On a boring TV night I decided to skim though my cable On Demand options, and saw that the first half dozen episodes of season 1, so I thought WTF I’ll give it a shot. I had never seen an episode, frankly because the whole idea of a TV show set in a funeral home just creeped me out.
I am SO glad I tried it out. What a terrific show! And I had never heard that it was a comedy.
So I’m taking a short break in a 6 show marathon to write this. How many seasons are there?
The one thing that pisses me off is how On Demand operates here. They run a half season for about a month, and then run the next half season for a month, and so on. I will watch the 6 shows in 1 or 2 nights, and then I have to wait another month for the next 6 shows. Arrrrgh.
Five seasons and a grand total of 63 episodes. Watch every single one, in order. Trust me, it’s worth it. Netflix is you friend when it comes to stuff like this.
Ok, just saw the first seriously non-comic thing at end of episode 2, when the new competing crematorium burns down with the suggestion that the foot-stealing daughter did it.
Mrs Made in Macau and I have watched the first 3 series in the last three weeks. Well almost - the last disc is missing from the s3 boxset! Bought new! Frustrating.
Anyway it’s universally good but imho Lauren Ambrose is amazing as Claire.
Enjoy the rest of the show.
I really loved how the series started, but as it continued, I found myself watching more out of habit than interest. It got to where I hated Nate and his mother. I will agree, tho, the finale was one of the best I’ve seen for a series.
You’ll probably get over the idea of watching 3+ episodes per day pretty soon. The show is pretty heavy, for lack of a better term. Personally, I could only watch one, show a night. Every once in a while I could do two, but not very often. When I decided to re-watch it, I was averaging about 3-4 episodes per week.
Take it slow, absorb it, think about it, find the episode by episode discussions we had here and read them after a viewing.
It really was an amazing series, try not to blast through it too quickly.
This is without a doubt my favourite TV show ever, and I recommended it to a friend who watched it and said it changed her life seeing it. Another vote for best finale ever, I can’t think of another piece of film or television that provoked such a profound amount of emotion from me.
I disagree with those who say it became less interesting to watch; of course the tenor of the show is going to change as characters evolve and storylines develop. Some bits you’ll like more than others, it’s inevitable. I watched it on DVD and ended up powering through several episodes a night all the way to the finish.
Is it a comedy? Not really, I’d say blackly comedic drama.
Agreed. Season 3 is pretty uneven and Season 4 is downright shitty. Season 5 is pretty good (and that finale, hot damn!), but it’s never as good as Season 1 or 2 ever again.
Another suggestion, after you finish this, jump (like so many of us did) right into Dexter. Not only is another great show, but Dexter and David are such polar opposites of each other it’ll really throw you for a loop in the first handful of episodes.
I’ve seen all of Dexter (looking forward to next season!) and I thought just the opposite, that had the two series magically melded into one, Dexter would an almost inevitable character development of David, except for the gay thing. Soft-spoken control freak who eventually goes over the line.
I watched episodes 1-3 last night, and at 3 AM decided I was too groggy to go on.
I also discovered the series well after it ended and loved it the character development. David went from annoying and petty to a more sympathetic character for me. Nate went from being the cool brother to being just one big fat jerk. Ruth was interesting although hate- inspiring towards the end.
Brenda & Claire were my favorites - I know most people hate Brenda but I saw her as a deeply flawed person that at least tried to do better.
My wife and I just finished up Season 5 a couple of nights ago. I had heard many people say that the series finale was one of the best ever on TV and I would absolutely agree.
I wouldn’t call it a comedy but it is definitely infused with a lot of dark humor.
And yeah, we did Netflix so I always had one disc in transit while we were watching the next one. Much better than having to wait for On Demand to catch up.