Six Feet Under is an American television series that depicts the lives of the Fisher family, who run a funeral home in Los Angeles. The series, created by Alan Ball, ran for five seasons on HBO between 2000 and 2005
Question
What do you think its the most unrealistic thing about Six Feet Under?
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David becoming a deacon so fast
I thought he'd been part of that church for years
That doesn't matter. Contrary to what the writers seemed to think, in a church like David's deacon doesn't mean "on the church council," it's an ordained position with actual duties, both liturgical and ministerial
Not only becoming one so fast but without the writers putting any effort into finding out what a deacon even is
Thst would be a really boring part of the show to focus on tho I'm sure they sped it up for good reason
They sped it up because 1) in real life it requires years, and 2) they didn't even know what the word means (see my other comments)
That a patient would be sent directly to the step-down unit following emergency surgery for a cerebral hemorrhage. When I had a subarachnoid hemorrhage, I was sent to ICU after surgery and didn't leave it for close to two weeks (they initially said I could be there for a month or more) while they kept an unbelievably close eye on all my vitals.
I thought so too. Also, wouldn't there have been doctors and nurses in the roomlong before Nate flatlined? Wouldn't there be some warning that they're losing him so they can perform lifesaving measures?
Yeah, my wife and I remarked on that to each other as well! There were one or two codes while I was in ICU and although I couldn't see what was happening, I could see a light flashing on the floor through the blinds on my room and I could hear tons of activity going on as staff converged on that patient. Even when they sent me to telemetry I was still wired up to sensors that would whoop up a storm if they thought something was wrong, which happened once because of a bad wiring harness or something, and boy did the nurses come running to check on me.
Rico’s restoration skills are pretty exaggerated. I’ve seen some very good work before, but when you’re dealing with head/face trauma you’re rarely getting people back to showroom condition.
I don't know my coworker is once turned a shotgun to the face into an open casket. It was a work of art
Rico would be SO proud of that
And then they were cremated, what a waste 😄
Isn’t this the actual quote on the show?
I don't think so
Yes. Pilot episode; Rico shows off some Polaroids of his work. It was a couple, man came home, shot his wife then shot himself. Serious closed casket stuff, but Rico made them look like “a bride and groom on top of a cake. Then they burned them, what a waste”
You're not the only one who thought that Rico using cat food cans to make Viveca St. John's breasts to look perkier was a little unusual.
It wasn't any more unusual than an embalmer taping or sewing someone's boobs together in real life. In a case like hers where her boobs were on display, they need to prop them up with SOMETHING use what you got!
Very very rarely does a storage room hookup lead to marriage and a kid.
Says you. 😉
I've definitely had hookups turn into relationships though
Idk, I hooked up with a guy after randomly smoking 2 joints together and we had a thing for 8 years… it can happen.
The whole thing about the book written about Brenda and Claire casually being a big fan of the book before knowing Brenda.
this part i didn’t find super weird, i could imagine she was into reading really weird and fucked up books and found it at some point, like at a bookstore or the library.
Seconding this. I felt like it fit Claire’s personality.
For the times, I agree. However if this show came out post 2018, I would have no problem accepting it.
There were plenty of books that went around among girls in the 70s through 90s. “Go Ask Alice,” “That Was Then,This is Now.” I still suspect that a lot of alternative women musicians in the 90s had a Sylvia Plath phase when they were younger. “Lisa, Bright and Dark” is another book like these. A lot of girls (myself included) ate that stuff up. It made perfect sense to me that Claire would have read that book.
Especially since this was mostly pre stan internet
There were absolutely cult faves before the internet and that’s what this was.
That part was over the top I agree
Is it just me or do they like never go downtown in the series? There is SO little identifiable LA footage for an LA show... like I could barely tell they were in Midcity and they only mentioned their location once. Kinda weird. But I love the anonymity also. Very unusual for an LA tv show not to flaunt more iconic views.
To the point where you question why it was even set in LA. It could've been essentially anywhere.
I've also always thought the show was a little claustrophobic that way. It's not just that they don't go downtown, they don't go anywhere. A Vegas trip and a Seattle trip is all we get between all the main characters and their various partners in a 5 year span.
