'Six Feet Under' another in line of great HBO shows

Television has lacked quality shows for a long time now. Sure, some of it might be entertaining, but the shows that are good seldom make it because they are too advanced for the general public, such as "Sports Night" or "Freaks and Geeks."\nBut for those viewers who are interested in more quality television, there is a place where it is available to them, for only the cost of a premium cable package. For the past few years, HBO has been turning out quality series, such as "The Sopranos," "Oz" and "Sex in the City." Now comes another show in that line, "Six Feet Under."\nThe show is from writer Alan Ball, best known for his 1999 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for "American Beauty". It centers around a Los Angeles funeral home, Fisher and Sons. The father dies in the first episode, leaving his two sons in charge of the home. The only catch is one of them, Nate (Peter Krause, "Sports Night"), took off right after high school and rarely comes back, not wanting anything to do with the home. The other brother, David (Michael C. Hall), put his dreams on hold to stay and work the home with his dad and so is fiercely protective of it. Needless to say, there is all sorts of drama involving Nate coming back and trying to get re-involved in the family business, as well as in the family itself. Add in a mother, Ruth (Frances Conroy), who is dealing with the passing of her husband and its effect on her life, and a sister, Claire (Lauren Ambrose), who is dealing with being in high school and finding herself, and there are several different subplots to deal with in every episode.\nThe show is a drama bordering on dark comedy and has a similar feeling to "American Beauty," in that sometimes you want to laugh and other times you just have to watch and take it all in. A unique thing about the show is that every episode starts off with a random person dying in an odd way, who then becomes the customer the Fishers are primarily dealing with throughout the episode. It's a unique way of introducing new storylines for each episode.\nAll in all, it looks like HBO has scored another hit with "Six Feet Under." It's a show that you sometimes don't know what to make of, but you can never pull yourself away from watching. It's ironic that a channel so known for showing movies soon might be the choice of most Americans for great series television as well.