What Do You Mean There's Nothing On?!!!?-Six Feet Under

2001 was a big year for HBO. Already riding high off the successes of The Sopranos and Sex and the City, and their new sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm, HBO was being critically acclaimed as finally making smart television for cable. But somewhat lost in this shuffle of groundbreaking TV was another fantastic show, Six Feet Under.

Six Feet Under followed the Fisher family, whose family-run funeral parlor has been handed down from generation to generation. When the father and namesake of the business, played by recent Oscar nominee Richard Jenkins, is killed, the family gathers together, including free-spirited son Nate (Peter Krause of Sports Night and Dirty Sexy Money) who comes to become a partner at the funeral home, a job he swore he would never take.

Nate partners with his brother David, Michael C. Hall of Dexter, to run the family business. Their mother and sister, Ruth and Claire, played by Frances Conroy of Sleepless in Seattle and Lauren Ambrose of Can’t Hardly Wait, respectively, who are polar opposites. Freddy Rodriguez of Planet Terror,  also plays family friend and employee of the Fishers, who takes great pride in his restorations of the recently passed.

While before the death of the eldest Fisher, the family seemed like a normal family, post-death the secrets start to pour out. Nate meets Brenda, Rachel Griffiths of Brothers & Sisters, on the night of his father’s death and what starts as a fling becomes something more. The introverted David turns out to be dating a policeman. Ruth cheated on her deceased husband with a hairdresser, and Claire is experimenting with drugs and dealing with becoming the girl who drives to school everyday in a lime-green hearse.

Every episode deals with very weighty topics, from homosexuality to abortion and mostly, the afterlife. Six Feet Under never shied away from dealing with real issues in unconventional, sometimes disturbing ways. The show became great at defying expectations and throwing the audience for a loop at any chance it could. Each episode felt like a mini-movie, each with its’ own underlining arch that makes every episode feel like an integral part of the season and entire series as a whole.

Six Feet Under lasted five seasons, the first of which earned them an Emmy for best drama and ended in 2005 with one of the most fitting finales in television history. Unfortunately by the end of the series, the show has been in the shadow of The Sopranos and other great HBO programming for too long. Yet Six Feet Under remains one of the best shows of the current decade.