The art of living and leaving

In the local TV front, lawyers, doctors, teachers, cops and ordinary individuals are commonly portrayed and immortalized.

These "preferred" and "revered" characters have become effective artistic elements of many a TV writer – old and new, conventional and modern – in storytelling the different "images" of life.

Though there were a few TV shows which tackled "death" in the past, there’s no local show – as far as I remember – which devotes on the "full" life of a mortician, embalmer or crematory worker.

Maybe because local producers and even the audience are not that ready for something like this. Besides, Filipinos are lovers of endless merry-making and all things beautiful.

However, Six Feet Under, an HBO original movie for TV, has been successful in presenting the day-to-day life of the Fisher family who owns and operates an independent funeral home, and somehow educating the audience about what’s going on in the business of giving a decent "farewell" to a beloved, more than the usual dissecting and mummifying bodies.

Getting considerable audience share the first time it was broadcast in the Philippines and in other Asian territories like Hong Kong, Six Feet Under has become a hit in a short a time because the show presents a character study of every human being.

Love, relationships, family matters, individual fears and anxieties, dreams and life are the themes depicted in every episode. These make the Fishers like one of us.

Just like any other hit HBO originals like Sex in the City, Six Feet Under wrapped up its last season last year, making fans impatient for another season to unfold.

Since the show has established a following in Asia, Six Feet Under’s third season will premiere tonight at 10 on HBO.

Last March, HBO-Asia held an advance screening for the first two episodes of the show’s third season at mycinema in Glorietta 3. Six Feet Under promises new stories and challenges the characters to bravely face in their lifetime.

Six Feet Under’s third season still boasts of the very human Fisher family members whom the audience can relate to and identify with in one way or another.

The show has the prodigal son Nate/Nathaniel Fisher (Peter Krause), the dutiful younger son David (Michael Hall), the artistically-inclined Claire (Lauren Ambrose), their mother Ruth (Frances Conroy), the meddling soul of Nathaniel Sr. (Richard Jenkins).

It also has the "cosmetic" whiz Federico Diaz (Freddy Rodriguez), who, though not a Fisher by affinity, is considered family because of his long-standing relationship with the Fishers. Besides, Federico can do wonders for the business.

The first two episodes show new challenges in the lives of the main characters.

David accepts his true individuality and sexuality. He has a lover named Keith (Matthew St. Patrick), who often vents his frustrations on David. This seems to be the major culprit in their relationship. Thus, the gay couple seeks professional help to manage their problems. David, though at times wants to give up, and is willing to undergo therapy and counseling because he wants to have a steady partner in life.

Federico Diaz, whose college education was sponsored by Nathaniel Sr., is the Fishers’ new business partner. This spawns an inevitable change of business name from Fisher & Sons to Fisher & Diaz. Federico’s rise from an embalmer to an executive is not surprising because he has the know-how and the talent to transform a seemingly impossible-to-fix body or face into a beautiful one. His career growth seems to affect Federico’s outlook of his position in the Fisher business.

The talented Claire is on the look-out for the right man. In the first episode, Claire goes out of her way by not attending her class just to meet Phil, a crematory worker. In the second episode, Claire befriends with Russell, an art student, and eventually dates him. She finds herself comparing Phil and Russell, and thinks that Russell complements her personality more.

The Fisher matriarch Ruth adores her granddaughter Maya, Nate’s daughter to Lisa (Lili Taylor). Perhaps, Ruth sees her then lovable baby Nate in his daughter. Ruth misses the time when she could talk to her eldest son and two other children the way she did when they were young. It’s a child-like attention and the love an aging mother wishes to have. Towards the end of the season, Ruth will take her second chance in love and marriage.

In this season, the younger Nathaniel will continue to struggle with his relationships, particularly with his wife, Lisa, the new character alongside Ruth’s fun-loving sister Sarah (Patricia Clarkson) to be introduced in the show. Nate is still the old soul with problems in commitments and responsibilities. Besides fatherhood, Nate, diagnosed with arteriovenous malformation (a life threatening brain condition), is facing the biggest shock in his life on the end of the third season. This has something to do with the fate of his wife, Lisa.

Again, the Fishers represent us and the relationships we make in our life. They show how vulnerable a person can be to his past or present decisions, relationships and even destiny. Though the backdrop is unpalatable to some Filipino viewers, Six Feet Under shows the different facets of life’s struggles and fears. They manifest in how a person deals with himself and with others.

A person wants to enter a relationship but is afraid to give, to risk and to lose. One wishes to reach the top but is afraid to go down and start anew. An individual wants to venture on something but avoids the harsh possibility of taking a big risk.

If the show’s last two seasons have successfully shown that the Fishers are a different family because of the business they are into or the kind of life they lead, the new season will make the audience view them for what they are like them – anyone of us. They are humans with their own struggles to prevail and triumphs to celebrate. They have their own insecurities and ways to compensate them. Though they are exposed to death more than anyone else, they seem to fear it more. Perhaps, they know death could mean more than the termination of life. This is what the first part of the first episode tries to convey when Nate has some vision of his present, past and future.

More than anything else, life is still beautiful to live and to leave.