Grave affairs: HBO's 'Six Feet Under'

Christian Century, Nov 2, 2004 by Thomas Lynch

Many who found the holy blood and gore of Mel Gibson's Passion quite acceptable will find the all-too-human flesh and blood of Ball's cast of characters unacceptably disturbing in its aching, uncertain, struggling humanity, weeping and giggling at the awkward facts of life and death. Too bad, because SFU is its own quirky postmodern, inspired version of a very passionate play. Like the best of biblical characters, the folks who inherit Fisher & Sons, like the folks who inherited Lynch & Sons, often find themselves playing in the deep end of the pool, among the verities and uncertainties that are our human lot.

Sometimes Nate and David hear their dead father speak to them. The air is full of ghosts who both instruct and disturb us. It was ever thus. I hear my father still, these long years since be died. "We serve the living," he was fond of saying, "by caring for the dead."

"Love one another," my sainted mother whispers to me still. "Say your prayers."

Like the living, the dead are everywhere.

Thomas Lynch is an essayist, poet and funeral director His most recent books include The Undertaking, Still Life in Milford and Bodies in Motion and at Rest.