June 06, 2005

The Beginning of the End of "Six Feet Under"

The final season of “Six Feet Under” got underway tonight, with an episode that was impressive, if not up to the standards of the series' early heights. With HBO seemingly burying the show- giving it next to no promotion and an unheard-of-on-the-network Monday timeslot, the SFU's already got two strikes against it, although there remains a chance, judging by the premiere, that quality will redeem the show at its end.

There’s absolutely no way to overstate just how horrible the 2004 season of “Six Feet Under” was- probably the worst single-season drop-off by a TV series since the 1992 edition of “L.A. Law.” SFU last year played as though the 13 episodes had been written by 13 different writers, none of whom had ever seen the show before. Characters behaved wildly divergently from episode to episode, and did all sorts of things untrue to their nature.

So many not-so-memorable moments (SPOILERS!): A complete abandonment of the dark humor that used to lurk below the show’s surface. The multi-episode arc involving the mailing of mysterious boxes of feces. Claire becoming a lesbian for three episodes, a plot so out-of-nowhere that “The O.C.” borrowed it. The desperate over-reliance on Hollywood satire, including a nonsensical cameo by Nicole Richie. The episode where David was kidnapped, seemingly inspired by something that would’ve happened to Tori Spelling on “90210.” And worst of all, the season-ending “shocker,” when it turned out Lisa was murdered by her brother-in-law, who then pulled off the David E. Kelley-patented murder-confession/suicide, just about the most unoriginal and hacky way imaginable to resolve a murder mystery.

With Nate finally married to Brenda, their brother and sister dating as well, and David and Keith trying to adopt, there’s an interesting framework in place for the last season; it’s only a matter of whether creator Alan Ball and his writers can get their act together. They’re off to a good start, but then again, Season 4 had a pretty good season premiere too.

Posted by Stephen Silver at June 6, 2005 10:15 PM
Comments

HBO supposedly "burying" the show...nice.
Didn't read the rest of it, because of those derned spoilers. I'm only up to season 3.

Posted by: Esther at June 7, 2005 12:10 AM

All we can do is watch and see.

Posted by: C at June 7, 2005 01:11 AM
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