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Six Feet Under - The Complete First Four Seasons | 
 enlarge | Directors: Alan Ball, Alan Caso, Alan Poul, Alan Taylor, Allen Coulter
Actors: Peter Krause, Michael C. Hall, Frances Conroy, Lauren Ambrose, Mathew St. Patrick
Studio: Hbo Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $159.98
Buy New: $143.54
You Save: $16.44 (10%)
New (6) from $143.54
Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 50511
Format: Box Set, Closed-captioned, Color, Dvd-video, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), Spanish (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Number Of Items: 19
Running Time: 3060
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 4.2
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 6 x 5.9
ISBN: 0783137532
UPC: 026359854620
EAN: 9780783137537
ASIN: B0009NZ2WY
Theatrical Release Date: June 3, 2001
Release Date: August 23, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW, Factory Sealed items direct from the Studios. 30 Day Satisfaction Guarantee. Quick International Airmail!
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 A plot synopsis is NOT a review! August 15, 2007
A plot synopsis is not a review. When you publish a review in a magazine you must analyze what is being reviewed. Maybe even add something new. To merely summarize the plot and say you love it is not a review. To post synopses of shows on Amazon is doubly ridiculous given that almost everyone who reads reviews on Amazon has already seen what they're reading about!
Now, Six Feet Under. Let me first say that it has always amazed me how much more hype The Sopranos gets when Six Feet Under is far superior. I can rarely stomach television. Six Feet Under is so well done however that it plays more like an extremely well-made film than a TV show (yeah, a 63-hour movie)! (It was, by the way, predominately filmed by movie directors, not TV directors.)
As many reviewers here have stated, it also has a LOT to say about life. Here are the show's main lessons, as I see them: Your life is the present. If you dwell on the past you might as well be dead, like Ruth sitting at the Formica kitchen table like a zombie before she realized she needs to let go.
People behave in patterns, and they cycle through the same patterns throughout their life. If you look at this cycle with a narrow view it may create the illusion that this person is changing. If you take a wider view you see they are really just cycling through the same pattern. People therefore seldom ever change. It is very difficult to break a pattern.
Nate for instance never changed. The minute he was with someone he lost all interest in them, as Ruth said would be the case in the first season. Nate was looking for someone to change him. He never found someone that could. Brenda made this clear when she basically said that Nate is a bad person and he is searching for someone who can make him feel like a better person than he really is.
Recognize people for who they are. If a person's limitations outstretch their intentions, failure will result. Take for instance George's promise to care for Ruth. He may have wanted to, but he was incapable of actually doing it.
The perfect is the enemy of the good. If you're waiting for things to be perfect, like Nate, then you'll never be happy because no moment is ever perfect.
Also, happiness is not a destination; it's not something you "arrive" at. If you're not happy now, having a kid or getting married is not going to make you happy.
It's not so much the way things are in the world that's your problem, but how you react to the world. There wasn't really some hooded killer terrorizing David. David was terrorizing himself. He had a naive view of reality and needed to realize that that is not the way the world really is.
At first I thought Nate would move home and bring his family together, proving to be a strong and intelligent, even philosophical person, ready to help strangers through their grieving. It slowly became apparent that Nate was a self-obsessed, shallow narcissist who really didn't care about anyone else but himself and his own internal, petty drama.
The Fishers were all hung up on the past. (And notice that their Father only said to them what they were imagining.) Redecorating the 50s style house was symbolic of finally moving on, of letting go of the past and embracing the present.
Many people see families where the grown children are always around the parents, where they talk all the time, every day even, and think, "Gee, that's such a nice family; they're all so close to each other." Actually this is typically a sign that the family is dysfunctional. In healthy families parents encourage their children to become adults and leave the nest, emotionally as well as physically. Ruth realizes this when she forbids Claire to make the same mistakes she did.
(By the way, was it just me or did the timeline of this show simply not gel? Watching the events in the show and listening to characters state how much time passed between events it seems that six or more years passed from season one to season five. However, looking at the dates at the beginning of each show, only four years passed!)
For those who want to know (MEGA SPOILER AHEAD), here's how long each character lived as revealed in the series finale (one of the greatest hours of television programming in the history of the medium): Nate: 40yrs, Ruth: 79yrs, Keith: 61yrs, David: 75yrs, Rico: 75yrs, Brenda: 82yrs and Claire: 102yrs!
By the way, in Claire's death scene if you look quick there's an amusing mistake (or joke?) hanging among her photo montage on her wall. It's a picture of David and Keith with their arms around each other, but Keith is young and David is in his 70s!
And yes, it ends with Claire driving off toward the horizon. Show creator Alan Ball wanted to make it clear that Claire is the only one who escapes the Fisher family and their dysfunction. That's why, when she leaves, the Fishers are out of focus; they are already fading from her memory.
