Alan Ball: Life and Death

Sorry for not posting in so long; I just got back from vacation (and though I went to the Bahamas, there were plenty of times I felt like I was in Wonderland, due to the absolutely irrational way the airlines behaved), and have not had any time to post. Anyway, Alan Ball's American Beauty and Six Feet Under also share themes relating to life and death. Once again, these were explored to much greater depths in SFU, partly because it was a series and partly because they were the MAIN theme, but both worlds had very interesting things to say on the subject.

In American Beauty, the opening narration (after the prologue) reveals that Lester will be dead by the end of the year (and, most likely, the end of the movie), but claims that, in many ways, he's dead already. His wife and daughter walk all over him, he is a mindless drone at work and he has very little to do besides provide for his ungrateful family. His discovery of Angela sparks life back into him, and he rediscovers the joys of living. He quits his job in order to have more free time to have fun. He takes a job at a burger joint in order to have no responsibility. He begins working out, smoking marijuana, buys the car of his dreams, and realizes that life is what you make of it. When Carolyn yells at him for almost spilling beer on their expensive sofa (which derailed their attempt to have sex for the first time in forever), he responds that it is meaningless. They won't take the couch with them when they die (if only I could take this attitude towards shit, as he refers to it; I am getting my "shit" together to move to the city, and you should see how many DVDs and books I have). These activities allow him to be at peace when he is on his deathbed; he realizes that he has seen and done what he wanted to do, especially in the few months leading up to his death, and he is happy knowing that he was able to do life right.

Six Feet Under's title may lead you to believe that it is a show about death, but in reality, it is about life. The Fishers learn about life through the deaths they experience, whether it be the deaths of loved ones or of the people related to their customers. As I said in the last post, sex was a big part of the show, especially since a lot of characters used it to feel alive. But there were other methods of holding onto life. Matriarch Ruth felt dead herself up until a few months before her husband Nathaniel died. It was then that she started seeing a man outside of marriage, and it was more than just the sex that helped her revitalize herself. Hiram, her hairdresser, introduced her to camping, which gave her a hobby. After Hiram, she began dating again (I know, sex is a big part of this, but there is more to dating than sex). Her various suitors each taught her something different about life; Arthur (played by Rainn Wilson, who is even more awesomely creepy than he is on The Office) opened her up to a kind of lost innocence, while George taught her how do live in a mixed family.

The other big thing that is reinforced on Six Feet Under is that everybody dies (SPOILER: which is beautifully illustrated by the series finale). Many of the characters start the series fearing death, but by the end, most have accepted that they will die and learn how to live. I've said this before (and by "said this", I mean, "I've quoted Sandman"), but death defines life, and life is what you make of it. Nearly every episode begins with a death, and the Fishers marvel at the people who lived life to the fullest, and are saddened and perplexed by those who squandered their time on Earth. Each type of person (and there are many more categories, which aren't mutually exclusive) teaches the leads a little something about life. Sometimes the families of the deceased give their two cents about life and death, while other times, the characters envision the dead bodies talking to them. Often, the thoughts and emotions of the lead character speaking to the dead person are projected into the conversation through the dead person's dialogue.

Neither American Beauty nor Six Feet Under holds the definitive answer to the mystery of death or the meaning of life (obviously), but they each offer very interesting ideas on the subjects.

Up next: The internet is really, really great...

Alan Ball: Love and Sex

Sex is an integral part of life, seeing as how that is how conception occurs (ok, science has provided alternatives today, but for millenia, sex was the only option). Ball's works portray sex as a part of life that has varying meanings for different people. For some, it is just something that happens. For others, it is a goal. And while love and sex can go together, there are plenty of times when the idea of love is so divorced from sex that the act becomes self-destructive.

In American Beauty, Lester and Angela hold very different opinions of the subject, despite the fact that we watch them amble towards each other across the film. Angela, an immature teenager who fancies herself wise beyond her years, believes that sex will set her apart from the crowd. Numerous acts of meaningless sex will somehow make her special, will give her a kind of life experience that many desire but few achieve. But this only makes her ordinary (as the truly wise-beyond-his-years Ricky points out to her). Lester, on the other hand, hopes that sex with Angela will make him feel young again, or more alive. Lester has been forced to masturbate for who knows how long, since neither he nor his wife are willing to touch each other, and he hopes that sex with a young and seemingly exciting partner will help reinvigorate his life. Both learn otherwise, as Angela is told off by Ricky and pretty much loses Jane as a friend and Lester finds many new outlets to express himself, in spite of his loveless marriage.

