Six Feet Under: Crossroads

June 4, 2019 8:50 PM - Season 1, Episode 8

A recently divorced woman out celebrating with her girlfriends lets her newfound liberation go to her head, giving Rico a chance to showcase his restoration abilities at Kroehner. During a slow period at Fisher & Sons, Nate rents out a room to a senior square dance group and David practices some figures with the handsome young instructor. Ruth muses about the comparative attractions of her two suitors. Brenda has a house guest. Claire goes on a group hike in the mountains and gets to know those in the group better than she had expected.

This episode's obituary:

YORKIN, Chloe Anne Bryant. Born January 7, 1959 in Baltimore, Maryland. She died on April 10. Chloe worked as a Health Systems Administrator for Kaiser Permanente for 12 years and loved travel and fitness. She is survived by her parents Alexander and Vivian Bryant, her sisters Renee and Evelyn and brother Donald. She will be greatly missed by all who knew her.

Viewing and Vigil will be held at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, April 25 at Harbor Lawn Mortuary at 2400 Topsail Street in Marina del Rey.

posted by orange swan (3 comments total)

Rico is so hilariously in love with his macabre work, and so proud of his skill. Of course, he should be proud, because he's incredibly good at what he does, but I do find him annoyingly grasping and immature in a number of ways. In this episode we meet his wife Vanessa for the first time, and she is awesome. ("Oooh, honey, this is your Sistine Chapel!")

From a "my how things have changed since 2001" perspective, it was amusing to listen to Vanessa tell Rico she hopes he got some Polaroids(!!!) of Chloe, and Rico telling her he did better than that: he borrowed a digital camera from someone they knew to get some shots. These days he'd just take his phone out of his pocket and snap away. And once I noted that, I reflected that this show still looks so amazingly current that there aren't that many reminders of the fact that we're watching episodes taped 18 years ago. If it were 2001 and we were re-watching a show from 1983, the entire look of the show would be so clearly, painfully dated.

Claire's disaffection gets on my nerves sometimes, but then it turns out that yes, the people/situations she's been turning her nose up at do indeed suck. I can't understand why she doesn't have any friends in high school, but in this episode she at least finally bonds with another girl, even though Parker is a total brat.

Rachel Griffiths gets to break out her native Australian accent in this episode. Her American accent is so perfect this is the only time in the entire show's run that I'm reminded that it isn't her own.
posted by orange swan at 4:19 PM on June 6, 2019 [1 favorite]

Another thing... Nate told David he has gaydar. Dude, you do not. Your 30-year-old brother had to tell you he was gay.
posted by orange swan at 11:20 AM on June 7, 2019

I’m enjoying this rewatch endeavor, thank you orange swan for posting these episode posts. I agree with the idea that it seems awfully fresh and current despite being coming up on two decades old. I really just love this show and will continue to watch and read along, even though I may not always feel like I have intelligent commentary to contribute. Such is my general state of being on Mefi.
posted by fancyoats at 4:26 PM on June 7, 2019 [1 favorite]