The Fishers have finally returned. After a seemingly interminable hiatus, the HBO drama Six Feet Under is back for another season of harsh life lessons and deliciously dark humour. It has been far too long.
As a matter of record it's been one full year since viewers have received a fresh voyeur's glimpse into the chaotic lives of Ruth, Nate, David and Claire Fisher, the most dysfunctional yet endearing family to ever run a funeral home. The Fishers are the coldly real lifeblood of the best drama on TV today.
Six Feet Under has become an addiction for many viewers. The HBO drama has earned substantial ratings on TMN here during its first four seasons; the first two seasons are also among the top-rated series on Showcase. As with the other hits from HBO's original-drama factory, such as The Sopranos, Deadwood and Oz, Six Feet Under has an abbreviated season and new episodes are doled out very sparingly. For the true fan, each break between Six Feet Under seasons seems a lifetime.
The show's return this week comes as a mixed blessing for fans: The creators have made it abundantly clear that the forthcoming fifth season will be the last hurrah.
Although it's still too early for eulogies, Six Feet Under has always been a unique entity and further evidence the best drama comes from the cable realm. There's no possible way Six Feet Under could exist on regular network television. Each episode began with the death of a potential customer. In the first five minutes of the first show it was Fisher family patriarch Nathaniel, who perished in a horrific car crash involving the family hearse. His demise created a quantum shift from which the surviving Fisher family members have never really recovered.
The Fishers were a family of wounded souls in that first year of Six Feet Under. Newly widowed Ruth (Frances Conroy) was lost and bewildered by her husband's death, even though her marriage was loveless; Nate (Peter Krause) was the prodigal son who came home for a Christmas visit and wound up staying; David (Michael C. Hall), the closeted gay man and unofficial heir to the family business; and the raven-haired problem child Claire, a former honor student who somehow managed to fall for the only wanted felon in her high school. Oh, Claire.
Their problems were raw in their realness, and four years later, the Fishers have grown little, which in itself is part of the show's formula. If the Fishers were a family on a regular network series, their problems would have been neatly ironed out, or at least made more tolerable, by this stage in the story arc. As the fifth season opens, though, their lives are more hopelessly complicated than ever.
Those keeping track will recall the fourth season ended on a hanging note for each of the Fishers: Nate saw some merciful resolution to what really happened to his late wife, Lisa. David was at a breaking point in his relationship with life-partner Keith. Claire was breaking through as an artist but she was also an emotional wreck. And Ruth, poor Ruth, was just beginning to realize she married the wrong man.
Any details on the fifth season of Six Feet Under will be kept to a minimum, since it would only spoil things for the devoted. What can be revealed: There are more twists in the fifth-season opener than in the entire fourth season.
In fitting Six Feet Under fashion, the human condition appears to be reaching critical mass among the Fishers. All is not what it seems and each family member is now being drawn into strange new emotional territory. There are only 12 chapters remaining in the Fisher-family saga. And now, the end is near.
Nate Fisher (Peter Krause)
Eldest Fisher progeny whose return coincided precisely with the death of his father in a fatal car accident. On the same trip home, Nate also met Brenda, the erstwhile love of his life. Over four seasons, Nate has settled into working at the family funeral home -- the one job he never wanted -- and fathered a daughter in his fleeting marriage with the dearly departed Lisa. Currently he's back in a relationship with Brenda.
David Fisher (Michael C. Hall)
Nate's younger, openly gay brother (although he only revealed it after his father's death). David is the only Fisher paying serious attention to the family business, and now resides with his long-time partner Keith (Michael St. Patrick), an ex-LAPD officer. Even though incredibly self-conscious, David is the most stable Fisher family member. As the fifth season opens, Keith and David are trying to adopt a child.
Claire Fisher (Lauren Ambrose)
Younger sister to Nate and David, she's angry at the world. Claire isn't long out of high school and more recently dropped out of art college. In keeping with family tradition, Claire has terrible luck with male suitors -- one was a wanted felon, the other a fellow art student who seemed to be gay. Claire is currently dating Brenda's brother Billy (Jeremy Sisto), a fellow artist and manic-depressive with sociopathic tendencies.
Ruth Fisher (Frances Conroy)
The long-suffering matriarch of the Fisher clan, Ruth lost interest in the family business after the death of her husband. Most of her time since has been spent fending off various suitors, including Hiram (Ed Begley Jr.), a wimpy naturalist and Nikolai (Ed O'Ross), a Russian florist with mob connections. More currently, Ruth has become caregiver for George (James Cromwell), who is suffering from severe depression and dementia.
Nathaniel Fisher (Richard Jenkins)
Husband of Ruth and father of Nate, David and Claire, he was killed when hit broadside by a bus in SFU's very first episode. By all accounts, Nathaniel was a relatively decent man but only a so-so father and husband. He also apparently had an unknown wild side and kept a spare apartment for affairs. Nathaniel is very dead, but his ghostly visage turns up regularly to counsel his family, particularly Nate.