That is also why Nate, who is shown in the mirror trying to catch up to her, is left behind. The influence of the family is left behind and Claire goes on to experience a full and rich life.
Notice that for others, things never change. At 82 Brenda is STILL taking care of Billy, and if you pay close attention (or listen to Ball's commentary) you'll hear that then, in his 80s, Billy is STILL bitching about Ted, and he literally (according to writer Ball) bores poor Brenda to death.
And yes of course, the MAIN point of the show: Western civilization is a death-denying culture. We watch endless movies that show people getting killed, trivializing death, and yet most of us in real life fail to face death realistically.
We fail to realize that death is as natural a part of life as birth, that everybody dies, that you don't know when it will happen and that accepting all of this is part of living a full life. We are not prepared to die and we treat death so seriously that we're afraid to laugh at it, hence all the darkly comic death scenes at the beginning of each episode.
Alan Ball wanted the show to demonstrate that we are all connected in that we are all mortal; it does not behoove anyone to pretend they are immortal. As Nate says in the show, our mortality makes life important. Everything ends. If we lasted forever nothing would matter.
Six Feet Under seriously raised the bar for all television to come, almost demanding that TV airs more serious, reflective and intelligent shows with a heightened sense of realism.
Best Show on Television February 21, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I couldn't possibly disagree with reviewer "Kneel" anymore. SFU has been, predominantly, quality from episode 1 through episode 63. This show never "jumped the shark", nor did it ever truly approach that tired cliche.
I could go on forever, but my advice to anyone who's just starting to view this series is to ignore the advice of some here who claim that only the first 2 seasons are good. This is highly off-base IMHO, and in the opinions of most SFU fans.
If you want to watch the best show ever to grace a television you've found it right here. Enjoy! (Just don't buy this 4 pack because it's a total rip-off!)
 From Life-Affirming to Lifeless December 20, 2005
5 out of 24 found this review helpful
Six Feet Under is a rich meditation on death, and life. It's life, against the eternal (and very present backdrop) of death, finding meaning and richness: Claire's creative and coming-of-age journey, David's quest for love and identity, Nate's struggle with meaning and mortality, Ruth's sense of alienation as an aging widow. It also jolts the audience and characters out of denial of death to look at the value and urgency of getting on with our finite lives.
At least, so it was for two seasons.
The third season begins with a dream-sequence, and it's never quite clear when that ends... it just sort of mushes into an episode, and then a series of episodes, so bad, so flavorless, so without purchase, that I was wondering if the dream sequence had ended at all.
(If not, it's very tedious dream sequence. Speaking of which, those sequences in general, so interesting and amusing at first as they displayed characters thoughts spinning off crazily, have long-since gone stale, mostly because they're poorly thought out and badly realized.)
I wish that the reviews had been more accurate and honest. I wish that every review had been one star. That way, I would've just given up on the series at the end of season two, when it was still good, and figured that unresolved ending was just the way it was meant to be. I would've still loved it. Now, I just find the whole thing grating.
The main thing about season three is that there's just not enough substance. There is, in the entire season, enough for maybe half an episode of season one.
Many said the first season was the best television show ever. Though I watch very little TV (I watched this all on DVD) season one is certainly by far the best show I've ever seen, more like a series of movies than television, and good movies at that.
The second season, though much inferior to the first, was still very good, with exceptional moments.
But the third season... well, it bears very, very little relation to the first two. The audience's interest is retained only by the soap opera aspects. (That happens with television: Audiences are still intrigued by the characters and the producers, though they're out of ideas, milk it for a while by turning the show into a soap opera.)
It's like the funeral home was indeed taken over by a corporation - seems to be the same establishment, but what's inside is totally different, and lifeless.
The characters are played by the same actors, of course, but even Rachel Griffiths can't do much with scripts that have become boring. Though everyone is still doing their jobs well, it seems like Lauren Ambrose (Claire) is the only other actor putting her heart into it.
The way the deaths were woven into the fabric of the episodes, so crucial to this series, is absent. It's just a business, and they might as well be selling lawnmowers. The scripts could be transferred to or from any other show, and seem to have been.
David's become effeminate and swishy - closer to a stereotype and out of character from who he was in season one - and his romantic travails have become monotonous.
Ruth just seems goofy, and lost. Without that marvelous interplay of her lusty Russian, Nikoli (full of irrepressible life, including the symbolism in his vocation), her world is just comfortingly dull, even when a bit spiced up by a naughty friend (introduced with a lame addiction storyline that seemed to be just introduce the new friend).
Claire's journey, though it's the most interesting thing about the season, and its focus (sort of), has become tedious as well. (Her art-school teacher is just a well-rendered stock character.)