Very few of the characters in American Beauty use sex to express love, or even feel love. Carolyn Burnham cheats on Lester with a rival real estate agent in order to feel more successful (and she probably is as horny as Lester, seeing as how they aren't doing anything together). Frank Fitts' marriage can hardly be called such. His wife is nearly catatonic (the reason for which is never given, but there are heavy implications that it is due to the Colonel's treatment of her). There are pretty much only two loving couples in the film. One is the gay couple that lives next door to the Burnhams, and the other is Jane and Ricky. That relationship got off to a rocky start, but they become truly happy, despite being labeled "freaks" by the more "normal"/"oridnary" Angela. They never have sex in the movie, but if they had, it would have been an expression of love.

Since Six Feet Under was a weekly series that ran for five years, there is much more love and sex to look at. Once again, love and sex aren't exactly synonymous for the Fisher family. Though (I'm not sure I can use the word "healthy" here) couples like David and Keith, Nate and Brenda, and Claire and (I won't give the name) her future husband have sex because they love each other, sex is used to express nearly every emotion there is. The Fishers are repressed, and the family, especially David, who begins the show deep in the closet, often use sex destructively. David cheats on his boyfriends because it's dangerous (best example was when he fucked a Vegas prostitute in a parking lot) and unexpected. Claire tends to go for hopeless losers, most likely because they are projects that she can work on, while Nate, who developed a death phobia due to his father's rather nonchalant take on the subject, has had many conquests (he met Brenda on an airplane and had sex with her in an airport closet) to feel alive. Brenda and her family are the opposite; while sex is a taboo subject at the Fishers' dinner table, the Chenowiths talk about sex as if it were sports. Brenda's mom tells stories about her exploits with her husband, Brenda and her brother are almost too close for comfort, and she eventually develops a kind of sex addiction that spells trouble for her and Nate's wedding plans.

The two more normal characters are Keith, David's lover, and Rico, the Fishers' employee. However, like any human, neither of them are perfect, and some of their views on sex aren't exactly healthy. Rico is homophobic, which extends beyond the act of sex and into love. Over the course of the series, he and David have to work through and around this difference of opinion. And since David isn't the world's only gay man, there are times when this "problem" follows Rico to his private life. Keith, on the other hand, is loving, but can be distant. His home life was more violent than the rest of the characters, and intimacy was a bit of a problem for him. This led to him desiring more adventurous forms of sex, such as threeways, which sometimes put David off (though David was the one who tended to cheat more often). He also disagreed with David over how to express love, which led to a few quarrels between the two. And yet, over the course of the five years, David and Keith remained one of the strongest relationships around, which can be attributed to their verbal honesty.

Up next: Our time on Earth...

Six Feet Under: Matters of Life and Death

The success of American Beauty brought Sam Mendes and Alan Ball's names into the attention of the mainstream media. The exact details of how Six Feet Under was created are murky and conflicting, but the point of the story is that in 2001, Alan Ball had his own series on HBO. Six Feet Under was about a family that ran an independent funeral home in Los Angeles, and it followed their lives as they dealt with death, love, acceptance and, most importantly, life.

The series began with the death of Nathaniel Fisher, Sr. as he was driving to the airport to pick up Nate, Jr., who had left LA years ago to make his own life in Seattle. Nate didn't abandon his family entirely (he came home for Christmas and such), but due to his repressed fear of death that he developed due to his misunderstanding of what his father actually did in their basement, he had become somewhat of a prodigal son. Although Nate originally intended to stay only for about a week, in order to help his mother deal with her grief, Nathaniel left 50% of the funeral home to both of his sons, which upset them both. Nate wanted nothing to do with the funeral home, while David had spent years of his life working there, sacrificing his dream of becoming a lawyer, and felt his father had cheated him. This added to the tension between the two brothers, but by the first season's end, they had become trusting partners.

