First 10 Minutes - Six Feet Under
Six Feet Under - Pilot
Written By Alan Ball
Directed By Alan Ball
Download PDF script of the first 10 pages.
Buy the first season here.
The First 10 Minutes
Breakdown
Fisher and Sons is a family run funeral home, it is Christmas the family are preparing for their traditional Christmas gathering with oldest son Nate returning home for the holidays. However on the way to the airport to pick up his son, Nathanl is killed in a car crash. One by one the family learn about the death of the family patriarch.
Characters
Using the insighting incidence, Alan Ball introduces us to the Fisher family in a surrounding and activity that best highlights their differences and characteristics.
Nathanl: The patriarch of the family, the first character introduced, he is established as bit of a joker, very much in love with his wife, but not beyond teasing or lying to her. He is his own man, if only when he is out of her sight. It is his sudden death that spurs on the events for the rest of the series. We will never quite find out who Nathanl is, for the remainder of the series he is portrayed in ways that he is remembered and imagined by his family.
Ruth: We meet Ruth in the kitchen fussing over dinner and chastising her husband about his health, the call is almost to give her something to do while she cooks, dropping the phone to her side to talk to her son David as if Nathanl can't hear her. When she cuts her finger, she keeps it to herself, hiding it from her son and demonstrating how she keeps her emotions bottled up. Talk of Nathanl having an affair is as much a shock to David as it is the audience, but this is actually the hint of something that is revealed later in the episode. She is mentions God, stating her position that God deals out punishment, which might explain her reluctance to talk about the cut. Ruth's way of dealing with her husband's death is blind panic followed by quiet acceptance and the realisation that life goes on. Although we don't know it yet, there is much bubbling just under surface.
David: As the future of Fisher & Sons, David is already taking an active role in the family business, although he has his views, they are suppressed by those of his father. We learn that he thinks the hearse was a waste of money that could have been better spent on improving the facilities at the home. He is respectful of his mother, but not confident talking about her feelings. David is a professional at all times, with a believe that emotions should not get in the way of what needs to be done. On learning of his father's death he adopts the same tone used in the funeral home when breaking the news to his siblings. He sees his role as the person who keeps it togther.
Nate: We learn about Nate, first through his mother, she mentions that he has given up milk in favor of soya, this gives us the first hint of the kind of person he is. Clean living, possibly environmentalist. When we finally meet him, Nate is trying to pass on his number to a girl he met on the plane. They end up fucking in a utility room which tells something else. He is man who acts on impulse, consequences be damned. How seriously he is taking the relationship with Brenda is debatable, but at the point they hook up, he knows he is not around long and hasn't even asked her name. As the series progresses Nate becomes a more important character, even in this first episode it his arival that shakes the foundations of the family as he brings in a new way of looking at things.
Claire: Although the youngest in the family, Claire has already decided that she doesn't belong (her hearse excluded). Like any teenager there are a million and one better things to do than spend time at home with her family. Although she is looking forward to seeing her brother, we will later find out she resents him for not being around. As it happens she is similar Nate, she has the independent streak, but at this young age she is more guided by what others want over what she wants.
Brenda: At this point Brenda is the character we know least about. She is forward, hardly risk adverse, smart and into giving messages. She admits that sex with Nate was intended as a one time thing and was never going to voulenter her name. If wasn't for the death of Nate's father, their story could have ended there, instead the death thrusts them together just long enough to get past the fucking and onto the personality.
Themes
Obviously since the the show is set in the funeral home, there is a great deal about death. And this episode we get see the different reactions of characters who have to experience the loss of someone they love. We get to see death from the four different points of view, whether it is the professionalism of David, the confusion of Claire, the interest of Nate or the raw emotion of Ruth. The tag line for the series was "Your whole life is leading up to this...", death is the great equalizer and through the five seasons the show explores almost every angle while remaining focused on a family and the business they run.
Questions
At the end of the first ten minutes the characters are yet to come to together and we know this has to be the case, it is the coming together of the family that we are most interested to see. We wonder how the relationship between Nate and Brenda will develop. We wonder how Claire will cope with whole situation whilst high on crystal meth and what will happen to Fisher and Sons, now that only the sons are remian.
Verdict
The first ten minutes of Six Feet Under is an exercise in introducing characters quickly and efficiently. Given about two scenes each, the characters are fully established both as individuals and how they fit into the family. As far as the plot goes, there is no mystery or cliff hanger, the script instead relies on you being interested in the characters. The twist comes at top when Nathanl is killed, but beyond that it is a case of watching these characters interact and their personalities collide.
There should also be mention of the advert that starts the episode (and appear thoughout the pilot). Alan Ball said he included these adverts to show the audience that a funeral home is a buiness just like any other. For the characters, funerals are their life, there is nothing shocking about seeing a dead body, or seeing people mourn in their home. By including these bright adverts the focus is moved from the grimness of death and instead focuses on what goes into making a successful business.
Go Deeper
The first series of the brilliant Six Feet Under has a packed DVD with commentary tracks, featurettes and deleted scenes. This season more than any other is totally self contained with a clear beginning, middle and an end.
Of course if you are a fan you can certainly not going wrong in dropping some hard cash on the full 5 series. IMHO this is one of the greatest dramas to grace the small screen and does not for a second outstay its welcome. The climax of the series is well worth waiting for and satisfies you in ways that the Sopranos could only dream of. Each series comes with a selection of special features with the the final season coming complete with a beautiful retrospective documentary. TV does not get any better than this.
Some companion books are thrown together quickly in order to cash in on the popularity of a series, this one doesn't. Six Feet Under: Better Living Through Death is written like a scrap book of the Fisher family history. There are photos of a young Ruth, the children as babies, extracts from diaries and account books, extracts from Charlotte Light Dark (the book written about Brenda). Taking the first 3 series the book expands on the family history and creates a larger world for the characters to exist in. Sadly, this book is no longer in print and so you will have to look on the secondary market, but it is well worth owning.
HBO has always been very good at keeping their TV archive fresh. On the Six Feet Under page you can explore further still into the world of the Fishers and the making of the show.
