There is more emotional substance to be had out of Zee English's new fare than just sitcoms that provide a few easy laughs. Its latest offering Six Feet Under airs every Friday at 10 pm. If the pilot episode last week is any indication, the sophisticated viewer wanting loads of originality mixed with realism is in for an invigorating treat.
The show centers around the Fisher family which runs a funeral home. The show opens on one not so fine Christmas Eve. The male patriarch played with seductive glee by Richard Jenkins dies in a car crash while ironically listening to I'll be Home For Christmas.

This opens up a can of worms, and festering wounds hidden for long start to bleed. The mother played by Francis Conroy is forced to confront her unfaithful behaviour in the past. Unfulfilled desires and emotional repression come to the fore. Resentment creeps into one of the sons played by Michael C Hall who is gay. He does not like the fact that his prodigal brother played by Peter Krauss after staying away for so long now seeks to gain satisfaction by being the family's anchor.

Each of the family members that Jenkins has left behind confronts his ghost. In a scene whose laughs stick in your throat, Hall, who missed out on frat parties as he used to work with his father on corpses, addresses the ghost saying," I did it to make you happy you ungrateful sonofabitch." Another standout scene is Jenkins' daughter getting the news of his death while high on crack.

The visuals pack in a solid punch, especially the flashbacks and mock commercials, which artfully juggle curveballs. "We put the fun back in funerals" one such TVC proudly proclaims.

Alan Ball, who won an Oscar for writing American Beauty is the brain behind the endeavour, which has won several awards including Golden Globe and SAG. In summation, it is well worth going down Six Feet Under for those tired of the sitcoms with tiring tracks that tell the audience when to laugh.

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