Alan Ball’s all-in-the-funeral-family drama expanded on the themes of his movie American Beauty: families keep secrets, people maintain facades, and while death may be final, life is messy. The saga of the Fishers reveled in its characters’ contradictions: matriarch Ruth (Frances Conroy) was both uptight and free-spirited; artist daughter Claire (Lauren Ambrose) was insightful yet whiny; son David (Michael C. Hall) was repressed yet brave; other son Nate (Peter Krause) was idealistic yet could be a total jerk. In its bravura last few episodes Nate dies of a brain hemorrhage — just after splitting up with his wife from his hospital bed — and the Fishers themselves became the mourners, celebrating Nate’s imperfect life and moving on. The elegiac epilogue, fast-forwarding through the lives and deaths of each remaining main character, was the series’ best imaginable epitaph.
- Essay: The Tyre Nichols Videos Demand Solemnity, Not Sensationalism
- For People With Disabilities, Losing Abortion Access Can Be a Matter of Life or Death
- Inside the Stealth Efforts to Smuggle Starlink Internet Into Iran
- Natasha Lyonne on Poker Face and Creating Characters Who Subvert Leading-Lady Tropes
- How to Help the Victims and Community After the Monterey Park Shooting
- Why Grocery Staples Are So Expensive Right Now
- Quantum Computers Could Solve Countless Problems—and Create a Lot of New Ones
- Where to Watch All of the 2023 Oscar Nominees
- How to Be Mindful if You Hate Meditating
