Six Feet Under: S3 (DVD)

Season 3 was a yawner for the most part. Sometimes I was unable to discern reality from "dream sequences" in the plot. I know I saw every episode in season 3, but I'll be darned if I could remember many of the scenes I saw on a marathon weekend of seeing the boxed set. That tells me much about season 3, and want it did and did not do for me personally. Certainly, SFU is dysfunction personified, the family dynamics, each character in his/her own right, and the funeral industry all played havoc with our minds as we the viewers attempted to make logic from the illogical and function from the dysfunctional. Having had a close relationship with the funeral industry for a number of years, I might be able to hold my own with terminology, fact, and fiction "laid to rest" on our shoulders by the writers of SFU. They've done a fine job of keeping things "real." I cannot agree with my "neighbor" W. Brown in Frisco (Dallas) Texas about his view of season 3. Though it was, many times, much like the daytime soaps, it still held a ring of truth.My gripe is with HBO for taking longer to produce the boxed CD set than the season lasted. I am pleasantly astonished that they have already set a release date for season 4, as season 5 begins June 6. Bravo for HBO for finally catching up with original series on other satellite/cable networks.I, like Mr./Ms. Brown only subscribe to HBO for SFU. I hope he/she and others will give the show another chance. Season 5 cannot be worse than season 3. Since I've found I'd been comatose throughout season 3, I'm about to launch into season 5 to see what happens as Nate and Brenda come back together as they hopefully should. David and Keith haven't a snowballs chance in Hades of ever being happy, and so long as Ruth continues her bi-polar existence, she'll be as happy as she will ever be as a single over-intrusive mother. The character Clair is so beyond any description, I'll just remain mute on what happens to her. Nothing will surprise me including the possibility of her painting the green hearse black or purple to match her dark persona. Has anyone seen her happy unless the happiness was chemically induced?To bring these ramblings to a conclusion is as impossible as bringing SFU to a conclusion. Perhaps I give myself too much credit for I cannot hold a candle to the writers and characters of SFU. I've loved every minute of SFU, even the ones I cannot remember. I will see them again on the boxed sets however, and think "How did I forget that?"The show has to end, although I am sad to know that this is the finale season. I see no resolution to any of the dysfunction, so we'll have to live with it just as the characters will. Is that not the reason we "love" SFU so much? We love the dysfunction, albeit, no matter how soapish it becomes, it will never approach the dysfunction of the daily soaps where script no longer matters so long as enough flesh is shown to keep the viewer titillated.Since the series began with the death of one who would likely have been a major character (and was as a ghost), I wonder if the series will end as it began. Who will be the one to go "Six Feet Under" in the last episode?

Any fan of SFU would agree that there is no one "protagonist" in the show, while, obviously, Nate seems most important, in that SFU begins with his arrival in LA from Seattle and ends with his death almost right after his 40th birthday. Amazing on so many levels, SFU so brilliantly succeeds in showing each character with equal depth. So, it can be appreciated from any character's point of view. The depth and subtlety of character portrayal comes mainly from the script, which wastes not a word, even in introducing a character through a brief conversation of other characters (Ex. Lisa's introduction in the "Driving Mr. Mossback" episode in Season 2. In the plane to Seattle, Claire asks Nate: "Is she all crunchy-granola, backpacky and way into grunge?", to which Nate answers: "Crunchy-granola, a little. Backpacky, definitely. Into grunge? No way. Grunge died long before Kurt Cobain did.")In Season 3, we see much more of Lisa, a character the likes of which I don't think I have seen in other shows or movies. As Claire memorably sums up ("she's f**ked up, too. Different kind of f**ked-up, though. Almost friendly and sweet"), she has her own share of traumas and issues, which are rarely explicitly stated, yet so convincingly, almost hauntingly, acted by Lili Taylor. Usually pathetic (in both of its sense, creepy and arousing pathos), Lisa in Season 3 often sent me down the memory lane to high school, where there were Lisa in every class. Well, No, come to think of it, I think any girl with a degree of complexity has Lisa in her, along with a bit (or much) of Brenda.Not only Lisa, and not to mention Brenda, every female character in SFU achieves a one-of-a-kind status in her own right. I have never seen women like them (Claire, Ruth, Sarah, Bettina) in a TV show, in America or in South Korea, before SFU. Season 3 is the season where some of them appear for the first time and some are explored with more depth.One of the greatest moment of the season comes in the last "I'm sorry, I'm lost" episode, where Nathaniel Fisher, Sr. leads his daughter Claire to see the glimpse of afterlife. There, she sees her long-lost ex-boyfriend Gabriel, and we get to know that he is most probably dead now. This was, to me, a good closure on the part he played in Claire's life.

There are some critics who believe that Season 3 of Six Feet Under is so far, by far, the weakest, but that simply isn't true. The other seasons that I've seen are just more intensive in relation to the show's resplendent realism and irreverent discourse on American culture. I'd like to think of Season 3 as a meditation on the subtleties and intricacies of relationships albeit strained, and as a transitional period for the characters.The show's producers immediately establish the ephemerality of the season in the first 3 episodes with Nate, Ruth and eventually Brenda, especially. Almost all the characters have this unspoken anxiety and so we as viewers feel this strain as well, like we are waiting for something, just as the characters on the show. This is probably why viewers have some reservations of this season. But because I know it is all purposive, I can truly see the genius behind it and the writers' intentions.The first eight or so episodes are quiet Taoist-like commentaries on just that, then the pace starts to quicken after some very tragic and dramatic events that affect the entire cast (all of which have really grown into their roles to convey a staunch realism that I have never-before-seen in actors).And the writers and producers write this way on purpose. This season is as subtle and quiet as a cool zephyr and just as refreshing. Yet the last 4 episodes really climb in dramatic intensity, leaving our edge-of-the-seat suspense to be quenched come Season 4.A shame Season 5 is their last, but Alan Ball will definitely guide this flawless series to an overwhelmingly beautiful end.

