I woke up with an unbelievable sense of melancholy this morning, and I didn’t know why. Then I remembered what I did last night.
I have no coherent thoughts, save that I love this show, quite possibly more than anything else I’ve yet encountered in my life–and I’ve loved a good deal of fiction very powerfully.
Filed under: Internet Memes | Tags: angelica suarez, characters wanted, edie/anita/russel/jimmy, ensemble cast, feminism, margaret chenowith, melissa, mitzi dalton huntley, robbie, sarah o'connor, season 1, season 2, season 3, season 4, season 5, six feet under, what a manipulative bitch
A nod to my favorites of the much-overlooked supporting cast of Six Feet Under–lots of fabulously off-beat women, and Robbie, the Flowershop Guy.
Mitzi Dalton Huntley
That and I love saying her name.
Margaret Chenowith
Margaret Chenowith (Joanna Cassidy), Brenda Chenowith’s (Rachael Griffiths) mother, a practicing psychiatrist with no boundaries and quite possibly no morals. In spite of this, she and Brenda eventually reconcile and she serves as Brenda’s most constant source of support and advice.
Filed under: Kalliel Unfiltered | Tags: federico diaz, fight or flight, machismo bullshit, nate fisher, nate/brenda, rico/vanessa, season 5, six feet under, what a manipulative bitch
I’ve been re-watching the series with my mother, and I am continually blown away by how fresh everything remains. Each time I watch an episode, it feels as though some new subtlety has been imparted to me, or I have some new impression that hadn’t made itself known before. I do know now that I love each and every character deeply–perhaps too deeply. (Save Sophia Morales and Parker McKenna, who have kindly fucked off after their respective earlier-season appearances.) And I know this because I would forgive them
Anything. The entire ensemble has done something, at some point or another, completely unforgivable. They are frustrating, scream-inducing, unrelenting, trainwrecks. And here I am, disappointed, but begging for more of their story.
Today’s episode, 5×05: Eat a Peach, featured one of four things for which I despise Rico (and yes, I continue to love him dearly, but I cannot get over this–I understand Vanessa’s feelings completely). Rico attempts to be a manipulative bitch and force he and Vanessa back together by ‘manning up’ and drawing the well-being of their children and the school principle “into the loop of their family situation.” Machismo bullshit. This, of course, blows up in his face. And thank god it did, because one is reminded that becoming something doesn’t mean you’re going to make the right choices. So Rico has enabler/doormat issues. Assertiveness is only helpful if used in a constructive manner, and maturity isn’t a one way street.
The same is true of Nate, and his relationship with Brenda. I love that he apologizes to her for speaking as though Maya were is daughter, and his alone. That he doesn’t just discard her when he feels like things are getting too fucked up (as he did with Lisa)–even though, with the foresight of having seen the series though once already, I can see Maggie beginning to make her presence known. But for now, in Nate’s mind, he is trying to make things work just as they are. Nothing is fixed, nothing is forgotten. It is simply let be.
Filed under: Digital Media | Tags: claire fisher, music, nate fisher, season 2, six feet under
time doesn’t know / what it’s time for us all to know…
Six Feet Under is haunting me; it’s love, it’s melancholy, it’s a deep and abiding respect for these characters and their trainwreck lives.
2x04, Nate and Claire pick up Mr. Mossback.
I re-watched 2×04, yesterday: Driving Mr. Mossback, where Nate and Claire drive up to Washington state to pick up a body, and stay at Lisa’s overnight. As they drive off, with one more dead body and one more concern (Nate’s seizure) than they came, “Drive” by Joe 90 plays. It’s not included in either of Six Feet Under’s OSTs, but it’s an evocative song nonetheless. (Link leads to downloadable file, hosted by yours truly.)
I think it’s an important song, because the lyrics (bigger, more powerful, and yet–nobody knows) suggest that there are things, ever-present, looming, yet unspoken. Which, given that Claire has just learned of Nate’s AVM and Nate himself was terrified out of his mind with this new development, has never been more true. Yet even as this episode closes with an assertion of the existence of this reality, it is still pushed to the back and silenced. Nate tells Claire not to tell, Lisa is left none the wiser, and all involved parties try to slip back into what passes for normal in the Fisher household.
Lyrics below.
Filed under: Kalliel Unfiltered | Tags: emptiness, federico diaz, rico/vanessa, season 5, six feet under, vanessa diaz
After one night to mull things over, I’ve decided that it is certainly not the end (or the death) that is sad, but the idea that things must continue forward even after that. Six Feet Under has been described not as a show about death, but about life in the presence of death; I have never felt this more true.
When I woke up, I thought of Brenda. More specifically of Brenda giving birth to Willa (and of her life without Nate, though she is far from alone). I thought of the new stone sign outside of the funeral home (in a new style, befitting Keith’s interior designing): not only does it herald a fresh start for Keith and David’s family, but the business as well. It’s no longer Fisher and Diaz.
And one can assume that after Rico is bought out and the Diaz family buys their own mortuary, their stories split cleanly. Though the Diaz and Fisher storylines rarely overlapped (unless it was an inconvenience, or by force of circumstance)–at the emotional, human level, at least, rather than the business one–I wish Rico, too, had found himself inextricable from his Fisher ‘relatives.’ Claire leaves, but she is still family. The Diazes leave, and I get the impression they never looked back.
I know that they oughtn’t be expected to. For Rico, is represents major personal growth, though it manifests itself most saliently in business and entrepreneurship. Master of his own fate, so to speak, rather than someone else’s fallback boy. More often than not, it wasn’t a pretty road, and for me personally, it wasn’t a pretty thing, his and Vanessa’s moving forward and away from the Fishers, but it was right.
