1. It Is Cheaper Than Therapy
There are a lot of issues that Alan Ball and his excellent team of writers made us confront. Through Nate we had to watch the acceptance of a natural disease, unplanned fatherhood, fear of repeating the sins of the father, and one of the best existential journeys written for television. With David, we lived through the daunting outing phase for a closeted man of deep faith, the trials of open relationships, adoption, and psychological repercussions after a traumatic event. Brenda and her diagnosed bi-polar brother, Billy, helped us deal with caretaker responsibilities for family members and the importance of freedom, autonomy, and responsibility away from those family members for the sake of sanity And of course, back to death, it helped us come to grips with our own mortality. Each episodes opening sequence ranged from elderly to infants in their moment of death. None of us are untouchable; none of us are immune to death. It can happen at any moment, and death does not wait for us to clean up our messes before were taken away. Viewing Six Feet Under is like sitting on your psychiatrists couch for 63 hours. It drags up repressed thoughts and feelings, it makes you confront uncomfortable situations and thoughts you may have, and it reminds you that youre human, youre imperfect and all you can do is try to do the best you can. Life was messy for the Fishers, and its messy for all of us, dont let that get in the way of living.
I spent my whole life being scared. Scared of not being ready, of not being right, of not being who I should be. And where did it get me? Nate Fisher