10 Years Later....
August 21, 2015 1:11 PM Subscribe
I think we'll hit the bottom of oral histories once there's an oral history of oral history.
Uggg of the Plains: Grark of The Slightly Smelly Cave Over There visited our dwelling several moons before, using mouth sounds to recount his recent hunt. I wanted to write it down, but didn't have a pen. Or paper. Or a written language.
Grark of The Slightly Smelly Cave Over There: I figured that we could just repeat the mouth sounds to each other, because that hunt was hella sweet.
Florp, Licker of Rocks: I came up with "story" to describe the mouth sounds. After all, Grark has been harping on the same shitty pursuit of a wounded raccoon like he took down a tiger with his bare hands. Between us, his mouth sounds grow bolder with the telling. Hey, are you going to finish that rock?
posted by dr_dank at 1:28 PM on August 21, 2015 [10 favorites]
Uggg of the Plains: Grark of The Slightly Smelly Cave Over There visited our dwelling several moons before, using mouth sounds to recount his recent hunt. I wanted to write it down, but didn't have a pen. Or paper. Or a written language.
Grark of The Slightly Smelly Cave Over There: I figured that we could just repeat the mouth sounds to each other, because that hunt was hella sweet.
Florp, Licker of Rocks: I came up with "story" to describe the mouth sounds. After all, Grark has been harping on the same shitty pursuit of a wounded raccoon like he took down a tiger with his bare hands. Between us, his mouth sounds grow bolder with the telling. Hey, are you going to finish that rock?
posted by dr_dank at 1:28 PM on August 21, 2015 [10 favorites]
I feel like I already read an oral history of SFU. Like a couple of years ago or something.
Anyway, the only character in SFU that I never hated with a great passion was dead dad Nathaniel. Everyone else got on my last nerve at least at some point and in some cases for entire seasons. By the time Nate was well and truly dead, I was shouting at my dvd player IT'S ABOUT TIME, NOW STAY DEAD.
posted by janey47 at 1:34 PM on August 21, 2015 [5 favorites]
Anyway, the only character in SFU that I never hated with a great passion was dead dad Nathaniel. Everyone else got on my last nerve at least at some point and in some cases for entire seasons. By the time Nate was well and truly dead, I was shouting at my dvd player IT'S ABOUT TIME, NOW STAY DEAD.
posted by janey47 at 1:34 PM on August 21, 2015 [5 favorites]
OH look here it is, it was an oral history of the finale, which ran a couple of years ago and they reposted it in honor of the anniversary.
posted by janey47 at 1:36 PM on August 21, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by janey47 at 1:36 PM on August 21, 2015 [2 favorites]
I took video of my wife watching the end of the finale and crying her eyes out. Remarkably we are still together.
posted by srboisvert at 1:39 PM on August 21, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by srboisvert at 1:39 PM on August 21, 2015 [4 favorites]
Tomorrow: Oral History of srboisvert's Wife Crying at the TV
posted by phunniemee at 1:42 PM on August 21, 2015 [14 favorites]
posted by phunniemee at 1:42 PM on August 21, 2015 [14 favorites]
It just goes on and on. I remember it like a life I lived.So sweet, and appropriate.
posted by jaguar at 1:58 PM on August 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
Those last six minutes or so are still some of the best TV ever.
posted by Navelgazer at 3:51 PM on August 21, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Navelgazer at 3:51 PM on August 21, 2015 [2 favorites]
I can't even hear the opening notes to "Breathe Me" by Sia without completely and utterly losing my shit in such epic ways that it frightens bystanders. Best series finale ever.
posted by palomar at 4:11 PM on August 21, 2015 [6 favorites]
posted by palomar at 4:11 PM on August 21, 2015 [6 favorites]
Everyone else got on my last nerve at least at some point and in some cases for entire seasons.
Well this is a feature, not a bug. SFU's characters were humans with complex flaws and strengths. They managed to avoid falling into the trap some other shows do, e.g. the Sopranos "OK this season will be about the marriage" or the Wire "this season will be about the education system, so one of our cops will become a teacher."
posted by Bringer Tom at 4:18 PM on August 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
Well this is a feature, not a bug. SFU's characters were humans with complex flaws and strengths. They managed to avoid falling into the trap some other shows do, e.g. the Sopranos "OK this season will be about the marriage" or the Wire "this season will be about the education system, so one of our cops will become a teacher."
posted by Bringer Tom at 4:18 PM on August 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
Yep, that finale always gets me. Of course I grew up in a funeral home, so perhaps the whole show was a bit closer to home.
