Six Feet Under

(HBO) We followed our usual practice of waiting until the DVD came out to see this. It’s not really part of a plan, but it works out well. We usually don’t seek out new things to watch on TV; there’s not enough time in the day to watch all the stuff that people say is good. Thus, I personally never saw Cheers, Friends, Seinfeld, or M*A*S*H (the last was deliberate on my part, I liked the movie so much I just couldn’t see Alan Alda as Hawkeye, nor tolerate a laugh track.) So we didn’t see the first season of The Sopranos, or The West Wing. But these days you can catch up on DVD. There are two seasons of this one available on DVD now, and we started at the beginning. And it’s excellent! Life in a funeral home turns out to be one of the funniest sitcoms ever to come out of that dismal swamp of sitcoms: America. (Most of the best have come from England, at least for the last 20 years.) I particularly like Dave, the uptight, closeted gay co-owner, and the quandaries he faces. Rachel Griffiths from Muriel’s Wedding is particularly good, you’d never guess she’s Australian. In fact, the whole cast is great.