7.02.2009

No spoilers, promise - a Six Feet Under reaction

I just finished the entire series of "Six Feet Under." It's 5 seasons long, it's about a funeral home, it has relatively decent character bases, pretty great actors, the first season is almost perfect, the second season is almost almost perfect, the third season starts to slip, the fourth season gets very soap opera-y, the fourth season also contains one of the strangest, if not the single weirdest episode of television I've ever seen in my life, the fifth season has some really interesting parts, and then when you hear people talk about "the finale being so perfect" and then it builds and you have no idea where it's going and it takes such strange turns and then every single scene in the last episode is so on point and poignant and not pretentious and true to the characters and the story, and then it ends...the way it does. It's just very hard to put into words. I suppose it's a bit telling that you can't put it into words, and the show didn't even put it into words. Don't worry that doesn't give it away, but words aren't meant to summarize the ending, or any ending for that matter, which is what the show is all about. You can't put it into words and, as the last lines of the show tell us,

"You can't take a picture of this, it's already gone"

This is as close to speechless as I've ever been moved to, and I think that's exactly what was supposed to happen. Tip of the hat to you Alan Ball. To Alan.