--- title: HBO's 'Here and Now' Is a Family Drama for Surreal Times description: 'Six Feet Under' creator Alan Ball's 'Here and Now' is a family saga whose gnarled emotions give way to a surprising metaphysical twist. canonical: https://time.com/5139121/here-and-now-frank-family-saga-suited-for-this-moment/ author: Daniel D'Addario article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-02-08T11:27:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T19:11:56.039Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: HBO’s ‘Here and Now’ Is a Frank Family Saga Suited for This Moment og:description: ‘Six Feet Under’ creator Alan Ball is back og:url: https://time.com/5139121/here-and-now-frank-family-saga-suited-for-this-moment/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb6db856fb4f13aa5/6988fb05929fada402bef841/here-and-now-hbo-tim-robbins-holly-hunter.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: here-and-now-hbo-tim-robbins-holly-hunter og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: HBO’s ‘Here and Now’ Is a Frank Family Saga Suited for This Moment twitter:description: ‘Six Feet Under’ creator Alan Ball is back twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb6db856fb4f13aa5/6988fb05929fada402bef841/here-and-now-hbo-tim-robbins-holly-hunter.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # _Here and Now_ Is a Frank Family Saga Suited for This Moment  by [Daniel D'Addario](https://time.com/author/daniel-daddario/)  ## Daniel D'Addario Feb 8, 2018 11:27 AM UTC  Life in the present: Greg (Tim Robbins) and his wife Audrey (Holly Hunter) in Here and Now Life in the present: Greg (Tim Robbins) and his wife Audrey (Holly Hunter) in Here and NowHBO  by [Daniel D'Addario](https://time.com/author/daniel-daddario/)  ## Daniel D'Addario Feb 8, 2018 11:27 AM UTC The funeral-home soap opera _Six Feet Under_ helped form the backbone of HBO’s early-2000s industry-shaking success, and yet it remains far less influential than contemporaries like _The Sopranos_, _The Wire_ and _Sex and the City_. The show’s oddball approach was sui generis in its day, and had remained so–until now. _Six Feet Under_ creator Alan Ball returns to HBO with the new drama _Here and Now_. It’s a family saga whose gnarled emotions give way to a surprising metaphysical twist, and it advances everything that was so special about _Six Feet Under_. On that show, a family’s work with the dead filled them with anxiety about how best to live their lives; on this one, a family organized around liberal and libertine philosophy confront the limits of their intellectual framework. _Here and Now_ is aptly titled, as it depicts an identity crisis that’s nothing new–but that feels especially pressing as our own reality grows encroachingly more hostile. At his 60th birthday party, philosophy professor Greg (Tim Robbins), whose teachings urge living in the “now,” takes a moment to reflect on years of activism: “We lost, folks.” This would be a drag were the characters not so compellingly drawn. Greg and still-avid idealist Audrey (Holly Hunter) began their family with a worthy goal: to make children born around the world feel at home in Portland, Ore. Their family includes three adopted children, from Vietnam, Liberia and Colombia, as well as a biological daughter. But their ambitious mission has run up against multiple snags. For one thing, all four kids–three of them adults now–feel ill at ease in the world. Their strongest connection with their parents seems to be a familiar shade of angst. Raymond Lee, Jerrika Hinton, Daniel Zovatto and Sosie Bacon do a masterful job of building testy sibling chemistry, and Zovatto sells his character Ramon’s plight: metaphysical visions that are either psychosis or a sign from the universe promising some kind of breakthrough. Given the unbelievable upheaval in the world, why not believe in a higher meaning here? Somehow this large volume of plot–add in the complicated family life of Ramon’s psychiatrist–doesn’t overwhelm. The show’s intensity of focus gives each character his or her space, though the early going is a bit crowded. The execution is more groundbreaking than the concept. _This Is Us_, as mainstream a hit as television gets in 2018, follows the story of a transracial adoption into adulthood. But _This Is Us_‘ insights are smothered in sentiment; _Here and Now_ is franker, more unyielding and, as a result, more suited to a tough historical moment. This show’s willingness to go for baroque, adding on oddity with gusto, recalls the best and–in moments–worst of _Six Feet Under_. That show’s narrative excesses, applied without real purpose, eventually fell flat. But _Here and Now_ sets forth more confidently. It uses its specificities and surrealities not to shock but to tell a story about wishing things were better, and coming to terms–or not–with the fact that this reality is the only one we’ve got. It’s a show for our time, and one whose sense of dislocation and whose well-wrought family dynamic may outlast it. Here and Now _airs Sundays at 9 p.m. E.T. on HBO_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5139121/here-and-now-frank-family-saga-suited-for-this-moment/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5139121/here-and-now-frank-family-saga-suited-for-this-moment/"},"headline":"Here and Now Is a Frank Family Saga Suited for This Moment","datePublished":"2018-02-08T11:27:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T19:11:56.039Z","description":"'Six Feet Under' creator Alan Ball's 'Here and Now' is a family saga whose gnarled emotions give way to a surprising metaphysical twist.","url":"https://time.com/5139121/here-and-now-frank-family-saga-suited-for-this-moment/","keywords":["Television","HBO"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb6db856fb4f13aa5/6988fb05929fada402bef841/here-and-now-hbo-tim-robbins-holly-hunter.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel D'Addario","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-daddario/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb6db856fb4f13aa5/6988fb05929fada402bef841/here-and-now-hbo-tim-robbins-holly-hunter.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"here-and-now-hbo-tim-robbins-holly-hunter","caption":"here-and-now-hbo-tim-robbins-holly-hunter","creditText":"HBO","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/television/","name":"Television"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5139121/here-and-now-frank-family-saga-suited-for-this-moment/","name":"Here and Now Is a Frank Family Saga Suited for This Moment"}}]}] ```