I’m loving this show a whole bunch, as is ** Pump Action Gerbil **, but no one is talking about it. Are we alone?
stoid
I love this show! I’ve seen about three episodes. However, we don’t have HBO, and it would run us an extra $12.50/month to add it to our cable package. That works out to a little over three bucks a show, so I don’t think it’ll happen soon. I’m thinking of asking a friend to tape it every week for me. Or I can just wait until it’s out on video and rent them all.
Nope, you are definitely not alone. One of the best shows I’ve seen in a long time. Not a weak actor/actress on there, and the writing is so powerful. Of course, I liked American Beauty too. BTW I like your use of the phrase “digging it”. Intentional? 
I LOVE this show. I can’t quite put my finger on why, but it’s great. I originally started watching it just because it was something to do after “Sex and the City” was over, but I’m hooked now. It’s just quirky enough, I just about died laughing at the “commercials” in the first episode, especially the one with all the Gap-style dancers with the dirt shakers (I don’t recall the proper name) I’ve also openly cried while watching this show. (when Claire got called “toe slut” must’ve hit a nerve with me) I might be nuts, but I thinks it’s the best new show on this year.
Yup, this show rocks.
The characters reactions are awesome. I love to give my S.O. that same look of confusion/disbelief that Nate used in the grocery store after talking to Brenda on his cell. (I think it was the first or second episode)
Haven’t missed an episode yet… One of the best shows I’ve seen in a long time… And yeah, made me cry a couple of times too… but it’s the dark humor that I love in it… Laughed out loud lots of times…
Which is really strange, cuz I HATED American Beauty…
Amazing how much good stuff there is nowadays on HBO and Showtime… Oz, Queer As Folk, The Sopranos…
I’m definitely hooked, and I’m not sure why… I think it’s because so far, the characters are non-formulaic enough to be interesting. They’re actually multi-dimensional.
I also love the peeks into the minds of the characters, whether thru their interactions with the recently departed or the elder Fisher, or thru their little flights of fantasy. I was especially struck by Nate’s discovery of his father’s secret room and his attempt to understand why his dad had that room…
Claire scares me - I guess because I have a daughter her age…
Yep, I’m hooked.
Oh, me, too. I hated “American Beauty” but I LOVE “Six Feet Under.”
I also love the dark humor.
Favorite lines:
I like the line Fredrico had in the first episode, when he was showing Nate the pictures of the couple (killed by gunshot wounds to the head) that he fixed up for a viewing, then says, “Then we cremated them. What a fucking waste.”
Also the bit at the church after David was talking to the girl that seems to be following him. He goes back to his mother, and she says, “She seems nice” and David says, “She seems nuts.”
Yes, Nuji, the “commercials” in the first episode were a riot. The Gap dancers…I’m laughing just thinking about it again.
Me too. Great show, and I think the writing is great. Alan Ball only wrote the first episode (or two), but the staff writing is superb.
I really like the use of the prologue to set the theme of each episode.
I love this one, too. I especially like the way Nate is growing as a character, in that he’s finding out how deeply he still cares about his family and the way he’s growing into–and maybe even liking–his responsibilities to the business. Plus he’s dreamy.
I’m also totally entranced by the opening sequence. The images of life ending…it’s really something, and the music just adds a wonderful layer.
My favorite of the commercials in the first episode was the Calvin Kline-esque spot for embalming fluid. I mean, ::snerk::
I love the show too. The way the characters are developing are great. One of my favorite scenes to date is the one in which David and Nate are having lunch with the guy who is trying to run them out of business, and David, fresh from his “pep talk” from the dead street punk (“see how your heart’s racing? When the other guy feels that way, you won”), threatens the guy. What a powerful scene! He barely had to move, or change his tone of voice. Great stuff. We’ve been seeing some transformations in his character espeically.
I love that each scene change is created by a fade to WHITE, instead of black. Adds to the oddity of it.
