---
title: "Six Feet Under"
year: 2001
kind: "series"
canonical: "https://film.one/tv/six-feet-under"
fi1m_id: "six-feet-under"
imdb_id: "tt0248654"
tmdb_id: 1274
wikidata_id: "Q216919"
fi1m_score: 86
critics_score: 86
critics_reviews: 6
published: "2026-09-13"
updated: "2026-09-17T21:37:39.238719+00:00"
region: "US"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Six Feet Under (2001)

Created by Alan Ball · MPA TV-MA · Drama

## Identity

Six Feet Under

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/tv/six-feet-under
- **Type:** Series
- **Fi1m ID:** six-feet-under
- **IMDb ID:** tt0248654
- **TMDB ID:** 1274
- **Wikidata ID:** Q216919
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0248654/, https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/1274, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q216919

**Fi1m score: 86** · Critics 86 from 6 reviews

*In a sentence:* The funeral arrangements are easier than getting this family through a conversation

> The Fishers are exhausting company, but *Six Feet Under* earns the time spent with them through sharp ensemble acting and comedy that does not trivialise grief. Its taste for brooding occasionally becomes an indulgence.

## Synopsis

The Fisher family runs a funeral parlour, where dealing with death is part of the working day. Away from the business, their relationships bring problems that professional familiarity with grief does not resolve. Peter Krause plays Nate Fisher, Michael C. Hall plays David Fisher, Frances Conroy plays Ruth Fisher and Lauren Ambrose plays Claire Fisher. The ensemble also includes Rachel Griffiths as Brenda Chenowith, Freddy Rodríguez as Federico Diaz and Mathew St. Patrick as Keith Charles. The drama follows the Fishers and the people around them as family tensions, personal unhappiness and the demands of the funeral business overlap.

## Review

*Six Feet Under* is a family drama about people whose work makes death impossible to avoid, which does little to help them cope with one another. We recommend it for the acting and the uncomfortable humour, with a warning that its appetite for examining unhappiness can become wearing. Alan Ball is among its writers and directors, and the programme’s mixture of black comedy and psychological drama is unusually assured. The Fishers’ dysfunction supplies much of the comedy.

Ball and fellow writers Kate Robin, Craig Wright and Nancy Oliver are interested in people who can recognise a problem without becoming any better at handling it. The jokes work because knowing what is wrong with a family does not make its members behave any better. The funeral business keeps even the smaller domestic complaints uncomfortably close to grief. Its jokes can be harsh, but they rarely suggest that the suffering underneath is imaginary.

Peter Krause gives Nate Fisher enough ease to make his less attractive qualities tolerable, while Michael C. Hall’s David often seems to be doing a difficult job simply by getting through a conversation. Hall is particularly good at making restraint look tiring. Frances Conroy’s Ruth moved us more than we expected: the strain in her composure makes an ordinary exchange feel like something she has had to prepare for. Lauren Ambrose gives Claire an impatience that usefully disturbs the family’s heavier moods.

The cinematography, credited to Alan Caso, Frederick Iannone and others, is at its most persuasive when the funeral parlour feels like a workplace rather than a ready-made source of dread. Production designers Suzuki Ingerslev, Daniel Ross and Marcia Hinds help keep the setting credible as somewhere a family could spend its days. That ordinariness matters. A more insistently sinister treatment would make the domestic comedy harder to accept.

Editors Christopher Nelson, Sue Blainey and Michael Ruscio, among others, manage the changes from black comedy to psychological drama without making each change feel like a new programme. There is room for an awkward response to register before the next thought arrives. Richard Marvin’s music supports the brooding mood, though the actors often make that mood clear enough without help. The ensemble is so good at discomfort that a little less insistence elsewhere would sometimes be welcome.

The reservation is the amount of attention these people require while doing so little to improve their own company. Across five seasons and 63 episodes, psychological detail can become repetition, and the writers sometimes seem too reluctant to leave an unhappiness alone. Rachel Griffiths’s Brenda Chenowith helps because Griffiths makes difficult behaviour interesting without asking us to approve of it. Yet the series can press a character’s suffering so hard that the humour has little room left. The fanciful touches are less persuasive when they underline what the performances have already made plain.

