Of all the great things about television, the greatest is that it’s on every single day. TV history is being made, day in and day out, in ways big and small. In an effort to better appreciate this history, we’re taking a look back, every day, at one particular TV milestone.
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: Making a case for the Six Feet Under finale on its tenth anniversary should not be very difficult. Anybody who’s watched the show will be able to tell you that, despite whatever wobbliness the series went through in its five-year run, it arrived at a powerful, poignant, moving, and altogether appropriate final few minutes. Even if you haven’t watched Six Feet Under, it’s likely that you’ve heard about its finale. But even though a ten-year-old spoiler warning seems ludicrous, I would still recommend that if you’ve never seen the series, don’t watch this clip of how it all ends. Maybe you’ll want to watch from the beginning one day. Don’t rob yourself of a moment as good as this one. Turn away!
HBO doesn’t allow embedding on clips from their 10-year-old TV episodes, so you’ll have to click on over to watch the clip again and reflect on what an absolutely perfect capstone this entire 8-minute segment was. Watching it the first time, it snuck up on you. The gradual flashing forward and grace notes for these characters who so frustrated us, which made the fact that we still loved them — headstrong Claire, neurotic David, self-destructive Brenda — mean all the more. Speaking only for myself, the conceit of these final moments didn’t hit me until the very first passing. Ruth, much older and with her family (even dumb Nate’s ghost) around her … and then that first title card. The closed-circle nature of that title card really does pack a wallop, and all at once you know where the rest of this montage is heading.
It’s a sequence packed with joy and sadness and senseless tragedy and dark humor, all things which Six Feet Under delivered in (sometimes un)equal measure through its five seasons. David and Keith raising their sons. Brenda raising her daughters. Ruth and Bettina minding their dogs. Claire finds love (finds it again, in fact, with the bet-you-forgot-he-was-on-this-show Chris Messina) in her older age. Claire and Brenda become the artsy old aunts at the family picnic. Billy still won’t shut up about Claire. Rico dies. Keith dies. David dies. Claire drives on. I honestly hope you’re watching this in another tab instead of reading these words, which can’t do it justice.
At any rate: one of the best series finales of all time. Perhaps the best series finale for a show that had been hit-or-miss (yet still incredibly important and, I would say, endearing for all its flaws) throughout its run.
Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
It’s a sequence packed with joy and sadness and senseless tragedy and dark humor, all things which Six Feet Under delivered in (sometimes un)equal measure through its five seasons. David and Keith raising their sons. Brenda raising her daughters. Ruth and Bettina minding their dogs. Claire finds love (finds it again, in fact, with the bet-you-forgot-he-was-on-this-show Chris Messina) in her older age. Claire and Brenda become the artsy old aunts at the family picnic. Billy still won’t shut up about Claire. Rico dies. Keith dies. David dies. Claire drives on. I honestly hope you’re watching this in another tab instead of reading these words, which can’t do it justice.
