm

It was the best series finale I've ever seen.

[uncageg]

Posted: 11/22/07 at 11:12pm

I cried during that whole ending sequence. It was pretty brilliant.

And I think it has been out on DVD so you didn't have to wait this long to see it.

[blueroses]

Posted: 11/22/07 at 11:17pm

"At the family reunion, I had to review it several times to see who Brenda was sitting with, as it looked like Claire but I concluded it was one of her daughters, because Claire was much older by then."

No, it was Claire.

[cturtle]

Posted: 11/23/07 at 12:19am

loved the series ... although i only saw it on dvd ... loved the finale also!

[Pippin]

Posted: 11/23/07 at 11:03am

Still the best finale I've ever seen. God I love that show. Glad you finally saw it and shared your enthusiasm for it, Puppy.

[lovepuppy]

Posted: 11/23/07 at 3:05pm

Thanks, uncageg. Yeah, I had been looking for it on DVD at Blockbuster for a couple years, and they had Season 4 in the store, which I rented, but Season 5 was only online. Even then, you had to buy it, you couldn't rent it. Only working part-time right now so budget was a factor and I wasn't spending $50 or $60 for a DVD collection when I hadn't seen that season yet. But yeah, now it's on the list to at least get the final season as a keepsake at some point!

Blueroses--are you sure it was Claire? I re-viewed that sequence so many times (and cried, too!). The girl who was sitting by Brenda at the reunion looked like a slouched, "little" version of Claire, not the sophisticated adult Claire who had gotten married in I think the frame before. It confused me but concluded it had to be one of the daughters. Maybe you're right...I dunno. Thanks! :)

Updated On: 11/23/07 at 03:05 PM

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 11/23/07 at 10:25pm

Few things in this world make me tear.

The Six Feet Under finale was one of them. Having all of our protagonists die, and seeing the causes, was one of the most brilliant finishing touches in television history. There were no twists, they weren't living in the mind of a kid with autism, nobody woke up in bed with Suzanne Pleshette...

Like everyone else in the world, our characters simply died. On a show that revolves around death, there was nothing more fitting.

What I enjoyed most was the uniqueness of it. Generally, when there's a finale, it's usually left open, for, perhaps, a reunion movie twenty years later. Knowing how everyone died closes off all the possibilities.

And like all the characters who have died on Six Feet Under, HBO has their obituaries up:

http://www.hbo.com/sixfeetunder/obituary/episode63.shtml

And Nate's obituary:
http://www.hbo.com/sixfeetunder/obituary/episode61.shtml



Updated On: 11/23/07 at 10:25 PM

[lovepuppy]

Posted: 11/24/07 at 2:15pm

Thanks Yankee! I can't believe it never occurred to me to check there. Cool stuff.

Ugh, I'm so sad "Nate" is dead, though I knew from reading the summaries a couple years ago that it happened at some point. It is a show about death, after all.

At least we have Peter Krause--lovvvve him--for now on "Dirty Sexy Money." It's kind of a dumb show. I only watch it for him, so they better treat him nice over there at ABC! Better yet, dump the show after the writers' strike and keep him on development deal for another show. Wouldn't THAT be nice!

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 11/24/07 at 2:40pm

That episode deserved the Best Writing and Best Direction Emmy Awards that year. The show also deserved to win Best Drama Series, but it wasn't even nominated. I don't know what the Emmy voters had against this show. Perhaps the realistic representation of a gay couple. The show barely won anything for its entire run. The acting was superb throughout.

An absolutely stunning series and a mind-blowing finale.

(By the way, Best Writing and Best Direction that year went to a run of the mill episode of "24," along with Best Drama Series.)

Updated On: 11/24/07 at 02:40 PM

[blueroses]

Posted: 11/24/07 at 10:19pm

Foster, here are the final six minutes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWdYMuo3_B4&feature=related

It still gets to me.