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Six Feet Under - The Complete First Two Seasons (2-Pack)
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7
Average rating: 4.5 of 5
***OUTSTANDING*** 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.
I look forward to my weekly dose of Six Feet Under with relish! A superb cast! Amazing, haunting, provocative, disturbing, full of humour, life and death! Brilliantly written and very addictive! If you've never seen it, or like me, kept missing episodes, -buy the series and enjoy at your leisure! You're sure to keep coming back for more!
quality 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
If you enjoy Six Ft. Under, no disappointments here. Just as good as the original run. However, the DVDs do come in a pop-up sort of display packaging and my Season 2 set was ripped so that there was no pop-up effect. No matter, the DVDs themselves were intact.
Love it 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
The characters are so real you can't help stepping in their shoes. Real, but unpredictable - there is always something new and exciting and morbid and entertaining. When the last season comes out, I will review all previous seasons to get me up to snuff on all the plots. That's what I love about purchasing the DVD's. I can watch them whenever I want.
Editorial Review:
The opening two seasons of Alan Ball's series concerning the surviving members of Fisher & Sons Funeral Home in Los Angeles, and the personal matters that arise when your life is Six Feet Under.
Six Feet Under - The Complete First Four Seasons
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7
Average rating: 4.0 of 5
Great show, wacky pricing 4 out of 5 stars.
14 of 14 people found this review helpful.
This is a great show, and well worth owning in my opinion. The question is, why does it cost $360 to buy all four seasons together when you can buy them each separately from Amazon for a total of about $275???
best show EVER - but not at this price! 3 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.
This is my favourite show of all time - incredible art. And I do own all four of these seasons on DVD and think they are well worth buying and owning to watch over and over again - but don't waste your money and pay $360 for all 4 "together" when you can buy them separately for $65-$75 and not spend more than $300!! Do NOT buy this set, it is not worth it. Just buy them separately here on amazon or Costco has them at much cheaper prices!
From Life-Affirming to Lifeless 1 out of 5 stars.
5 of 24 people found this review helpful.
Six Feet Under is a rich meditation on death, and life. It's life, against the eternal (and very present backdrop) of death, finding meaning and richness: Claire's creative and coming-of-age journey, David's quest for love and identity, Nate's struggle with meaning and mortality, Ruth's sense of alienation as an aging widow. It also jolts the audience and characters out of denial of death to look at the value and urgency of getting on with our finite lives.
At least, so it was for two seasons.
The third season begins with a dream-sequence, and it's never quite clear when that ends... it just sort of mushes into an episode, and then a series of episodes, so bad, so flavorless, so without purchase, that I was wondering if the dream sequence had ended at all.
(If not, it's very tedious dream sequence. Speaking of which, those sequences in general, so interesting and amusing at first as they displayed characters thoughts spinning off crazily, have long-since gone stale, mostly because they're poorly thought out and badly realized.)
I wish that the reviews had been more accurate and honest. I wish that every review had been one star. That way, I would've just given up on the series at the end of season two, when it was still good, and figured that unresolved ending was just the way it was meant to be. I would've still loved it. Now, I just find the whole thing grating.
The main thing about season three is that there's just not enough substance. There is, in the entire season, enough for maybe half an episode of season one.
Many said the first season was the best television show ever. Though I watch very little TV (I watched this all on DVD) season one is certainly by far the best show I've ever seen, more like a series of movies than television, and good movies at that.
The second season, though much inferior to the first, was still very good, with exceptional moments.
But the third season... well, it bears very, very little relation to the first two. The audience's interest is retained only by the soap opera aspects. (That happens with television: Audiences are still intrigued by the characters and the producers, though they're out of ideas, milk it for a while by turning the show into a soap opera.)
It's like the funeral home was indeed taken over by a corporation - seems to be the same establishment, but what's inside is totally different, and lifeless.
The characters are played by the same actors, of course, but even Rachel Griffiths can't do much with scripts that have become boring. Though everyone is still doing their jobs well, it seems like Lauren Ambrose (Claire) is the only other actor putting her heart into it.
The way the deaths were woven into the fabric of the episodes, so crucial to this series, is absent. It's just a business, and they might as well be selling lawnmowers. The scripts could be transferred to or from any other show, and seem to have been.
David's become effeminate and swishy - closer to a stereotype and out of character from who he was in season one - and his romantic travails have become monotonous.
Ruth just seems goofy, and lost. Without that marvelous interplay of her lusty Russian, Nikoli (full of irrepressible life, including the symbolism in his vocation), her world is just comfortingly dull, even when a bit spiced up by a naughty friend (introduced with a lame addiction storyline that seemed to be just introduce the new friend).