The main theme of the series is about life and death; death defines life (more Sandman wisdom for you!), and therefore, you should live your life the way you want because you never know when death is coming. Insecurities about life manifest themselves through conversations between living and dead characters; all of the surviving Fishers "speak" to Nathaniel at some point in the series, and his personality reflects the person he is talking to. For example, David, who is a closeted homosexual, fears that people don't accept him, and so when he speaks to his father, Nathaniel acts homophobic. Dead bodies brought to the Fisher & Sons Funeral Home also have a tendency to speak to the living characters, acting as a mirror for the character's thought. Rico, the Fishers' conservative employee, was against holding the funeral of both a murder and his victim, and saw them both arguing with each other.

Not all of the fantastical elements involve dead bodies. The title Six Feet Under refers both to the colloquialism for death but also to the fact that many of the characters suppress their emotions, and they tend to come out in fantasy sequences. These range from terrifying (an image of someone committing suicide) to frickin' awesome (whenever Claire or David sing their emotions is great, since both Lauren Ambrose and Michael C. Hall are professionally trained singers).

These glimpses into the minds of the characters help show us what people are really thinking, since most of the characters would never express how they truly felt. The main exception to this is Brenda, a woman Nate met on the plane from Seattle. She is the anti-Fisher; there is no opinion that she will not give, no feeling she will not express. This isn't to say that she is an airheaded girl who speaks every thought that comes across her mind (a la Cordelia Chase from the early Buffyverse). Rather, if she feels strongly about something, she makes it known. But nearly everyone else goes through life ignoring the thoughts and feelings that would make life so much simpler, thus complicating relationships (and keeping the storylines compelling for us).

Before I end, I would like to post a few videos. None of the footage is from the series itself; these are promos released before the the season premieres of the second through the fifth seasons. They aren't too spoilerish (though they do reveal what characters are active), but they are very well-shot. Feel free to skip ahead to the next post, but if you never saw the series on HBO, these aren't included on the DVD sets, so here they are to enjoy.

Season 2:


Season 3:


Season 4:


Season 5:


Up next: Love...

The List: #20 Six Feet Under

#20
Number of Seasons: 5
Years Active: 2001 - 2005
Network: HBO

I haven't seen the entire series yet (I just started Season 4 today), but so far, this is an incredible series. Created by Alan Ball (writer of the absolutely incredible American Beauty), Six Feet Under follows the Fisher family, who run an independent funeral home in Los Angeles. The series begins with oldest (prodigal) son Nate returning home for Christmas, only to learn that he is in for an extended stay when his father dies and leaves him a 50% share in the home. Over the next five years, Nate, his siblings David and Claire, mother Ruth, employee Federico, and family friends (sort of) Brenda and Keith deal with the hardships of life. The life lessons are often learned because of their constant exposure to death. Sometimes, the families of the dead people brought to the Fisher & Sons funeral home offer their own unique philosophies on living, and other times the Fishers learn about life due to the nature of the deaths.

On a pay cable network like HBO, where nearly anything goes, it is interesting to note that the Fishers are an extremely repressed family. Ruth and David strive for "normality", while Claire and Nate reject it, but are unsure how to live, since they have always been accustomed to shutting away their feelings. This has led Nate to leave and Claire has turned to drugs. Meanwhile, Ruth and David aren't the saints they try to pass themselves off as. While Rico is completely comfortable working with dead bodies, a rather abnormal trait, his home life is pretty strict, and though he is generally a fairly nice guy, an uglier side of his personality emerges when confronted with things he is uncomfortable with (such as homosexuality). And Brenda throws Nate for a loop with her approach to life. Her family is the exact opposite of the Fishers; these people grew up expressing their feelings, even when it was inappropriate.

The series follows the various relationships of the characters, whether they be romantic, familial or platonic. We see them at their best and at their worst, and we are given solid proof that this is a great show when we begin to feel with the characters. When David and Keith are down and out, we wish them to make up. When Claire, who seems to be drawn to guys in need of saving, starts to fall for a lost cause, we worry. And when Rico has to deal with a situation he doesn't understand, like his wife's depression, we feel worried with him. Six Feet Under lets the relationships evolve naturally (for the most part; there were one or two times when I thought that things didn't seem to fit), and we almost always feel like we understand why people are doing what they are doing. And when we are confused about a character's actions, like Brenda's in Season 2, eventually, the motives are revealed.

I thought that this was going to be a dark show about death, but the funeral home is almost a backdrop. Death defines life (sounds like someone has been reading The Sandman), and this show is about the intricacies of life.

Up next: #19...