Leider fehlen mir die Worte, um die Grandiosität dieser Staffel zu beschreiben: Sie ist überirdisch gut, spitze, toll, wunderbar, ein Meisterwerk......Die Hinwendung zu einer stärkeren Fokussierung auf die Fisher-Charaktere und geringerer Beachtung der Leichen-Geschichten wird fortgesetzt (und man vermisst zweitere weiterhin ein bisschen), aber wie die Personen gezeichnet werden, braucht den Vergleich mit ganz großer Weltliteratur nicht zu scheuen. Das ist neben "Fitz" das psychologisch Intelligenteste, was ich in Film und Fernsehen je gesehen habe. Fast jede Szene ist der Urtyp eines Bildes, eines Schemas, eines Gedanken, einer Möglichkeit, die Menschen in sich trage und so gut dargestellt, dass es einem die Luft abschnürt. Man muss freilich einen Zugang dazu haben. Im ganzen ergibt das manchmal ein schwer verständliches Verhalten der Charaktere, das irgendwie nicht stimmig erscheint. Aber so sind Menschen. Die einzelnen Bilder jedoch sind atemberaubend grandios gemacht.Die schauspielerischen Leistungen sind fantastisch. Besonders besticht das Wechselspiel zwischen einem in der Grundhaltung eher zurückhaltenden Spiel mit gelegentlichen Ausbrüchen und starker Emotionalität, die gerade durch diesen seltenen Einsatz viel überzeugender wirkt als bei der sonst in der Regel anzutreffenden Überbetonung. Die Schauspieler schaffen es auch, ohne viel zu tun, die Stimmung in einer Szene - ganz in Übereinstimmung mit der Entwicklung, die die Charaktere gerade durchmachen - von einer Sekunde in die andere kippen zu lassen. Ganz großartig.Ganz fantastisch sind auch Kameraeinstellungen, Motive und das Spiel mit Licht und Blickwinkeln. Ein Beispiel: Ein Thema, das sich durch die ganze Staffel zieht, ist, dass der mit Lisa verheiratete Nate eigentlich immer noch an Brenda hängt, die ihn in der letzten Staffel verlassen hat. Nate wirkt jetzt auch viel unterkühlter und emotional ärmer als in den ersten beiden Staffeln. In wenigen Szenen erotischer Natur mit Lisa und zwei anderen Frauen blitzt aber die Lebensfreude und Begierde, die man aus Szenen mit Brenda kennt, wieder auf (toll gespielt von Peter Krause) und in genau diesen Momente, schaffen es die Kameraleute, dass die Frauen im Aussehen, in der Ausstrahlung oder in der Art wie sie schauen ein bisschen wie Brenda ausschauen. Eine Kleinigkeit, die man bemerken muss, aber dann empfindet man es als wahnsinnig gut gemacht.Im ganzen also ein echtes Erlebnis! Einzige Einschränkung ist, dass man einen gewissen Zugang dazu haben muss. Nicht jeder, der die Art der ersten Staffel hat, wird den haben. Ich könnte mir vorstellen, dass man von der Literatur her kommen muss, um das toll zu finden. Aber dann......

Ohne viel vorweg zu nehmen kann ich sagen das die Serie sehr gut ist (meine Meinung). Da es sich hier um die dritte Staffel handelt sollten die Leute die dieses Produkt kaufen, schon durch die anderen beiden Staffeln wissen worum es geht. Wer genaue Kritiken lesen möchte sollte lieber auf Seiten wie z.B. imdb.com gehen und sich einlesen. Persönlich finde ich aber das die 1. und 2. Staffel etwas besser waren.Zum Produkt selbst. Sehr gute Verpackung, die zu den anderen Staffeln passt. DVD lässt sich auf allen meinen Geräten ohne Probleme abspielen.

Diese Familienserie lässt sich mit nichts vergleichen, was der übliche TV-Markt in der entsprechenden Kategorie sonst an Schmonzetten aufzuweisen hat.Dass Allan Bell (Oscar-Preisträger für AMERICAN BEAUTY) nicht nur als Regisseur hinter der ganzen Produktion steht, erklärt Vieles.Mein Tipp: einfach mal reinschauen und sich von Regie, Darstellern, Kamera und Buch überzeugen lassen.(selbst Fans -wie ich- des harten Stoffs von BREAKING BAD konnten sich dieser Familie und ihrem Umfeld nicht entziehen).

bellissimo, ben girato e ottime storie, si parte sempre un po' confusi, ma gia dopo il primo episodio si riprende il filo del discorso, la storia procede perfetta. Da vedere, secondo me, in inglese, gli aqttori hanno vici fantastiche che purtroppo si perdono con il doppiaggio

This collection was a major let-down after such an amazing first 2 seasons.Everything seemed to draw out forever to delivery very little pay-off for such tedious development. Only 2 of the 13 episodes measure up to the consistency of S1 and S2: the opener - and which ever ends disc 3. The rest are nothing more than ho-hum filler. I'm not alone here: 7 of us waited with baited breath for S3 - and we watched all 13 in 2 sessions. The consensus was unanimous... this collection is a major yawn and nothing close to what we hoped for or expected. Hopefully S4 will be somewhat redemptive... though, from those who saw it on TV, we're not banking on it. Too bad, so sad.