Critic Reviews

So daring, richly multi-dimensional and culturally provocative that it's almost anti-television. [3 June 2001, p.2F]

Whether darkly funny, deeply moving or spookily surreal, Six Feet Under is seldom less than bracingly original. It's another landmark series for HBO. [3 June 2001, p.3]

Six Feet Under establishes from the start that it will be unflinching and brazen and, as it happens, scorchingly brilliant. [3 June 2001, p.G01]

The writing is boosted by first-rate acting all around, especially Hall as the severely repressed David and Griffiths as Brenda, whose moody character unfolds slowly and unexpectedly. [2 June 2001, p.5E]

Too dark, too true, too uncompromising for the network audience...It isn't really, of course. The suits make a habit of underestimating the American television audience, then they wonder why it keeps leaving. [1 June 2001, p.E-1]

If last season tended toward painful self-evaluation -- it made for great drama but a head full of bleakness -- Season 3 hints not so much at a more clearly defined, lighter tone but perhaps more living life out loud than living it in the head.

This challenging show offers the viewer nary a morsel of TV comfort food. But uncommonly good writing and acting are satisfying too.

The early episodes of Season 3 abound in Six Feet Under's trademark qualities—complexity, humor and humanity.

Alan Ball, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of "American Beauty," has done something wonderfully unusual. He has written a tremendously life-affirming drama about death. [3 June 2001, p.43]

The dialogue is smart, and the comedy is edgy, and from the six already previewed out of this 13-episode run, the characters may drive you crazy with their constant navel-gazing, but they do grow on you. [3 June 2001, p.2]