[6.7/10] I’ve taken care of bipolar friends and relatives before. Things can get bad, and I can appreciate Six Feet Under trying to show that. But the bits with Brenda and Billy and Nate feel cartoonish and exaggerated to the point of being offensive. If you’re going to grapple with something like this, it needs to feel real, not just because that makes for better storytelling, but because anything else does a disservice to the real life people suffering from the illness that you’re representing on your show. It left a real sour taste in my mouth for what’s otherwise a fairly mild episode.
But it’s par for the course, I suppose. The Brenda/Nate material continues to be the weakest part of the show, and the fact that they’re playing mystery box with the full depths of what’s going on vis-a-vis Brenda and her family and their trauma feels really crass. Nate and Brenda’s getaway weekend being ruined by Billy having an episode isn’t a bad notion to build around, but the show does it in way too blunt and cliché a fashion.
The story I liked the most here was Ruth’s, maybe just because it was the most uplifting. I like her firmly starting this new chapter of her life and accepting that it’s started. Her inviting Hiram to dinner is a big step, and as amusingly weird as her kids’ imagine spots of the two of them are, you can see how much it means to Ruth to have him there. It’s a nice thing. At the same time, it’s really pleasant to see her taking a job at Nickolai’s flower shop, both because she’s good at it (helping a pair of fiancees figure out flowers for their wedding) and because for once the smell of flowers can signify joy rather than people being “shattered.” I’m more invested in her journey at the halfway mark of the season than I ever thought I’d be based on the earliest episodes, which is encouraging!
I was less crazy about Claire’s generic teenage rebellion shtick, which was a concern I had from a show created by the guy behind American Beauty.As with the Brenda/Billy storyline, there’s something true to life about a teenager looking at the options available to and expected of them and wanting to blow the whole thing up. But Claire imagining the life of the college-matriculator, grousing about not needing math in real life, and drawing a skull and crossbones on her PSAT is all such cheesy, standard-issue teen stuff with no meat or realism to it.
The mixed bag here is the story of Nate and David dealing with a deceased soldier who probably suffered from Gulf War syndrome and his surviving brother who hates the military for not taking care of him. I feel like a broken record, but there's the germ of a good idea there. The realization of it is just too cheesy and over-the-top to really click with me. I like the notion of the brothers being devoted to one another but having this be a wedge between them, but as with the episode itself, the resolution is pretty hamfisted. But hey, Nate taking it to heart, hugging David, and telling him he’ll always love him is a really heartwarming moment.
The only other thing worth noting is Frederico getting a call from Gilardi, which is seeming all the more tempting, especially when he’s forced to work double shifts on the weekend because Nate wants to run away with his girlfriend.
Oh, and I nearly forgot about David voting against the agitating potential priest hire! It is, like so much else, heavy-handed, but it teases out the contradiction of David being a conservative man who lives a very unconservative private life. There’s some complex psychological motivations at play here, with David worrying about creating an environment that might put his sexuality at issue in the community or force him to take a stand he doesn't want to, especially when the church is one of the few stable (not to mention lucrative) things for him during a rocky time. (Also, wasn’t David’s meeting at 9:30am? Why is Father Clark drinking scotch?)
Overall, this was a pack of otherwise good ideas hobbled by high volume or broad executions, coupled with a borderline offensive depiction of bipolar individuals and families.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2021-02-11T03:30:33Z
[6.7/10] I’ve taken care of bipolar friends and relatives before. Things can get bad, and I can appreciate Six Feet Under trying to show that. But the bits with Brenda and Billy and Nate feel cartoonish and exaggerated to the point of being offensive. If you’re going to grapple with something like this, it needs to feel real, not just because that makes for better storytelling, but because anything else does a disservice to the real life people suffering from the illness that you’re representing on your show. It left a real sour taste in my mouth for what’s otherwise a fairly mild episode.
But it’s par for the course, I suppose. The Brenda/Nate material continues to be the weakest part of the show, and the fact that they’re playing mystery box with the full depths of what’s going on vis-a-vis Brenda and her family and their trauma feels really crass. Nate and Brenda’s getaway weekend being ruined by Billy having an episode isn’t a bad notion to build around, but the show does it in way too blunt and cliché a fashion.
The story I liked the most here was Ruth’s, maybe just because it was the most uplifting. I like her firmly starting this new chapter of her life and accepting that it’s started. Her inviting Hiram to dinner is a big step, and as amusingly weird as her kids’ imagine spots of the two of them are, you can see how much it means to Ruth to have him there. It’s a nice thing. At the same time, it’s really pleasant to see her taking a job at Nickolai’s flower shop, both because she’s good at it (helping a pair of fiancees figure out flowers for their wedding) and because for once the smell of flowers can signify joy rather than people being “shattered.” I’m more invested in her journey at the halfway mark of the season than I ever thought I’d be based on the earliest episodes, which is encouraging!
I was less crazy about Claire’s generic teenage rebellion shtick, which was a concern I had from a show created by the guy behind American Beauty.As with the Brenda/Billy storyline, there’s something true to life about a teenager looking at the options available to and expected of them and wanting to blow the whole thing up. But Claire imagining the life of the college-matriculator, grousing about not needing math in real life, and drawing a skull and crossbones on her PSAT is all such cheesy, standard-issue teen stuff with no meat or realism to it.
The mixed bag here is the story of Nate and David dealing with a deceased soldier who probably suffered from Gulf War syndrome and his surviving brother who hates the military for not taking care of him. I feel like a broken record, but there's the germ of a good idea there. The realization of it is just too cheesy and over-the-top to really click with me. I like the notion of the brothers being devoted to one another but having this be a wedge between them, but as with the episode itself, the resolution is pretty hamfisted. But hey, Nate taking it to heart, hugging David, and telling him he’ll always love him is a really heartwarming moment.
The only other thing worth noting is Frederico getting a call from Gilardi, which is seeming all the more tempting, especially when he’s forced to work double shifts on the weekend because Nate wants to run away with his girlfriend.
Oh, and I nearly forgot about David voting against the agitating potential priest hire! It is, like so much else, heavy-handed, but it teases out the contradiction of David being a conservative man who lives a very unconservative private life. There’s some complex psychological motivations at play here, with David worrying about creating an environment that might put his sexuality at issue in the community or force him to take a stand he doesn't want to, especially when the church is one of the few stable (not to mention lucrative) things for him during a rocky time. (Also, wasn’t David’s meeting at 9:30am? Why is Father Clark drinking scotch?)
Overall, this was a pack of otherwise good ideas hobbled by high volume or broad executions, coupled with a borderline offensive depiction of bipolar individuals and families.