Claire's journey, though it's the most interesting thing about the season, and its focus (sort of), has become tedious as well. (Her art-school teacher is just a well-rendered stock character.)
Nate we just can't make ourselves care about anymore. The character he was before had a certain core that this one just doesn't. Maybe it's his brain problem, but he's not him anymore.
Frederico remains little more than a prop, continuously exploited by Fishers. They pay him less than he's worth, treat him terribly no matter how much he does for them, and then, though they left him to twist in the same situation (when they could have easily helped him), he comes through with a lifesaver when they're desperate (for which, with typical ingratitude, they take advantage of him again). It's crazy that anyone would entrust money to people who handle it so badly. Talk about a doormat. It's strange that there's no explanation or exploration of that.
Keith, once so intriguing, has become a prop as well, almost on the level of comic relief. He has a boring job that's boring for us to watch, and they've decided he has to become a boring guy.
It seems like the writers just can't imagine anyone in a mundane job could have an interesting and worthwhile existence, and the show has taken on a mildly racist tinge.
Lisa, originally a one-dimensional, one-off character, should have remained such, or stayed in the background. Her story is dull - it doesn't have to be, but it is - and drags down the rest with it, if it can be dragged lower.
Brenda is only interesting at all because she's so well-acted. The character, like everything else, has gone flat (uh, so to speak). No matter how well acted, the characters have become cardboard cutouts.
The writers also introduce a mildly autistic, slightly creepy nerd. For some reason. (Also very well acted... and pointless.)
I like who the characters were on the first season. For example, I liked Brenda's self-assurance, even though there was all kinds of damage beneath it; that played nicely into Nate's air of detached, rugged cool, just beneath which he was perpetually skating over the very thin ice of an empty and meaningless existence.
People change, but there's something left of who they were, instead of something completely unrelated - David lurching into a stereotype, for example. When he asks the new assistant (in season one) what makes her think he's gay, we might wonder the same thing. In season three, it's so obvious that the only answer is, Duh.
Why?
Why does Nate lose his entire personality and replace it with a new one with no connection or even transition (brain surgery)? Was Keith's entire identity based on being a cop who hadn't shot anyone yet (and why, in that scene, didn't his partner fire as well - who'd want to have a partner that wouldn't do anything when someone swings a gun around to shoot you)?
In short, though called by the same names and played by the same actors, the characters otherwise unrelated to those of season one.
There is no point to watching this season. Though I was soon bored, I kept on because I figured there had to be some payoff somewhere. There isn't.
The first season is stunning. The second, though uneven, is still excellent.
The third, though, looks like some goof took the characters and wrote a weak fan-fiction version.
The technique is still superb: There are marvelous touches, like when a character shocking news there's no ominous theme music or heavy-handed camerawork; it's just an ordinary afternoon. It's just that the writing has fallen apart.
To the injury of wasted time and money, one writer adds insult, literally: Wondering why the second season was inferior to the first, I listened to the writer's commentary on an episode. She starts by insulting the audience for having nothing better to do than listen to her. It's not funny - it doesn't seem to be meant to be funny - and it turns out to be a well-founded, as she has nothing interesting to say.
Might explain why the following season is so crappy. Everything is just plot devices and recycled sitcom gags (e.g., meeting the priest in the video store).
I was curious enough about why this was so bad, when the first season was so good, that I poked around on the Internet a bit. A lot of comments were along the lines of will X and Y get back together? Will A and B break up? Soap opera comments for a soap opera season.
There are people who liked season three; there are people who like soap operas, and this season basically is one (centered around a funeral home).
Read the episode guides. By the second episode of the first series, so much had happened it felt like I'd been watching for at least a season already. And although the second season faltered, with a lot more filler, it still had a great deal to offer.
Had the entire third season been cut down to make up one episode, or maximum two, it might have been good, but as it is, it's all just vague filler, a waste of time and talent.
Anyone who likes Six Feet Under and hasn't yet watched beyond season two would be well advised not to. Just pretend it ended at the end of season two, maybe leaving some things unresolved, but that's just the way it ended. Leave it there and appreciate it for what it was. Unless you're a big fan of fan-fiction, there's no point in watching beyond that.
Six Feet Under - Fourth Season - Volume 5
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Editorial Review:
Volume 5 from Fourth Season of Six Feet Under. DVD includes episodes 11, 12 + audio commentary (Bomb Shelter + Untitled episodes).
Six Feet Under: The Complete Third Season (VOL. 2 ONLY)
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Editorial Review:
Episodes 3-5
Six Feet Under - The Complete First Three Seasons
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8
Average rating: 4.0 of 5
Six Feet Under Par... 1 out of 5 stars.
