Spring Break
Scagnetti's Selection
Mark Scagnetti
Issue date: 3/4/02 Section: Culture
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I have not had cable since October of last year and in order to write this bugger column, I had to mooch my way into friends' homes and steal time on their Time Warner Cable boxes. One of my friends has a satellite hookup and he is the destination for most sporting events (although the idiot chose not to get the damned thing until after the Super Bowl! How stupid is that?).
Well, now I am going to have to settle up with the cable company this month. There are many shows worth the collective fees levied down by the huge conglomerate. But there is one Jewel of the Nile, so to speak.
Shows like "SportsCenter," AMC's "BackStory," VH1's "Behind the Music," "Sex and the Cit," and, of course, "The Sopranos." However, this week's featured goody is HBO's latest award-winning drama, "Six Feet Under."
SFU, as insiders and nut-ball fans like yers truly fondly know it as, seems to be gaining steam in its second season. It has won two Golden Globe awards for Best Drama and an Emmy nomination for Peter Krause as Best Actor for his portrayal of Nate, the disenchanted son of Nathaniel Fisher, the newly dead patriarch of an L.A. family of morticians.
Krause is great eating his Stevie Nicks raspberries, goading his gay brother David, played by Michael C. Hall, who is closeted and paranoid.
Both brothers have relationships. David is seeing a black cop who is openly gay. Matthew St. Patrick plays Keith and Rachel Griffiths plays Brenda Chenowith, Nate's girlfriend, whose family might very well be more dysfunctional than the Fishers. Griffiths won a Golden Globe for her performance.
Lauren Ambrose plays the youngest Fisher, Claire, who is a struggling teenager with a junkie boyfriend and a mother, Ruth, played by Frances Conroy, who is fervently trying to engage her daughter in "girl talk."
Conroy and Ambrose are amazing, much like the rest of the cast. Freddy Rodriguez plays Frederico, the young new father and wunderkind mortician. Ed Begley, Jr. plays Ruth's lover and is really funny with his new wave yoga speak and fois gras.
But the acting cake, in my opinion, goes to Jeremy Sisto, who plays Brenda's brother Billy Chenowith. Sisto first appeared in Lawrence Kasdan's "Grand Canyon" opposite Kevin Kline and Mary McDonnell. He certainly has learned the best from these gigs and he truly plays the character in this series.
Billy is a manic-depressive photographer that constantly pesters his sister and relies upon her incessantly. Billy provides Nate with hostility, smarm and just the right amount of conflict between the two (sometimes three).
Alan Ball created this gem of television after his Oscar-winning script for "American Beauty" gained him enough clout to lure HBO into the grave with him. Ball still writes and directs the episodes with dark humor and imaginative dialogue.
"Six Feet Under" is fantastic. I should know. I have been sucked in since the first five minutes of the first episode where family patriarch, the wonderful Richard Jenkins, haunts his family from his fresh grave. Spooky and kooky.
"Six Feet Under" airs every Sunday this spring on HBO at 8 p.m.
Well, now I am going to have to settle up with the cable company this month. There are many shows worth the collective fees levied down by the huge conglomerate. But there is one Jewel of the Nile, so to speak.
Shows like "SportsCenter," AMC's "BackStory," VH1's "Behind the Music," "Sex and the Cit," and, of course, "The Sopranos." However, this week's featured goody is HBO's latest award-winning drama, "Six Feet Under."
SFU, as insiders and nut-ball fans like yers truly fondly know it as, seems to be gaining steam in its second season. It has won two Golden Globe awards for Best Drama and an Emmy nomination for Peter Krause as Best Actor for his portrayal of Nate, the disenchanted son of Nathaniel Fisher, the newly dead patriarch of an L.A. family of morticians.
Krause is great eating his Stevie Nicks raspberries, goading his gay brother David, played by Michael C. Hall, who is closeted and paranoid.
Both brothers have relationships. David is seeing a black cop who is openly gay. Matthew St. Patrick plays Keith and Rachel Griffiths plays Brenda Chenowith, Nate's girlfriend, whose family might very well be more dysfunctional than the Fishers. Griffiths won a Golden Globe for her performance.
Lauren Ambrose plays the youngest Fisher, Claire, who is a struggling teenager with a junkie boyfriend and a mother, Ruth, played by Frances Conroy, who is fervently trying to engage her daughter in "girl talk."
Conroy and Ambrose are amazing, much like the rest of the cast. Freddy Rodriguez plays Frederico, the young new father and wunderkind mortician. Ed Begley, Jr. plays Ruth's lover and is really funny with his new wave yoga speak and fois gras.
But the acting cake, in my opinion, goes to Jeremy Sisto, who plays Brenda's brother Billy Chenowith. Sisto first appeared in Lawrence Kasdan's "Grand Canyon" opposite Kevin Kline and Mary McDonnell. He certainly has learned the best from these gigs and he truly plays the character in this series.
Billy is a manic-depressive photographer that constantly pesters his sister and relies upon her incessantly. Billy provides Nate with hostility, smarm and just the right amount of conflict between the two (sometimes three).
Alan Ball created this gem of television after his Oscar-winning script for "American Beauty" gained him enough clout to lure HBO into the grave with him. Ball still writes and directs the episodes with dark humor and imaginative dialogue.
"Six Feet Under" is fantastic. I should know. I have been sucked in since the first five minutes of the first episode where family patriarch, the wonderful Richard Jenkins, haunts his family from his fresh grave. Spooky and kooky.
"Six Feet Under" airs every Sunday this spring on HBO at 8 p.m.
