If season 1 of “Six Feet Under” establishes the show’s offbeat, taboo-busting sensibilities, season 2 is where it becomes clear that the series thrives not just on drama, but on glorious, impulsive messiness. It’s the season in which Keith (Mathew St. Patrick), a cop, shoots a man on the job and then comes by David’s house for a booty call. It’s the season that sees Brenda cosplaying as a sex worker, dabbling in increasingly risky sexual exploits that threaten to derail her new engagement to Nate. And it’s the season in which Nate learns that he has a potentially deadly brain condition, one he keeps secret from some family members until the tense season finale.
This is also a season of major growth, and in a rarity for the show, characters are allowed to flourish without dire consequences. Ruth especially finds a new lease on life, exploring self-help workshops and dating persnickety florist Nikolai (Ed O’Ross) before finally realizing her true calling as a grandma. It’s clear by this point in the show that Nathaniel’s death woke the Fisher family up, and that jolt of clarity and awareness is theirs to do with what they please. In some cases, they lean towards destruction, but in others, they find beauty and unexpected joy. More often than not, the two options aren’t mutually exclusive.
Season 2 has its shortcomings, most notably when its writers fail to reckon with obnoxious character faults that seem to exist in their blind spots. Keith, for example, comes across as a violent cop with anger issues who’s borderline abusive to both David and his niece. Yet the show regularly positions David as equally as deserving of criticism, and it’s frustrating to see the couple’s relationship drag on with its most obvious problems unacknowledged. Still, the season is compelling overall, with rewarding character payoffs, explorations of uneasy truths, and darkly hilarious client deaths that grow more ridiculous by the episode.
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