One of my favorite parts of the show is the fact that David seems to consider it completely common-place to have conversations with the departed souls of the cadavers <sp?> he’s working on. Really adds to that beautiful quirkiness of the show.
I got my boyfriend hooked on the show…first one was free, you know. He really loved “Sports Night” so he was willing to watch it for Peter Krause alone. All the characters are so richly developing and the little glimpses of idle thoughts make it worth watching alone. “I just can’t get enough of his cock.” Brilliant.
Great Show…I love it. My girlfriend finds it morbid but I know she digs it. All the characters are great and both complex and funny.
Frederico, their mortician is hilarious and I love finding out ways he made the corpse look better and his face lighting up as he reveals his ‘secret’. “Cat food cans. My sister did a commercial for one of them once and I got like boxes of the shit lying around.” And of course, the secret of the foot
I have begun using the term ‘coffin climber’ with startling regularity.
I find David fascinating in his ways of thinking about everything and love when he comes ‘out of his shell’. Someone mention the verbal throwdown he had with the competitor in the restaurant. Classic. I also enjoy seeing him get flummoxed.
Last weeks scene where Nate finds the gay porn on his VCR had me rolling as David practically launched himself from the dining room to stop it as Nate began to laugh.
“No No! Its ok! I enjoy porn too!”
Yes, I love this show. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do on my Sunday nights when the Sopranos was over. I too love dark humor. But I have one question, who is that girl who keeps trying to pick-up David? I thought I’ve seen all the shows. Did I miss something?
Speaking of dark humor, did anyone esle see the humor in the movie Blue Velvet?
I think the Funeral Groupie character is one of the little touches that just makes this show! I love watching David squirm trying to get rid of her without admitting he’s Gay…
The whole closet thing is just SO well done… Not that I can remember what it’s like to be in the closet any more lol…
Speaking of which… the look on Claire’s face when she realizes that the cop is more than just David’s friend is classic!
I sure hope that David’s boyfriend isn’t gone for good… His self-esteem balances David’s self-hatred perfectly…
SFCanadian
The girl, as I am to believe, is a funeral runner. They may be called something else but I know they exist. This wierd group of people go to funerals because it makes them feel better as a person or some other reason. They will usually make the rounds, going to 3-5 funerals a day and grieve right along with families like it was their dad. A strange lot…
I believe the girl is one because a) She hit on David (what more could a funeral runner want than a husband in the business so that she would have a reason to be there) and b) when David walks off, she was going through the obituraries and circling another funeral.
c) She showed up at another service and made a quick exit when questioned.
I knew a guy in the business who said he had a few of them that liked to lurk around. Says they are all walks of life and just seem to enjoy the grief.
If it is hard to imagine, think of Jack/Tyler Durden in ‘Fight Club’. He went to therapy groups. Sorta the same level as funeral runners
This is the best thing to hit HBO since The Sopranos; I even think it uses dark humor better than the Sopranos (Maggio la mia nonna italiana lo perdona per dire così!)
I think part of its appeal is its use of imagery, sometimes combined with music, as with Nate’s puzzling out his father’s activities in that seedy little room to the Amboy Dukes Journey To The Center Of The Mind.
Awesome show. And I hear so little buzz about it; I hope it’s around for a while.
It’s a great show.
I’ve noticed that almost all of the HBO original series is 3-4 stars.
Some of the shows (Curb Your Enthusiasm/Arils) took me awhile to warm up to but in the end I like them all quite a bit. The Sunday line up rocks, and it looks like they are going to cycle the shows so that it’s locked up for a long time. Do you realize how good Sunday nights are right now while the Sopranos, CYE, and OZ are all on hiatus?
Jeannie, you may want to take a look at some of the other shows and that $3 per show may drop into the .50 range.
My question is about the dead, are the live characters imagining conversations with them or are we to believe they are talking to spirits?
I notice that if someone walks in on a conversation and they are around bodies often they don’t question it but if it’s someone like the mother they ask, “who are you talking to?”
Neat show, but this is a IMHO, I think.
I take it to be more along the lines of thinking out loud.