As a family drama, *Six Feet Under* is especially good at letting an irritating person remain worth listening to. It asks for patience with behaviour that would end an evening’s conversation in most homes, and usually earns it. We would start it for the ensemble, not for a comforting discussion of mortality. Leave some time between episodes if the Fishers begin to make your own family seem uncomplicated.

*Fi1m score 86, published 13 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

The reviews are warm across the board, and the praise clusters on tone: the series holds black comedy and grief in the same scene without either cancelling the other. The Fisher family’s funeral parlour lets the show take death as its subject and come out on the side of the living. Performances are praised throughout, as is the writing’s patience with characters who change over five seasons. Several critics reach for the language of personal favourites rather than measured approval, and The Guardian goes as far as ranking it above The Sopranos.

Reservations are few and mild. The AV Club, reviewing only the first season, finds a solid family drama that occasionally overplays its plot tensions and drifts from its death-as-catalyst idea, though it ends strongly. The spread is narrow: nobody dips below good, and the retrospective pieces, written with the whole run in view, are the warmest of the set.

## Straight answers

**Is Six Feet Under worth watching?**

*Six Feet Under* is worth watching for its ensemble acting and its black comedy about a family that handles the dead better than the living, and we scored it 86. Peter Krause, Michael C. Hall, Frances Conroy and Lauren Ambrose make the Fishers exhausting but worth listening to. Its appetite for brooding can wear across five seasons, so leave gaps between episodes.

**How long is Six Feet Under, and what is it rated?**

*Six Feet Under* is rated TV-MA by the MPA in the US. It is a drama series.

**Where can I watch Six Feet Under in the US?**

*Six Feet Under* is streaming on HBO Max, Hulu, The Roku Channel and Amazon Prime Video in the US, and it is also available to buy from Amazon Prime Video. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**How violent or frightening is Six Feet Under, and is it suitable for children?**

*Six Feet Under* is certified 18 in the UK and TV-MA in the US, and it is not suitable for children. It is a family drama rather than a violent one, but death is part of every working day at the funeral parlour, and the humour about grief and unhappiness is harsh and adult. Teenagers may find it heavy going rather than frightening.

**How does Six Feet Under compare to Another Year?**

*Six Feet Under* and [*Another Year*](https://film.one/film/another-year) both watch unhappy people fail to improve their own company, and neither flatters them. Mike Leigh's film is the tighter and more concentrated piece, a single year in one kitchen, while the series has room for darker comedy and repeats itself more. Choose the film for one evening, the series for a long acquaintance with a difficult family.

**What should I watch after Six Feet Under?**

After *Six Feet Under*, try [*After Life*](https://film.one/film/after-life) (1998, Fi1m 85): The dead choose a memory to keep; modest rooms contain difficult decisions. Then [*Another Year*](https://film.one/film/another-year) (2010, Fi1m 87): Family unhappiness and social discomfort, observed with patience and little inclination to flatter; and [*Harold and Maude*](https://film.one/film/harold-and-maude) (1971, Fi1m 81): Death obsession meets an appetite for living, with a welcome disregard for propriety.

