Discuss Deacon David, Natty Nate, Clever Claire and the rest of the F'ed up Fishers here.

-- Anonymous, July 31, 2001

Answers

Poor H with no Six Feet Under love.

If I had HBO, I'd watch it, but alas, I traded off for the NBA League Pass.

Sixers, anyone?

-- Anonymous, July 31, 2001

I never remember when the show is on. And I don't got no TiVo. Anyone care to email me a day in advance of each showing so I remember to watch?

-- Anonymous, July 31, 2001

It's on Sundays at 9:30 p.m. (after Sex and The City) and Wednesdays at 9 p.m.

-- Anonymous, July 31, 2001

HB - I have the love for you, the Six Feet Under love. Let's tawk amongst ourselves, because

a) Nate just does not seem as hot to me, now that I see Brenda's hot- ass brother. I don't care if they are sleeping together.

b) YES! I want to go to a gay man club. Seriously. Like, this weekend. That looked like so much more fun than the tool-patrol places I go.

c) "Stop trying to be the honorary mayor of West Hollywood!" hee.

-- Anonymous, July 31, 2001

I think Nate is hot. I don't know why. And I sort of want to shave his face, and not just because he's hairy but because I uh.. sort of like that. Anyway.

What do y'all think is the big "secret" about scary Billy?

-- Anonymous, July 31, 2001

Okay, I have gotten hooked on this show big time. The whole family is so insane! I especially like the storyline about David. He tries to be so straight-laced, but when he's alone with a young hottie, look out! I couldn't believe he let that guy drug him up. I think he's a volcano waiting to erupt. I hope they bring Keith back for him,though. He is incredibly hot, and I think he's good for David.

My favorite bit so far, though, was a couple weeks ago, when Nate pushed play on David's VCR and saw his gay porn video. David leaves the room mortified, and Nate follows him and says, "It's okay, I watch porn too!" I just thought that was hilarious.

Of course, the scene last week where Mom was running around the woods high on ecstacy - that was classic. I was scared for her, but it was amusing as hell.

-- Anonymous, July 31, 2001

Scary Billy's secret is that he is not bipolar or in another way mentally unbalanced but just a big ole Fakey Faker with a trust fund and too much time on his hands.

And they are SO sleeping together, or did at one point. I have a brother, I do not want to give him a massage.

I love Rachel Griffiths but I wish she didn't sound so much like Helen Hunt with her American accent. If you close your eyes it's like Nate is dating Jaime, man it's annoying.

-- Anonymous, August 01, 2001

Aaaaaaah! Slickery, nooooo! You're absolutely right about Rachel Griffiths' American accent being all Helen Huntlike, and it's killing me. Ew.

I think Scary Billy's scariness has something to do with where he was & what happened to him while Brenda was off with the shrinks being Charlotte Light & Dark. I think he is genuinely crazy, though the trust fund & Brenda's incredible lack of boundaries w/him aren't helping any.

-- Anonymous, August 01, 2001

all of these characters have so many dimensions that it makes the show so interesting. this makes the relationships between everyone on the show intruiging; they get more and more complex every week. like claire's and david's interactions. this past week when he was looking for the bottle of aspirin for his date with the hot hot square dancing guy, claire asked him if he was wearing her shirt... but then immediately pointed out that she liked this side of him so much better than the straight-laced side.

and i agree - the mother's camping trip WAS classic!

-- Anonymous, August 03, 2001

Okay. How freaky is Billy? Seriously. What a pyscho.

What happened to Gabe?? Did he run away? Commit suicide? I really adore Eric Balfour, so I hope they didn't kill him off.

And poor David. All going crazy. A reaction to his father's death? Is he trying to make up for all those years of hot, gay sex he missed out on?

-- Anonymous, August 06, 2001

HB - yes, Billy is freaky but HOT!

Of course the question is... wouldja?

6FU trivia - this show is David's (Michael Hall) acting debut.

-- Anonymous, August 06, 2001

Actually, I think it's just Hall's non-theater acting debut. He's been on Broadway for awhile.

Of course I'd do Billy, just because my taste in men is bad enough and I'd secretly like the drama. Well, I would've in my early 20s (how is it possible that I can even say that? Gross.)

-- Anonymous, August 06, 2001

I can't believe it's just Pineapple and me up in here with the SFU love.

