Five Reasons Why Six Feet Under is the Greatest Television Show of All Time

So, I just plowed through the entire five seasons of the critically acclaimed HBO TV show Six Feet Under... in about three weeks. Sure, there are probably other things I could have been doing, considering this has been one of the most demanding semesters I've had in college. But, sometimes things just got too heavy, so what do I do? Immerse myself in binge-watching a show that is pretty heavy itself to say the least. For those that don't know, Six Feet Under is a show that follows the times of a family of funeral directors. The father - Nathaniel, the mother - Ruth, son - David, son - Nathaniel Jr. (Nate), daughter - Claire. In honor of my insane, tear-filled, emotional breakdown-ridden marathon, I have decided to sum up 5 reasons why this is the greatest TV show I have ever seen in my life.

SPOILER ALERT!

1. "The Foot" - As fans of the show know, each episode begins with a death. In the third episode of season one, a man gets chopped up in a dough mixer after it accidentally turns on while he's inside. So, as you can imagine, there were several severed body parts.
   
   But wait, there's more!
   
   Claire sucked her boyfriend Gabe's toes in the back of the hearse she drives to school one day. She didn't really want to, but she was in love, you know? He decided it was a great idea to tell the whole school--resulting in Claire's car being graffiti-ed with phrases like "toe slut". So, what does Claire do to enact revenge? She steals one of the dead man's severed foots and stuffs it in his locker.
   
2. Ruth's 'Fuck You' Outburst in "The Plan" - This was the episode when Ruth Fisher became one of my favorite characters. Although, I've gone through moments of loving and hating each and every one of the Fishers. In this episode, Ruth joins a cult-like seminar called "The Plan", which commands it's attendees to build their "metaphorical house" from the ground up (i.e. change their life around). By the end, Ruth finally decide's she's had enough and goes on a
   
   
   huge rant of "Fuck You's" to everyone in The Plan, and her family as well. Among them: "Fuck all your lousy parents! Fuck my lousy parents while we're at it!" "Fuck my selfish, Bohemian sister with her fucking bliss!", "Fuck my legless grandmother!", "Fuck my dead husband!", and, my all-time favorite, "Fuck you, Robbie for dragging me to this terrible place and not letting me have a Snickers bar!"
   
3. "That's My Dog" - This is simultaneously one of the best and worst episodes of this entire series. It's the worst because of the subject matter. David and his boyfriend Kieth are in a phase of an open relationship. While delivering a body to the funeral home, David picks up a guy on the side of the road (who claims to be out of gas) in hopes of getting some action. However, things quickly turn sour when David realizes the guy doesn't even have a car, and he's a maniac that holds him at gunpoint for a long, crazed ride. This is far more than a simple carjacking. This guy holds David hostage just to have someone to be friends with. He's a maniac whom
   
   ends up making David smoke crack with him, leave the dead body on the side of the road because it keeps farting, among other insane occurrences. Things come to a head when the man makes David go catch a stray dog (which he says is his childhood dog), only to find out that it's indeed not his dog (which we get the sense he knew all along), blames David, drenches him in gasoline, and is almost to the point of killing him before he finally leaves. How in the world could this be also one of the best episodes? Because it accomplishes what it is supposed to--taking you on an emotionally draining journey into both David and the man's psyche that leaves you both puzzled and quivering at the end.
   
4. The Death in "In Case of Rapture" - In one of the most disturbing deaths of the entire series, an extremely devout Christian with a bumper sticker that says "I Brake for the
   
   Rapture" does exactly as her sticker says when a truck that is transporting blow-up dolls has the strings come loose and send the dolls flying high into the air. The woman believes this is the rapture, stops her car, and runs into the middle of the road - only to be hit by a car.
5. It's the Only TV Show to Successfully Kill Off a Main Character - Nate Fisher was essentially THE main character of the series. He was the son that made a life for himself apart from the family business, only to come back and take his father's place after he died in a car crash in the first episode of the series. The detail that was given to the trials and tribulations of Nate's life (and the fact that Peter Krause's name is first in the opening credits) made it obvious that he
   
   was the main character of the show. Finally, 3 episodes before the series finale, Nate loses his battle with his brain condition, AVM (arteriovenous malformation). The death came as a complete shock due to the fact that the doctors were saying he would be fine. I don't think I have ever cried so much as I did in the episode following this one--where the family mourns Nate's completely unexpected loss.

If you ask me in a couple of weeks, I might change a few of these moments. But as I am writing this, these are moments in this series that stuck out to me the most. One thing not mentioned that the show does very well is give insight into the human imagination. In this show, everybody daydreams. They play around with it so much that often you have to ask yourself "Is this real?" The emotional whirlwind, dark humor, social commentary, and wit of this show truly make it one of the best (if not the best) in the history of this thing we call television.

Until Next Time, Peace & B Wild.