Leaderboard ad

Passionfruit ads

Wednesday 9 May 2012

The impact of 'Six Feet Under'

'Six Feet Under' - the groundbreaking TV series which had such a profound impact on the way we view death... and life.

I was riveted the entire series... until it came to the last episode.

Somehow, I missed it that week... and decided, I could not bring myself to watch it because that would mean the whole thing would be over. Unusual, I know, and psychologists would have a field day with analysing that one. To this day, I have not seen the last ep. Not on YouTube, not as part of the last season DVD boxset. Until this coming Monday, when channel 7TWO (Australian TV) will screen the last episode. I have just seen glimpses of it in the third clip down, here.

The clips here are from the doco 'Life and Loss: The Impact of Six Feet Under'.

[Warning: many scenes here are graphic and confronting]:


Says series creator/executive producer Alan Ball: "I wanted to explore the drama and beauty of the fact that we're mortal. I wanted to bring death out of the closet."


Continues Alan Ball: "When someone you love dies, a piece of you is ripped out of you. And there's no way out of it, than through it."


Adds Alan: "Until you really face the truth of your mortality, you can't really start to live."

After watching the first few eps when it first screened, I told a friend that I was obsessed with the series and she asked me how I could be, seeing as I'd lost my father so tragically and so young and have never really recovered. I couldn't quite explain it. 

Now, Alan Poul, executive producer on the show, explains it for me: "People who have just suffered a loss of a loved one, rather than finding it too difficult too watch, they find the show a source of comfort."

Are you a fan? Why did the series appeal to you? Have you experienced death and were you drawn to the series because of that?


No comments:

Post a Comment