Six Feet Under

It didn't take me five seasons to decide that Six Feet Under is worthy of your consideration. It took me four episodes. The amount of creativity and emotional depth that I found in an ordinary, every-day episode titled "Familia" put Six Feet Under over the top. Already, it was one of the best television programs I had ever seen. The funny thing is that the show keeps getting better and better. I just started the third season a couple of days ago, so let's not get into deep discussions about material I haven't seen and spoilers that many of Cavemen Go's readers don't want spoiled. Most of my friends have Six Feet Under at the top of their favorite television series of all time lists, and I've been told that no matter how much the series, and in particular the series finale, is hyped, it will be surprising and amazing. It will live up to and surpass all hype.

Of course, I do have one warning. Six Feet Under deals with realistic difficult situations on nearly every single episode. Six Feet Under made our months of long distance dating difficult incredibly hard on Amy during the fall, and many of the themes of the second season are sickeningly close to some of the most difficult things I have ever faced in my life. I got flashbacks to bad times and felt anxious quite often. In a way, I think that Six Feet Under should have a warning label listing possible side-effects. But the metaphor of a drug with side-effects is not accurate in describing the show. It's more like the kind of coming of age trials that some native tribes put their teenagers through, difficult things that one must confront in order to be an adult. In many ways our culture revolves around domestication and the preservation of immature tendencies, a kind of sheltering perpetuated not only by parents but by mass media and most of the capitalist economy. Perhaps Six Feet Under is the first small step toward liberation. If not, it is just a fantastic television program.