- Joined
- Sep 15, 2014
I recently, regrettably, watched through all of Six Feet Under. I heard that it was one of the essential HBO series, and after watching through The Wire, True Detective and The Sopranos (the latter being probably the one the best pieces of American media of the past fifty years, no hyperbole), I thought I should give it a shot. The first two seasons were pretty good, but damn did the series have a quality drop-off in the later seasons. Some of the plot twists were so ridiculous I had to wonder if I watched the same show as everyone else did. The most absurd was probably when
Virtually none of the characters were likable by the end. Nate in particular was a self-absorbed manchild who acted like he was fresh out of college despite apparently being 40 years old. Even Ruth, who was easily my favorite earlier, was a grade-A bitch by the end. And Brenda never proved to be sympathetic, but apparently we're supposed to bleed our hearts for her because she just was "never able to express herself." The writing has aged like milk; the issues raised have about the subtlety of a sledgehammer and some of the dialogue honestly felt like a circlejerk of myopic Californians. I stuck around for the apparently "satisfying ending", but by that point my primary satisfaction was relief over not having to deal with these characters anymore.
I wasn't surprised when I learned that Alan Ball also wrote the incredibly overrated American Beauty, another self-absored, morally skewed, and unwarrantedly pretentious work. I don't know how to put it, but something about his way he depicts sexuality really gets under my skin as if he's projecting all of his own demons onto everyone else.
So yeah, bitchrant over. Just miffed that I wasted probably 60 hours of my life on an underwhelming show.
Hoyt, a character we hardly knew, revealed he had an affair with Lisa and then killed himself on the spot.
I wasn't surprised when I learned that Alan Ball also wrote the incredibly overrated American Beauty, another self-absored, morally skewed, and unwarrantedly pretentious work. I don't know how to put it, but something about his way he depicts sexuality really gets under my skin as if he's projecting all of his own demons onto everyone else.
So yeah, bitchrant over. Just miffed that I wasted probably 60 hours of my life on an underwhelming show.