Six Feet Under

The show, created by Alan Ball[?], stars Peter Krause[?] as Nathaniel ("Nate") Fisher, son of a funeral director[?] who becomes a partner in the family funeral business with his brother David, played by Michael C. Hall[?]. Others in the Fisher clan include mother Ruth, sister Claire, and Federico Diaz, mortician and family friend. Other regulars include Brenda (Rachel Griffiths[?]), Nate's girlfriend, and Keith, (Mathew St. Patrick[?]), David's boyfriend.

On one level, the show is a conventional family drama, dealing with issues like relationships, infidelity[?], homosexuality, and religion. But it is probably the first show to deal on a regular basis with the issue of death; not death as the catalyst for solving a murder, but all aspects of how people deal with death on a personal, religious and philosophical level. Each episode begins with someone's death - anything from to drowning to heart attack to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome - and that death in turn usually forms the theme of each episode, allowing the characters to reflect on their current problems in a different way.

In New Zealand, the show can be seen on the free-to-air TV One. In Canada, it airs on pay-TV channel, TMN. In the UK, it can be seen on Channel 4.