It’s been most of a week, and I still find myself awfully touched by
the “Six Feet Under” finale. I realize that I have grown to love the Fishers’ extended
family, including Brenda and Rico. I will miss them all.

I think “Six Feet Under” did what so many shows, both comedies and dramas, try but fail to do — it gave us a sense of connection to another family. Ideally the family connection is so strong that it makes us feel this fictional family is just another branch of our own. The strength of the show is that it relentlessly showed us the flaws as well as the strengths of every character — there were no archetypes, and there was no schtick either. Just like real people.

And of course wrapping the show around the ever-present issue of mortality was no small bit of brilliance, either. It reminds me of the resonating line from THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER: “In the midst of life, we are in death.” I don’t pretend to know everything that line means, but I do know that it gives me a longer-term perspective when my life is filled with short-term distractions. “Six Feet Under” did that too.

The closing montage of the final episode was beautiful, and its soundtrack was the lovely song “Breathe Me,” by Sia. You can find a pretty cool music video of the song here.

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