It's the greatest thing on t.v. right now. Are the rest of y'all just overwhelmed by its awesomeness right now or something?

-- Anonymous, August 06, 2001

Dude, I don't get HBO (as mentioned in the Sex in the City thread). I don't even get cable. My idea of a hot romance is Seven of Nine and Chakotay, and my idea of drama is whether Sakai can pull it out in Plum Battle (since Time Warner, in their wisdom, has declared the Food Network "basic" in Brooklyn).

But The Smoker is taping all the episodes for me, so after this weekend I should be able to join in the love.

-- Anonymous, August 06, 2001

oh God, WG - you are going to gorge yourself. After you have watched them all, you must RUN (don't walk!) to the computer and let us know what you think.

And HB, if it's just you and me, that's okay. We know what's up. We are hip.

-- Anonymous, August 06, 2001

The hippest!

I just love that Rose from Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead is Ma Chenowith. I love her.

Clearly Billy and Brenda and one point likened themselves to Nathaniel and Isabel and felt the need to fight the manevolent nurse. The question is: Is their mother the nurse? Or the Dr. who wrote Charlotte?

-- Anonymous, August 07, 2001

I can't imagine a twisted scenario in the Billy/Brenda family that would surprise me. And I thought the Funeral Franchise burned their own place down. Now we hear that Billy is a firebug, too...too suspicious.

Frankly, Brenda can do better than Nate. Why would someone so smart want to date such a big whiny baby? "Oh, my day sucked. I had to deal with all these dead people and mourners...whaaaa. What was I thinking, working in the funeral business?" If I were Brenda, my brother would be looking better than Nate right now, too.

I LOVE this show.

-- Anonymous, August 08, 2001

Y'all, I watched the first two episodes of this show, and then moved, and now we don't have HBO. But, y'all are talking crazy. None of this was happening when I was watching! Jealousy!

-- Anonymous, August 08, 2001

Toe Sucker Whose Name Escapes Me ran away, I think, although they were clearly implying suicide. But I don't think he'd take everything in his locker to kill himself. "I want to die surrounded by my gym sneakers and Playboy magazines!"

Usually I abhor Ileana Douglas but she was killing me. I was all, "AH, that would be me if I were working on dead people!" Although I never cop to my farts because I lady never cops she blames it on the dog.

Billy's a freaky freak to the freak degree. But here's my take. They've clearly implied that he and Brenda had a whole Flowers in the Attic, band together against the Big Bad Parents and Doctors thing going.

So she goes to Europe. She gets told he tried to commit suicide, rushes home, visits him in the hospital.

He's clingy and needy and, you know, crazy as a bed bug, and one day she gives in and sleeps with him to give him something to cling to, to try to keep him from another suicide attempt.

So when Dr Mommie Dearest tells her there never was a suicide she freaked not just because of the lying but because now she realizes that she was a big ole Super Sinnah for no reason. Also, she's upset about the whole Helen Hunt voice thing and, really, who wouldn't be?

Or, you know, I read too many V.C. Andrews books as a young kid.

-- Anonymous, August 09, 2001

oooh, Slickery - I like!

Because I felt like there was something more to Brenda's reaction... okay, so Billy didn't try to kill himself, he tried to burn their house down - but I didn't feel like it warranted her "you've destroyed my whole life with your lie" reaction. Unless she was referring to not going to Yale, which I don't buy.

-- Anonymous, August 09, 2001

Okay, Eric Balfour.

Do you guys ever watch Powerpuff Girls?

Dude, put a pink tutu and some lobster claws on him, and that's Him.

-- Anonymous, August 09, 2001

Dude, Joanna Cassidy was Rose in Don't Tell Mom . . . , not Frances Conroy.

-- Anonymous, August 09, 2001

Dude, Joanna Cassidy was Rose in Don't Tell Mom . . . , not Frances Conroy.

Right. Mrs. Chenowith = Brenda and Billy's mom. Conroy plays Ruth Fisher.

-- Anonymous, August 09, 2001

Okay, y'all, save for last night, I'm all caught up.

1. Keith deserves better.

2. Billy must be manipulating Brenda. As Aaron pointed out in the 6FU recaps, it seems somewhat unbelievable that he wouldn't tell her, in all that time, that he hadn't actually tried to kill himself - - unless he got something out of it. I like Slickery's theory.

