--- description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. title: Six Feet Under image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf6bb2d25fb9ce197/69869f2fadae4450215447c0/t100_tv_six-feet-under1.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Aug 12, 2014 # _Six Feet Under_ by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  Everett 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. [Get This TV Series](http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00006NT1S/?tag=timecom-20 "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3103796/six-feet-under/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3103796/six-feet-under/"},"headline":"Six Feet Under","datePublished":"2014-08-12T15:26:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:01:48.635Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3103796/six-feet-under/","keywords":["drama"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf6bb2d25fb9ce197/69869f2fadae4450215447c0/t100_tv_six-feet-under1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf6bb2d25fb9ce197/69869f2fadae4450215447c0/t100_tv_six-feet-under1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"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":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3103796/six-feet-under/","name":"Six Feet Under"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Six Feet Under","description":"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.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/3B6IhYOq/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2007-09-04T21:56:51.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/3B6IhYOq.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3103796/six-feet-under/","duration":"PT33S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3103796/six-feet-under/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```