Don’t forget Ruth and Bettina’s lovely romp in Mexico
Oh that's true. Washing down rubbery seafood with cheap tequila
Huh? If a show could be filmed anywhere you always film it in LA. If you don't need a show filmed in a particular area, LA is equipped for just that. Everything is significantly easier.
Filmed and set are two different words. Perhaps that will clear up your confusion.
It's very costly to shoot in those locations
true but it was an hbo show with a lot of famous actors...?
Why not save money where/when you can
like not a single downtown skyline ever is kinda weird i feel
In the episode "nobody sleeps" I remember that Claire and Russell were chilling at watts towers!
That Billy was allowed to be near anyone after the crazy shit he did... in real life no one would mess with him again
(I love Billy tho haha)
After litterally skinning Brenda... she's like "but he's my brother, he's just messed up." No, he's dangerous. I understand mental illness, but he was literally a danger to those around him, but they still all made excuses for him and got mad at Nate for not feeling safe with him?
Didn't he try to burn her house down too / murder her in a fire? Or was that Nate he tried to kill
It's a little fuzzy, but I wouldn't doubt it! I'll never forget the absolutely INSANE warehouse he set up all to threaten to hurt Claire. That was absolutely obscene, and he should've been institutionalized then.
also stalking Nate to get the photo of him peeing in public is crazy. surprised there wasn't a photo in the show of David f*cking the hooker in the parking garage too
Probably all the talking dead people
The talking dead are just a device for us, the audience, to see what the live character is thinking or going through. Would you prefer David sitting quietly in a corner, having a contemplative thought or hashing things out with a dead porn star so we can be part of his thought process? It’s television! You have to show the audience something.
They're not having a dialog with dead folks any more than me or you do when you remember them or talk to them in your head. It's the internal dialog of the person who isn't dead that you're seeing played out.
I think you're missing the point of the show. They aren't actually talking.
Wait what? I thought the show was about supernatural ghosts that literally spoke to living people….how could I be so ignorant and miss this?!?!??! /s
No no no no. You missed the twist. The FISHERS are dead the whole time. But they can't stand to admit that. So they stack a bunch of potatoes on the embalming table.
Brenda and Billy sit underneath the potato table and talk.
BTW, Brenda and Billy aren't brother and sister. They're not even the ages we (and the Fishers) see them as. Billy is a ghost hunter - not great money, but keeps him busy so he doesn't have to think about how much he misses his dead wife. And Brenda is his daughter, who has actually come to kinda like this place. Nathaniel is pretty cute, after all - and she's glad she can keep him company.
So - who are all those other characters? Mostly, they're just characters in the nightly puppet shows put on for their ghostly roommates.
But some of them ARE real.
Here's the breakdown:
Nathaniel Fisher is actually the legal owner of Fisher family home. It was all his stingy mother left him, and he wanted nothing to do with it until she learned there was a small fortune hidden somewhere (she never thinks to look UNDER the potatoes.
Rico is Nathaniel's sassy gay best friend. He's a mole, hoping that somebody will slip up. BUT WAIT. IF THE FORTUNE IS UNDER THE POTATOES ... well, Brenda and Billy are way ahead of you. They only let Rico work on decoy potatoes.
Maggie is a Ghostbu...
Wait.
Fuck.
WHY DO I ALWAYS GET SIX FEET UNDER MIXED UP WITH CASPER?!?
I re-watched the show a year or two after my mom died, and this was one of the things that rang most true. The conversations I had with her in my imagination, trying to make some meaning out of what was unresolved and messy, and missing her so much.
Claire taking so long to marry that dude
I loved that guy... I loved Claire's office era haha can we hear more about her weird officemates "yeah baby!"