### Reviews we read (6)

- **The Guardian**, Gareth McLean (90/100, inferred): The critic calls the series brilliant and better than The Sopranos, praising its dark, funny and poignant take on the dysfunctional Fisher family and their funeral parlour as life-affirming despite its focus on death. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2002/jun/11/firstnight.broadcasting)
- **Variety** (90/100, inferred): The critic describes the series as a smart, brooding, fanciful character-driven ensemble piece about a family in the funeral business that ambitiously takes on death as its subject, mixing the blackest comedy with deep psychological drama. Overall, it is called a singular effort with plenty of polish. [Read](https://variety.com/2001/tv/reviews/six-feet-under-3-1200468137/)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, Barry Garron (85/100, inferred): The critic finds the series thoughtful and absorbing, combining sardonic humor with poignant drama in a unique tone. Top-notch performances, artful direction, creative storytelling, and Ball’s insight into society, the funeral industry, and family relationships stand out. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/six-feet-under-first-episode-816636/)
- **The AV Club**, Noel Murray (75/100, inferred): The first season is a solid family drama centered on mortality, with strong performances and bold character strokes that grab attention. It occasionally overplays plot tensions or loses focus on the death-as-catalyst idea but ends strongly with its distinctive style and sense of how the dead affect the living. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/six-feet-under-the-complete-first-season-dvd-1798198275)
- **Collider**, Liam Gaughan (90/100, inferred): The critic calls the series a masterpiece for its probing, authentic exploration of life, relationships, death, and family dynamics in a funeral home setting. They single out the well-defined characters who evolve over five seasons and the show's visual inventiveness and perfect series finale. [Read](https://collider.com/six-feet-under-hbo-25th-anniversary/)
- **Paste**, Ross Bonaime (90/100, inferred): The critic ranks all episodes and declares the series their favorite TV show of all time and possibly the best work of entertainment encountered, praising its bleak, profound, hilarious, and emotionally overwhelming qualities along with multilayered characters. They single out the consistent ability to make audiences laugh and cry while exploring complex life questions. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/tv/everything-ends-every-six-feet-under-episode-ranke)

## Details

- **Created by:** Alan Ball
- **Creator:** Alan Ball
- **Director:** Dan Attias, Alan Ball, Jeremy Podeswa, Michael Cuesta, Rodrigo García, Kathy Bates, Michael Engler, Daniel Minahan, Alan Poul, Miguel Arteta, Nicole Holofcener, Peter Care, Alan Caso, Jim McBride, Lisa Cholodenko, Mary Harron, Peter Webber, Adam Davidson, Rose Troche, Matt Shakman, Alan Taylor, Joshua Marston, John Patterson, Allen Coulter, Karen Moncrieff
- **Writer:** Alan Ball, Kate Robin, Rick Cleveland, Scott Buck, Joey Soloway, Bruce Eric Kaplan, Craig Wright, Nancy Oliver, Laurence Andries, Christian Taylor, Christian Williams, Johnny Otto
- **Cinematography:** Alan Caso, Rob Sweeney, Jim Denault, Lowell Peterson, Frederick Iannone, Bruce Douglas Johnson
- **Editor:** Michael Ruscio, Tanya Swerling, Ron Rosen, Christopher Nelson, Sue Blainey
- **Music:** Richard Marvin
- **Production design:** Suzuki Ingerslev, Daniel Ross, Marcia Hinds
- **Costume design:** Jill M. Ohanneson, Gail McMullen
- **Producer:** Lori Jo Nemhauser, Robert Del Valle, Christian Taylor
- **Cast:** Peter Krause as Nate Fisher; Michael C. Hall as David Fisher; Frances Conroy as Ruth Fisher; Lauren Ambrose as Claire Fisher; Freddy Rodriguez as Federico Diaz; Mathew St. Patrick as Keith Charles; Rachel Griffiths as Brenda Chenowith; Ben Foster as Russell Corwin
- **Certificate (MPA):** TV-MA
- **Release (the US):** 3 June 2001
- **Genres:** Drama
- **Also in:** [Emmy Outstanding Drama Series winners](https://film.one/collections/emmy-drama.md) (Nominee, 2002)
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3gYi-KvKug

## Where to watch in the US

- HBO Max: streaming
- Hulu: add-on, hd
- The Roku Channel: add-on, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: add-on
- Amazon Prime Video: buy, sd

*Checked 2026-09-13.*

Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, HK, HR, HU, ID, IE, IL, IS, IT, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, PA, PE, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, TH, TR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *Departures* (2008): Another funeral business, with more ceremony and a gentler approach to grief.
- *After Life* (1998), Fi1m 85: The dead choose a memory to keep; modest rooms contain difficult decisions. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/after-life.md)
- *Another Year* (2010), Fi1m 87: Family unhappiness and social discomfort, observed with patience and little inclination to flatter. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/another-year.md)
- *Please Like Me* (2013): A frank, funny series about mental health and the work of caring.
- *Harold and Maude* (1971), Fi1m 81: Death obsession meets an appetite for living, with a welcome disregard for propriety. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/harold-and-maude.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/six-feet-under