Nate we just can't make ourselves care about anymore. The character he was before had a certain core that this one just doesn't. Maybe it's his brain problem, but he's not him anymore.
Frederico remains little more than a prop, continuously exploited by Fishers. They pay him less than he's worth, treat him terribly no matter how much he does for them, and then, though they left him to twist in the same situation (when they could have easily helped him), he comes through with a lifesaver when they're desperate (for which, with typical ingratitude, they take advantage of him again). It's crazy that anyone would entrust money to people who handle it so badly. Talk about a doormat. It's strange that there's no explanation or exploration of that.
Keith, once so intriguing, has become a prop as well, almost on the level of comic relief. He has a boring job that's boring for us to watch, and they've decided he has to become a boring guy.
It seems like the writers just can't imagine anyone in a mundane job could have an interesting and worthwhile existence, and the show has taken on a mildly racist tinge.
Lisa, originally a one-dimensional, one-off character, should have remained such, or stayed in the background. Her story is dull - it doesn't have to be, but it is - and drags down the rest with it, if it can be dragged lower.
Brenda is only interesting at all because she's so well-acted. The character, like everything else, has gone flat (uh, so to speak). No matter how well acted, the characters have become cardboard cutouts.
The writers also introduce a mildly autistic, slightly creepy nerd. For some reason. (Also very well acted... and pointless.)
I like who the characters were on the first season. For example, I liked Brenda's self-assurance, even though there was all kinds of damage beneath it; that played nicely into Nate's air of detached, rugged cool, just beneath which he was perpetually skating over the very thin ice of an empty and meaningless existence.
People change, but there's something left of who they were, instead of something completely unrelated - David lurching into a stereotype, for example. When he asks the new assistant (in season one) what makes her think he's gay, we might wonder the same thing. In season three, it's so obvious that the only answer is, Duh.
Why?
Why does Nate lose his entire personality and replace it with a new one with no connection or even transition (brain surgery)? Was Keith's entire identity based on being a cop who hadn't shot anyone yet (and why, in that scene, didn't his partner fire as well - who'd want to have a partner that wouldn't do anything when someone swings a gun around to shoot you)?
In short, though called by the same names and played by the same actors, the characters otherwise unrelated to those of season one.
There is no point to watching this season. Though I was soon bored, I kept on because I figured there had to be some payoff somewhere. There isn't.
The first season is stunning. The second, though uneven, is still excellent.
The third, though, looks like some goof took the characters and wrote a weak fan-fiction version.
The technique is still superb: There are marvelous touches, like when a character shocking news there's no ominous theme music or heavy-handed camerawork; it's just an ordinary afternoon. It's just that the writing has fallen apart.
To the injury of wasted time and money, one writer adds insult, literally: Wondering why the second season was inferior to the first, I listened to the writer's commentary on an episode. She starts by insulting the audience for having nothing better to do than listen to her. It's not funny - it doesn't seem to be meant to be funny - and it turns out to be a well-founded, as she has nothing interesting to say.
Might explain why the following season is so crappy. Everything is just plot devices and recycled sitcom gags (e.g., meeting the priest in the video store).
I was curious enough about why this was so bad, when the first season was so good, that I poked around on the Internet a bit. A lot of comments were along the lines of will X and Y get back together? Will A and B break up? Soap opera comments for a soap opera season.
There are people who liked season three; there are people who like soap operas, and this season basically is one (centered around a funeral home).
Read the episode guides. By the second episode of the first series, so much had happened it felt like I'd been watching for at least a season already. And although the second season faltered, with a lot more filler, it still had a great deal to offer.
Had the entire third season been cut down to make up one episode, or maximum two, it might have been good, but as it is, it's all just vague filler, a waste of time and talent.
Anyone who likes Six Feet Under and hasn't yet watched beyond season two would be well advised not to. Just pretend it ended at the end of season two, maybe leaving some things unresolved, but that's just the way it ended. Leave it there and appreciate it for what it was. Unless you're a big fan of fan-fiction, there's no point in watching beyond that.
 best show EVER - but not at this price! December 3, 2005
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is my favourite show of all time - incredible art. And I do own all four of these seasons on DVD and think they are well worth buying and owning to watch over and over again - but don't waste your money and pay $360 for all 4 "together" when you can buy them separately for $65-$75 and not spend more than $300!! Do NOT buy this set, it is not worth it. Just buy them separately here on amazon or Costco has them at much cheaper prices!
Great show, wacky pricing November 8, 2005
14 out of 14 found this review helpful
This is a great show, and well worth owning in my opinion. The question is, why does it cost $360 to buy all four seasons together when you can buy them each separately from Amazon for a total of about $275???
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