HBO's Six Feet Under

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.