[7.0/10] It feels like the pathology of Six Feet Under is that Brenda is a terrible person/character; Nate is only slightly better, and any storyline with the two of them drags the entire show down.
I say that because “Life’s Too Short” isn’t bad at all! The other three storylines are good, and maybe even great! But the escapade where Nate flunks his funeral exam, and so Brenda leads him on a conman tour to pose as a grieving couple and see how other funeral directors do it, and it’s just the worst.
Again, for one thing, Brenda is a sociopath. Her bad acting as though her parents have died or that she has cancer is just abominable and even monstrous. Worse yet, the whole foundation of the thing is flawed. There’s some juice to the notion of Nate needing to see how other people do it to figure out his own way of handling people in a time of mourning and make peace with the concept of death.
But there are two big problems. The first is that the show wants Brenda to seem cute and quirky when she just comes off like a psychopath. The second is that the moral plays like the personification of the “I’m 14 and this is deep” subreddit. The whole “everybody dies” bit as the epiphany that Brenda gives Nate and which pushes him past his hang-up is so unbelievably trite. It can only provoke eye-rolls rather than profundity.
That said, the other storylines aren’t perfect, but they’re solid at worst. The one I find most intriguing is Claire having to deal with Gabe, the boy who slept with her and then shamed her as a “toe-licker,” when his six-year-old brother dies in a tragic firearm accident. What could make you more morally uncertain than someone who did something terrible to you suffering a horrible tragedy like that? The gray areas of her feelings about Gabe given all that’s happened and her trying to navigate that is strong material, even if the show plays it a little to Dawson’s Creek at times.
I also like David’s storyline here. Again, there’s a sense of David re-finding himself after the mental and emotional block of his father’s presence in his life is removed. Here, he again finds himself trying on the youth he never got to have, taking drugs and having flirty fun with his young date, something that seems especially appealing when he has to take his mind off embalming a little boy.
But he realizes it doesn’t fit him. He’s a serious person, one who can try to take drugs and party and be sexually free, but who deep down doesn’t connect with that stuff. David is accepting himself, and that’s great, but he’s also finding the parts of the life that’s now open to him that he wants and also seeing the parts he doesn’t want.
A chance run-in with Keith at the club leads, in a roundabout way, to him admitting to Nate that he too failed the funeral director’s exam on the first go-round. On a more profound and humble note, he tells Nate that he fucks up a lot, seeming more human and open to both his brother and sister. David’s slow evolution and mistakes as he feels out this new life are the best thing about Six Feet Under’s first season so far.
My favorite story in the episode though is Ruth’s accidental ecstacy trip while going camping with Hiram. She’s understandably conflicted, wanting to celebrate the “anniversary” with this man who’s been so kind to her, while also feeling guilty about what her husband would think and the shame of having cheated on him.
And yet, the show delivers my favorite scene of the series so far, where Ruth hallucinates a conversation with Nathaniel. Their playful banter about Ruth’s beaus is the most lived-in and real of any back-and-forth on the show, which befits an old married couple. Nathaniel’s playful jibes about her suitors and her laughing apologies hit just the right notes. At the same time, there’s a great sense of “Where did the time go?” as Ruth feels the passage of years and sees what lies ahead, needing to accept that as much, if not more, as Nate does. The joy she attains from pushing past that guilt and perceiving a sort of cosmic allowance to find her happiness is wonderful.
It’s just counterbalanced by the godawful subplot with the show’s two worst characters, who happened to be the top-billed characters. (Nate is the first in the credits, and Brenda gets the “And”.) Thankfully Six Feet Under is largely an ensemble, so there’s still plenty to salvage. But it’s a real challenge when the arguably focus of the series is on the worst elements it has to offer.
I don't know what it was like in 2001 but I can't imagine someone getting away with cancer joke in 2019. I feel like there would be major backlash or something.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2021-02-19T03:23:29Z
[7.0/10] It feels like the pathology of Six Feet Under is that Brenda is a terrible person/character; Nate is only slightly better, and any storyline with the two of them drags the entire show down.
I say that because “Life’s Too Short” isn’t bad at all! The other three storylines are good, and maybe even great! But the escapade where Nate flunks his funeral exam, and so Brenda leads him on a conman tour to pose as a grieving couple and see how other funeral directors do it, and it’s just the worst.
Again, for one thing, Brenda is a sociopath. Her bad acting as though her parents have died or that she has cancer is just abominable and even monstrous. Worse yet, the whole foundation of the thing is flawed. There’s some juice to the notion of Nate needing to see how other people do it to figure out his own way of handling people in a time of mourning and make peace with the concept of death.
But there are two big problems. The first is that the show wants Brenda to seem cute and quirky when she just comes off like a psychopath. The second is that the moral plays like the personification of the “I’m 14 and this is deep” subreddit. The whole “everybody dies” bit as the epiphany that Brenda gives Nate and which pushes him past his hang-up is so unbelievably trite. It can only provoke eye-rolls rather than profundity.
That said, the other storylines aren’t perfect, but they’re solid at worst. The one I find most intriguing is Claire having to deal with Gabe, the boy who slept with her and then shamed her as a “toe-licker,” when his six-year-old brother dies in a tragic firearm accident. What could make you more morally uncertain than someone who did something terrible to you suffering a horrible tragedy like that? The gray areas of her feelings about Gabe given all that’s happened and her trying to navigate that is strong material, even if the show plays it a little to Dawson’s Creek at times.
I also like David’s storyline here. Again, there’s a sense of David re-finding himself after the mental and emotional block of his father’s presence in his life is removed. Here, he again finds himself trying on the youth he never got to have, taking drugs and having flirty fun with his young date, something that seems especially appealing when he has to take his mind off embalming a little boy.
But he realizes it doesn’t fit him. He’s a serious person, one who can try to take drugs and party and be sexually free, but who deep down doesn’t connect with that stuff. David is accepting himself, and that’s great, but he’s also finding the parts of the life that’s now open to him that he wants and also seeing the parts he doesn’t want.
A chance run-in with Keith at the club leads, in a roundabout way, to him admitting to Nate that he too failed the funeral director’s exam on the first go-round. On a more profound and humble note, he tells Nate that he fucks up a lot, seeming more human and open to both his brother and sister. David’s slow evolution and mistakes as he feels out this new life are the best thing about Six Feet Under’s first season so far.
My favorite story in the episode though is Ruth’s accidental ecstacy trip while going camping with Hiram. She’s understandably conflicted, wanting to celebrate the “anniversary” with this man who’s been so kind to her, while also feeling guilty about what her husband would think and the shame of having cheated on him.
And yet, the show delivers my favorite scene of the series so far, where Ruth hallucinates a conversation with Nathaniel. Their playful banter about Ruth’s beaus is the most lived-in and real of any back-and-forth on the show, which befits an old married couple. Nathaniel’s playful jibes about her suitors and her laughing apologies hit just the right notes. At the same time, there’s a great sense of “Where did the time go?” as Ruth feels the passage of years and sees what lies ahead, needing to accept that as much, if not more, as Nate does. The joy she attains from pushing past that guilt and perceiving a sort of cosmic allowance to find her happiness is wonderful.
It’s just counterbalanced by the godawful subplot with the show’s two worst characters, who happened to be the top-billed characters. (Nate is the first in the credits, and Brenda gets the “And”.) Thankfully Six Feet Under is largely an ensemble, so there’s still plenty to salvage. But it’s a real challenge when the arguably focus of the series is on the worst elements it has to offer.