The show was hit and miss, but the last few episodes of the last season pulled everything together more or less successfully. Plus, we had actual caskets on display, none of this BS pictures in a book or samples on the wall. Where's Batesville these days?
posted by Farce_First at 4:20 PM on August 21, 2015
The show was hit and miss, but the last few episodes of the last season pulled everything together more or less successfully. Plus, we had actual caskets on display, none of this BS pictures in a book or samples on the wall. Where's Batesville these days?
posted by Farce_First at 4:20 PM on August 21, 2015
"You can't take a picture of this; it's already gone" has informed my adult life more than is probably wise.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 4:26 PM on August 21, 2015 [8 favorites]
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 4:26 PM on August 21, 2015 [8 favorites]
I was at a Four Tet show once and during a lull, someone yelled out "play breathe me!"
posted by feloniousmonk at 4:59 PM on August 21, 2015
posted by feloniousmonk at 4:59 PM on August 21, 2015
Is this where I mention the time a few weeks ago when I was going down on this guy and Breathe Me came on his sexytimes playlist and it was super awkward because I'm thinking of Claire crying and everybody dying, and the hilariously terrible I CAN'T GET THE CAP OFF! suicide attempt scene from ABC Family's Cyberbully, and I'm trying to keep all that down and be pleasurable while trying not to get too much into the rhythm of the song because actually giving a blowjob to Breathe Me is just too tragic? Because if it isn't, I'm so sorry.
posted by yellowbinder at 5:46 PM on August 21, 2015 [15 favorites]
posted by yellowbinder at 5:46 PM on August 21, 2015 [15 favorites]
My favorite show of all time.
I sometimes get annoyed by how wonderful the finale was because it gets so much attention and eclipses the fact that there were sublimely wonderful scenes like that scattered throughout the entire series, and very few of them had a clever concept to fall back on.
Here's one: You hang onto your pain like it means something, like it's worth something. Well, let me tell 'ya, it's not worth shit. Let it go. Infinite possibilities, and all he can do is whine.
posted by telegraph at 5:46 PM on August 21, 2015 [7 favorites]
I sometimes get annoyed by how wonderful the finale was because it gets so much attention and eclipses the fact that there were sublimely wonderful scenes like that scattered throughout the entire series, and very few of them had a clever concept to fall back on.
Here's one: You hang onto your pain like it means something, like it's worth something. Well, let me tell 'ya, it's not worth shit. Let it go. Infinite possibilities, and all he can do is whine.
posted by telegraph at 5:46 PM on August 21, 2015 [7 favorites]
telegraph, I heartily agree that there was great value in so much in that series.
In all honesty, I think that the smartest thing I have ever seen or heard in any television program or movie ever in my whole entire life is this 0:40 clip in which Nate says that the purpose of death is to make life important.
posted by janey47 at 6:18 PM on August 21, 2015 [4 favorites]
In all honesty, I think that the smartest thing I have ever seen or heard in any television program or movie ever in my whole entire life is this 0:40 clip in which Nate says that the purpose of death is to make life important.
posted by janey47 at 6:18 PM on August 21, 2015 [4 favorites]
To me, one of the best parts of 6FU was Keith and David. They were so perfectly portrayed as a couple who had faults, but genuinely loved each other. And were gay, and had to struggle with acceptance from others. I watched the series for the first time during a rough patch in my marriage, and really related to them. Here's a little video/article discussion.
posted by Fig at 8:47 PM on August 21, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Fig at 8:47 PM on August 21, 2015 [2 favorites]
I didn't watch until earlier this year, but I never wanted the end to get spoiler'ed for me so I finally burned through it in a month or so. I liked it quite a bit, having a complicated relationship with death made it a bit more meaningful, and I'm glad they had such good writing. Of course, being the asshole that I am I thought for most of it that Nate was a good guy with hey some flaws but who doesn't, but I agree with the above that pretty much everybody was represented as flawed and that that made it such an honest "family" series.
posted by rhizome at 11:25 PM on August 21, 2015
posted by rhizome at 11:25 PM on August 21, 2015
I had stopped following it upon dumping cable, so I'd missed the last season. One day, I was flipping through the few channels I had, and I ran across SFU on a "free weekend," so I thought "Oh, hey, I'll watch this episode," having zero idea it was the finale. Oh my God. My husband, who had been taking a nap, woke up to my wailing and ran in to the living room thinking that I had just heard that a dear friend had died. And in a way, he was right. It ripped out my completely unprepared heart.
posted by thebrokedown at 1:48 AM on August 22, 2015
posted by thebrokedown at 1:48 AM on August 22, 2015
I will be eternally jealous of the people who got to watch this on release, rather than seeing it much later on after watching Dexter and never getting to see it without that association melted into their brain.
I really liked the show, and Michael C. Hall is a great actor, but he does kind of play himself a little bit in everything he's in, and there were a lot of times i just... couldn't stop seeing Dexter.