8 of 69 people found this review helpful.
Agree 110% with "Not Yet Lemming," as this show's writers are bigots of the first degree. Alan Ball's hatred of doctors is thinly veiled...if he portrayed gay men (or other minorities) with this same kind of venom he'd have lawsuits to contend with (his portrayal of gay men is overly reverent BTW). If only doctors had the time to sit around smoking dope instead of helping people, perhaps they could come up with a show portraying the film industry and its effect on our collective national psyche. It would certainly be refreshing to see reality through the eyes of intelligent, well-educated folk rather than the perverse "reality" of narcissistic ignoramuses. While I'm on the subject of bigotry, those who either suffer from, or know someone who suffers from bipolar disorder will find this show painful, offensive, and utterly prejudicial. Hooray for Hollywood and their full perversion of First Amendment rights.
It's ironic that Hollywood (land of overpaid idiots with diminutive talent and intelligence) continues to be lauded by the average American. These people care nothing about those whose hard-earned cash makes them wealthy beyond everyone else's wildest dreams. They fill people's heads with whatever trash their own reality consists of...mental filth and degradation. They laugh all the way to the bank while filling our children's heads with propaganda. Parents cannot hope to keep up with the bad influences that Hollywood provides, yet America continues to adore and grossly overpay these swine.
The ignorance of these Hollywood pukes is underscored on every show. The almost constant inaccuracies are grossly insulting to the well educated viewer. Because they know that America will swallow any half-baked idea they toss out there, it isn't necessary to consult with experts about things they know nothing about. Since these writers are such amateur analysts perhaps they should find themselves a Freudian analyst (good luck! As most folks know, Freudian analysis has been dead for decades) to explore within themselves the notions of projection, reaction formation, and the like. (Unfortunately, they're incapable of internalizing anything, so they'd just vomit it back out to the American public to the tune of billions of dollars). No wonder we look so insane to the rest of the world...Hollywood can claim no small part in it.
What would Alan Ball (or any of the other writers on this show) do if America stopped supporting their tripe...that is, if he had to get a real job? By his own admission, he couldn't make it through school, as he isn't even educated in film making. If he couldn't even make it through a couple of years of college, he certainly has no concept of what a decade or more of training would be like. So he portrays doctors as pretentious obnoxious L.A. types (the only world he really knows), and elevates school teachers to therapists.
Let's talk about Alan Ball et. al.'s armchair psychoanalytic skills in more detail. Because his perverse L.A. lifestyle is so far from reality, he actually believes that he is portraying a "repressed" family. In fact, most people would find this family far from "repressed." How many people do you know who spill their guts so rashly and frequently as this family? Do we know "repressed" 60-year old widows who date 3 men (one of them half her age) and "accidentally" ingest Ecstasy? Do we know "repressed" young men who have sex with strangers in an airport? Do we know "repressed" teenage girls who smoke crack, stay out all night with no consequences, and mouth off every chance they get? This is the Hollywood version of "repressed," directly from the Land Where Anything Goes.
If you're looking for an excellent series, try Kieslowski's "The Decalogue." He portrays a reality that is thought-provoking and entertaining. And perhaps you will see for yourself that we don't have to settle for a diet of abysmal fare.
I sincerely hope that the American public begins to ponder the consequences of these "Hollywood brainstorms" not only on their own minds, but more importantly, the impact on our children. We are, after all, the ones who keep them in business.
Editorial Review:
Life. Death. Guilt. Afterlife. For Nate, David, Ruth and Claire Fisher, the world outside the Fisher & Sons Funeral Home is as challenging - and far less predictable - than the one inside. One of HBO's biggest break-out hits, Six Feet Under has won seven Emmys? and three Golden Globes?. Pay your respects to the show The New York Times calls, "Required viewing in the canon of pop culture," and see how unforgettable life can be when you're Six Feet Under.
Six Feet Under - The Complete Third and Fourth Seasons (2 Pack)
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Six Feet Under: The Complete Third Season (VOL. 4 ONLY)
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Six Feet Under: The Complete Third Season (VOL. 3 ONLY)
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Six Feet Under - Season 4 Disc 3
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Editorial Review:
Single volume from the fourth season of Six Feet Under. Volume 3 includes episodes 6, 7 and 8 plus audio commentaries. Episodes: Terror Starts at Home, The Dare + Coming and Going.
Six Feet Under the Second Season Volume One
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Editorial Review:
DVD- 2 episodes; IN THE GAME and OUT OUT BRIEF CANDLE