Six Feet Under

I just watched the finale of Six Feet Under and the entire series recently in 2008.
Wasn’t living in the U.S. in it’s heyday and not into TV back then. Still don’t have a TV now. Watching via internet is actually quite decent as I choose what to watch and am not bombarded with mindless crap..

THE FINALE
As cliché it may have been to viewers it tore me apart emotionally. Whatever choices the writers made that may have not made sense to some is valid but may not be the point. Art is made to make you feel something.
The epiphany I had as a result is that the choices man makes is merely part of the infinite cycle of life and death. And that in itself is quite beautiful, no different then a fallen leaf from a tree crumbled into the earth into a seemingly nothing, integrated back into the soil nourishing the tree that gives birth to another leaf and so on and on. The logo of the series is a tree with Lisa and Nate, both buried simply, among them who understood and honored this spiritual cycle.

The tree, as symbol for this process and the concept of family, functional or not, is etched in its rings and memorial to that experience, of that family, of a life that is infinite.

The finale flash forward rush of the future sequences seemed fitting. While sculpting the finale with detailed logic and precise perfection may have yielded a greater work of art, it may have lead to another year of episodes. Sometimes the passion to finish has to do with it being done, accepting that the future is unknown and contingent on further choice. There are other trees with stories to tell.

The last few minutes of one’s life as flash back or the next eighty flashing forward with speed has been over done in the visual medium but doesn’t make it less real and could merely be indicative of Claire’s state, in gestation of the past and anticipation of the unknown. As the only member of the Fisher Family who had ever made the choice to be free, to find herself and fulfill her life’s passion, the future events, thus had no futuristic feel as they were seen through her eyes at that point in time.

The Maggie at the doctor’s scene does imply she may have been pregnant with Nate’s child and fitting reason why they got together. On a spiritual level, he was able to give her something she lost, a child. They connected spiritually unlike Brenda who believed in nothing. That Nate decides to break off with Brenda and then dies is significant. It wasn’t that he was running towards Maggie rather away from Brenda.
Nate, as with most men need to feel they can change a women’s life for the better. He didn’t love Lisa and couldn’t give Brenda what she needed because deep down he saw her as too damaged and beyond his love. Both women mirrored this dissatisfaction back despite their love for him. He very well may have been narcissistic. In short, he couldn’t love that deeply. Maggie was the spiritual peace he was looking for, but I’m not convinced that would have worked either, as his real issue was commitment to a woman at the expense of his freedom. No woman could compete with that.
Although Nate was idealistic, spiritual and gifted at helping those who grieved, I didn’t feel sorry for him when he died. All the talk of telling the truth and he couldn’t do it himself. He was never honest with himself or the women that loved him. He tried hard to do the right thing, to love deeper, but it wasn’t in his nature. That he broke off with Brenda was a gift, finally in honesty, allowing her to let go of him more easily in truth.
Perhaps he learned that from the Lisa situation. That he couldn’t be honest with love in life is the question. His character served as a catalyst, of change in the series. Once everyone did, he was gone.

~ by svetsky on May 15, 2008.