Filed under: Kalliel Unfiltered | Tags: claire fisher, ensemble cast, finale, freedom, ruth fisher
Finale.
2001-2005
I… need to collect myself. It wasn’t my most memorable or most powerful episode, as a whole. I enjoyed Ruth, Claire-when-not-in-scenes-with-Ted. The entirety of the Diaz family was rather disappointing, though I am unsure of whether it’s because I didn’t get what I wanted, or because there was genuinely something that could have been written better. The episode was okay–there was this definite sense of picking up, moving on and out, in all respects. Of being free.
And as much as I’ve pushed and wished for the happiness of this ensemble, finally achieving it seemed almost too easy; even if you look at the paths these past five seasons have wrought, you look at how truly maddening, difficult, hopeless it all was.
And yet… the moment Claire puts Ted’s un-hip mix into the car, and “Breathe Me” starts playing, I was gone. Just this great upwelling of tears, not born of any particular emotion at all. Just tears. I doubt I’ve ever loved Claire more than I love her in those last six minutes (and I have loved her well quite often). I know what that mix CD means; I have one. And as cliche as it sounds, it was a beginning and not an ending. Of course, even as Claire drives to the LA airport (one assumes), Six Feet Under adds still more to this “this is the end, but the beginning of a new chapter.”
Everyone dies. Without exception.
That’s the end from which there can be no return.
A more cohesive review of the series as a whole to follow. After that… I shall probably delve deeper into fanworks like icons and writings. And I need very much to assess each episode more deeply and thoroughly (episode screencaps, perhaps some audio clips).
Six Feet Under might be done, but I am not.
Filed under: Kalliel Unfiltered | Tags: federico diaz, nakama, nate fisher, season 1, season 5, six feet under
Completely random, but. Ruth told George that Nate’s burial was family only. So, was Rico there because he was acting as their funeral director, or because they actually do consider him family? They say they do, but only sometimes. Rico has been around for over a decade, though, most of which was spent while Nate was away. For Nathaniel if no one else, Rico was essentially the third son.
Rico, Nate and David.
It gives one cause to wonder how closely Rico lived with the Fishers prior to the series beginning. Especially since when Nate first arrives from Washington state, it appears as though he and Rico are fairly well-acquainted. Given Nate only spent time at home during the holidays (Thanksgiving and Christmas, at least), Rico must’ve been around fairly often during those times to have even met Nate.
Filed under: Kalliel Unfiltered | Tags: bettina, billy chenowith, brenda chenowith, brenda/billy, claire fisher, david fisher, david/nate, ensemble cast, federico diaz, federico/vanessa, feminism, george sibley, it deals with realism, keith/david, maggie sibley, nakama, nate/brenda, nate/maggie, rico/vanessa, ruth fisher, sarah o'connor, season 5, six feet under, vanessa diaz
I loved so many things about these episodes that I don’t even know where to start. The waiting room cinematography during Nate’s surgery, for one. Brenda and Maggie purposefully removed from everyone–I especially loved the cuts where Maggie is in the foreground, with Brenda in the back, silent. The fact that Ruth was not there, was not there the one moment she really felt her child desperately needed her, after a lifetime of waiting idly by when they didn’t. Even though Nate is in critical condition (and then is dead), the ensemble doesn’t miraculously find this strength, this connection, this tolerance; what closeness they have must simply suffice.
The key to Six Feet Under is its ability to give rise to a plethora of emotion–5×09 embodied stillness. (Ironically, the same stillness Claire professed to feeling, and attempted to capture, back in art school.) Waiting. Moments where nothing was said and everything was understood, conversations that in the end meant nothing. One moment stretched over a hundred thousand hours.
Filed under: Kalliel Unfiltered | Tags: abortion, artist angst, brenda chenowith, claire/ted, david fisher, dr. wilson syndrome, ed, edie/anita/russel/jimmy, emotional responsibility, federico diaz, foster children, keith charles, keith/david, machismo bullshit, nakama, nate fisher, nate/brenda, nate/maggie, repressed emotions, rico/vanessa, ruth fisher, season 5, six feet under, vanessa diaz
It is nice to know that once in a while, everything is validated. The ensemble’s… fleeting moments of happiness are worth every minute of agonizing self-destructiveness and misery. I loved the first part of 5×06, where Rico comes to terms with his impending divorce with Vanessa. He acknowledges that he wants nothing more than to go back home and have everything as it was. But he accepts that he can’t have that; not through any manipulative bitchiness via the school principal, not through anything. He mentions that he’s on the market for a two bedroom apartment, so the boys can visit, because if he cannot have what he lost, he will rebuild something that is as close to that as possible.
And the will to do that is an admirable thing; and the maturity to move forward is certainly something he’s gained–because he certainly didn’t have it a few episodes ago.
And I loved that Sarah made a reappearance; the womens’ rendition of Calling All Angels, with the montage of the ensemble in their separate places, all alone (and in desperate need of angels) was touching as well. There was something deeply (atheistically) spiritual about it–and quite reminiscent of House, M.D., which utilizes the form frequently and masterfully.
In spite of all of the trauma and fragility of these characters, it feels like they are finally pushing towards something better than what they have.
Filed under: Digital Media | Tags: brenda chenowith, claire fisher, david fisher, edie/anita/russel/jimmy, edie/claire, federico diaz, george sibley, joe, joe/brenda, keith charles, nate fisher, nate/brenda, nate/david, rico/vanessa, ruth fisher, screencaps, season 4, vanessa diaz
Claire and Edie decorate the walls.
+ 4×06 Screencap Gallery (89 images).
Diaz family scenes are heavily emphasized here, which seems almost unfair, but as they are rarely emphasized anywhere else, it may as well be there. ‘Cap focus is on character expressions and portrait shots.