And i mean, first couple of seasons Dexter when the show actually had any character at all, not the garbage that came after it.
posted by emptythought at 3:35 AM on August 22, 2015
I really liked the show, and Michael C. Hall is a great actor, but he does kind of play himself a little bit in everything he's in, and there were a lot of times i just... couldn't stop seeing Dexter.
And i mean, first couple of seasons Dexter when the show actually had any character at all, not the garbage that came after it.
posted by emptythought at 3:35 AM on August 22, 2015
In the first season, the show had phony advertisements for funeral parlor stuff. I thought it was going to be a satiric, The Loved One, kind of thing. Season two, it changed. I am disappointed Alan Ball didn't talk about that.
posted by CCBC at 4:06 AM on August 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by CCBC at 4:06 AM on August 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
I tore through most of this show on Netflix but by the time I started the final season I despised Nate so much I couldn't even hate-watch it without wanting to break everything in sight. I started it a few months after my cousin/best friend died, and I found most of it really enjoyable and well-written, and also rather cathartic in some ways. And as someone said above, nearly every character bothered me at some point, but I still enjoyed watching everyone except for Nate. Maybe I'll go back and just watch the finale...
posted by skycrashesdown at 8:08 AM on August 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by skycrashesdown at 8:08 AM on August 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
I think m y favorite line about all of it was actually a quote from Michael C. Hall, who got pretty great notices for his portrayal of David, some of which included some assumptions about the actor's personal life: "Nobody ever asks me if I'm really a mortician."
posted by uberchet at 8:36 AM on August 22, 2015 [9 favorites]
posted by uberchet at 8:36 AM on August 22, 2015 [9 favorites]
I watched most of this roughly as it aired, which means I watched it in my mid-twenties, and I think it had a big impact on my development as an adult. This is the exchange that has really stayed with me over the years:
Nate: “It’s really fucking lonely. I feel like all I do all day long is manage myself, try to fucking connect with people. But it’s like no matter how much energy you pour into … getting to the station on time or getting on the right train, there is still no fucking guarantee that anyone will be there for you – to pick you up when you get there. – You know what I mean?”
Maggie: “Well, I know that if you think life is a vending machine, where you put in virtue and you get out happiness, then you probably are gonna be disappointed. I know that.”
posted by lunasol at 10:57 AM on August 22, 2015 [12 favorites]
Nate: “It’s really fucking lonely. I feel like all I do all day long is manage myself, try to fucking connect with people. But it’s like no matter how much energy you pour into … getting to the station on time or getting on the right train, there is still no fucking guarantee that anyone will be there for you – to pick you up when you get there. – You know what I mean?”
Maggie: “Well, I know that if you think life is a vending machine, where you put in virtue and you get out happiness, then you probably are gonna be disappointed. I know that.”
posted by lunasol at 10:57 AM on August 22, 2015 [12 favorites]
If this had been on and I watched it in my 20s, I totally think I would have made some different life choices, which I think is a pretty good testimonial.
posted by rhizome at 12:11 PM on August 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by rhizome at 12:11 PM on August 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
skycrashesdown, I loved the show but I came to loathe Nate SO MUCH that I can't watch Peter Krause in anything (except for Sports Night because it predated Six Feet Under) to this day. I can't even look at him. Which is totally unfair, of course, but I've never hated a fictional character so much.
telegraph, I FORGOT ABOUT THAT CLIP. Thank you! I loved that scene so much.
I love Six Feet Under and always felt like it was the best of the HBO dramas for the time (MUCH better than The Sopranos, which I straight-up despised). I absolutely think it had one of the best finales ever. I can't think of another series finale that wrapped things up as appropriately and stayed true to the tone of the show than this one.
posted by Aquifer at 4:10 PM on August 22, 2015 [2 favorites]
telegraph, I FORGOT ABOUT THAT CLIP. Thank you! I loved that scene so much.
I love Six Feet Under and always felt like it was the best of the HBO dramas for the time (MUCH better than The Sopranos, which I straight-up despised). I absolutely think it had one of the best finales ever. I can't think of another series finale that wrapped things up as appropriately and stayed true to the tone of the show than this one.
posted by Aquifer at 4:10 PM on August 22, 2015 [2 favorites]
Six Feet Under is, secretly, one of the finest television shows of all time.
posted by Sticherbeast at 7:39 PM on August 22, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Sticherbeast at 7:39 PM on August 22, 2015 [2 favorites]
The theme tune has been my cell phone ringer for a number of years now. I love it when the phone rings and every so often people I'm with, pause, and then say......'is that...?'
posted by hornet67 at 9:45 PM on August 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by hornet67 at 9:45 PM on August 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
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