Stupid work jokes new hires don't know the origin of and awkwardly accept is so real though
Yeah I could buy 3 or even 5 years but 20 was a stretch
Good answer, but in all actuality the time jump is the perfect write for Claire's journey and as viewers trying to piece what may have happened in Claire's journey. She left the area to pursue her art dreams and based on that time jump it tells us that Claire likely didn't give up on them only to come back and get married (she broke that pattern).... they both potentially fell apart due to distance and what not and in that mean time likely had other relationships/partners before finding one another at a later place in time. They are in many ways opposites. It makes sense that it would take Claire needing more life experiences to fully appreciate him and or just merely pursuing her dreams above all else before getting married.
How instantly forgiving people are about cheating so often lmao.
I’ve seen it more times than I can count sadly. Especially back then when there wasn’t so much public shame, or fear of being outed on tik tok. 💀 I couldn’t personally but some people are insecure enough to “forgive” or just let it go.
Rico being able to pull like crazy while being a short douchebag with a weird job, then easily getting back into Vanessa and the kids’ lives after cheating on her and blaming her for it 💀
Freddy Rodríguez is hot, what you talking about?
Rico is an asshole, but I’d date Freddy.
Dude’s good looking ngl, but Rico is a horrible person in the show
Yeah he’s my least favorite character. I just don’t like the short king bashing because Freddy is hot and irl he pulls.
Purely talking about his character. I’m also a short guy in real life lmao, not just “short king bashing”
uh billy is a lot worst? actually nate would be pretty horrible too lmao
It’s always those short Latino kings man, def wouldn’t date Rico but Freddy, omg yes. So I can see it being realistic.
Im married to a white man now, but my first bf was a short Latino (Mexican) and daaaammmnnn.
Living proof babeh lol I am also married to a white man (I’m Latina) but back in the day I always had school crushes on shorter Latin guys :)
A stripper, a loquacious and somewhat irritating restorative artist, and a chick who ghosted him hardly qualifies as "pulling" in my book ... unless there were more that I am just forgetting.
And women taking back their cheating/abusive husbands is a tale as old as time.
Not to mention nothing seemed "easy" about getting back into Vanessa's life.
I just completed a full cruise through the show, and I felt that Rico did NOT have an easy time of it. Vanessa rejected him for a long time, then finally let him in but still treated him like shit. This seemed to go on for a long time. It was only in the last few episodes that she finally re-warmed to him.
Treated him like shit? He berated her for grieving her mom like 2 months after she died, cheated and blamed her for it and lied about it, all while victimizing himself and blaming her for every problem between them. It’s crazy that she even opened back up to him at all
I think the catalyst for Rico cheating was more Vanessa's sister moving in and treating him like shit. Rico's an asshole but sister straight up bullied him in his own home.
She did treat him like shit though and he deserved every bit of it.
He berated her for abandoning her kids, who really needed her attention - regardless of her circumstances. Looking after your kids is more important than grieving. Also, she invited her sister in, who completely disrespected Rico. He was understandably bothered by it. Cheating on Vanessa wasn't the right response but it was understandable. She opened back up to him because she needed him, something she thankfully realized before it was too late.
She originally let him back in because she was dating and needed him to stay with the kids. 🤣
Well, there is that!
They really were both flawed, and I'm glad they finally got back together.
Me too. It was very sad when they broke up. I was rooting for them even though I knew they were not going to make it. They are like that couple you know who has been together for 20 years and suddenly blow everyone’s mind and get a divorce. It’s like you can’t even believe it.
Why is his height relevant?
Everyone cheats and blames their partner for it on this show, what make Rico so horrible for it.
And Vanessa was far from a prize companion in nearly every way, so when it comes to those two the sky is the limit. It's potentially just as far fetched that he would have wanted to maintain a relationship with Vanessa.
The fact that nearly every single person that Keith and David run into turn out to be gay lmao.
In fairness, it was usually gay clubs, antique stores, and gay paintball where they met them. The only one that rang forced to me was the septic/plumber guy who David got a blow job from.
I also get the feeling Alan Ball is one of those people who secretly believes everyone is a least a little bit gay.
Omg YES he so is
Brenda’s sex addiction came and went very conveniently. And Nate’s ability to overlook it after two weeks was equally unrealistic
Brenda spent the entire time jump between S2 and S3, and all her time offscreen in S3, working on herself. It’s not like it happened overnight.