Six Feet Under

The Fisher family run a funeral home, where other people's worst days are also a working routine. Six Feet Under uses that arrangement to make death unavoidable without making the living any better at dealing with their own problems.

The ensemble gives the household a difficult, convincing intimacy. Nate, David, Claire and Ruth can understand one another closely and still choose exactly the wrong moment to insist on being heard. The business introduces other families, but the Fishers are never simply detached professionals observing them.

Alan Ball's series moves between dark humour and emotional seriousness with room for awkwardness. Some characters are frustrating company; that is different from them being carelessly written. Their attempts to change are often less tidy than the explanations they give themselves.

It is a substantial recommendation for viewers willing to spend time with family relationships rather than wait for a central mystery. After Life approaches grief through a much smaller comic world. Six Feet Under has the breadth to follow how loss and ordinary living keep interrupting each other.