Six Feet Under

Six Feet Under is a critically acclaimed and popular television drama produced by HBO.

The show, created by Alan Ball, stars Peter Krause as Nathaniel ("Nate") Fisher, the son of a funeral director who becomes a partner in the family funeral business with his brother David, played by Michael C. Hall. The Fisher clan also includes mother Ruth (Frances Conroy) and sister Claire (Lauren Ambrose). Other regulars include mortician and family friend Federico Diaz, Nate's girlfriend Brenda Chenowith (Rachel Griffiths), and David's boyfriend Keith Charles (Mathew St. Patrick).

On one level, the show is a conventional family drama, dealing with such issues as relationships, infidelity, homosexuality, and religion. At the same time, it is a show that is distinguished by its unblinking focus on the topic of death, which it explores on multiple levels (personal, religious and philosophical), rather than treating it as a convenient impetus for the solution of a murder. Each episode begins with a death - anything from drowning or heart attack to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome - and that event in turn usually sets the tone for each episode, allowing the characters to reflect on their current fortunes and misfortunes in a way that is illuminated by the death and its aftermath.

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