3. But if I had a genius child and her younger (?) brother (I originally thought Billy was Brenda's younger brother, but then she said he was taking classes at UCLA about the same time she would have been at Yale -- fraternal twins, maybe?) had attempted arson, I would have told her.

4. I don't trust Parker any further than I can throw her.

5. Ruth should get rid of the hairdresser -- she doesn't respect him, which is simply toxic.

6. The Smoker is in love with Claire, and makes comments along those lines roughly every ten minutes while watching.

-- Anonymous, August 13, 2001

I squealed last night while watching the show. Squealed, I tell you. Billy really made me reconsider my secret love relationship with him when I saw him schlepping around Vegas in sweatpants. I can love a crazy man, but I don't know if I can love that.

-- Anonymous, August 13, 2001

Oh yeah. When Billy peered around the fountain? Creepolicious.

Why did Claire tell Gabe that she loved him? Because she needs to be needed? There's some serious dysfunction there, but whatever. Claire rules.

David, David, David.

-- Anonymous, August 13, 2001

An inte rview with Peter Krause. Now I'm sorry I missed the Cabaret with Michael C. Hall as emcee.

-- Anonymous, August 14, 2001

I can't imagine PK as David. He's so Nate.

-- Anonymous, August 14, 2001

Okay if Brenda didn't sleep with Billy then he has serious boundary issues because you just don't stalk your own sister and then take pictures of her in bed with her lovah.

Dude, that prostitute David slept with? Skanky! He needed a bath.

I am so tired of Mom Fisher learning to relax. I just don't care, get back to the young people having sex with inappropriate partners.

-- Anonymous, August 14, 2001

Yeah, Mother Fisher has begun to plucketh on my nerves. She'd be 10 times more interesting if she just got rid of Busey. Looking at him makes my eyes hurt. She's already got Sensitive Nate living in her home, she doesn't need Sensitive Boyfriend too.

And I don't believe for one second that Claire wouldn't have told Gabe that she made out with the photographer of the photo of Nate peeing. If I were Claire, I definitely would have said, "Oh, by the way...".

-- Anonymous, August 14, 2001

I watched a little bit of it again last night. David at the strip club cracks my shit up. He actually does seem to be having a semi-good time. I mean, a beautiful woman is a beautiful woman, right?

I keep watching the Next Week On looking for more hints. I have no idea what's going to happen. At first I thought it would be Nate in the hospital, but then you see Nate getting that phone call. Why does Nikolai freak out on Ruth? Is nasty Begley going to break up with her?? I can't wait till Sunday!

-- Anonymous, August 16, 2001

Finally! Y'all do not know how much it was paining my heart to come to MATH+1 every day, knowing I had to skip the Six Feet thread since I hadn't seen it yet. I didn't even know it came on on Thursdays, but after L&O I switched to HBO and there it was, like a little gift, like God rewarding me for staying home last night.

Okay... after last night, I no longer think that we are going to find out that Billy and Brenda Did It. Her reaction when Billy confronted them in the casino wasn't quite right for that. But, yes, when he appeared around that fountain, I was all "ehhhhh! creepy!"

And, I have to go there on Nate. Can I say that once I saw those pictures, I would be out the door? like a puff of smoke.

Good for Claire. I'm glad to see that she admitted to Gabe how she felt. But, please - could he have been any more wooden in last week's episode? He didn't look like he'd tried to OD - he looked normal and healthy and petulant. And I just didn't believe him when he was throwing the magazines around sulking in the hospital.

Question? When are we going to get the payoff on the photo Billy took with his hand on Claire's tit? Remember that? I assumed it would have shown up in the gallery at the opening, but it didn't. Surely they are going to do something with it.

I really liked this episode - in the way that all the Fishers (and Rico too) were going through their own trials, without having to intersect in the kitchen two or three times. Adults living their own lives for a while... I buy it. (I mean, I know that Nate and David were in Vegas together, but other than the FuneralCon stuff, they really weren't spending time together)

Keith! ohhhhh Keith! Please! you are so hot! and sensitive! Please give David a chance. He wants to straighten up and fly right and get back in your bed... he's just having a hard time adjusting to being out. Be patient, my beautiful eye-candy friend.

-- Anonymous, August 17, 2001

Oh, David! How proud I am of you! And how beautifully his entire arch was handled in both episodes. I thought the scene in hour one where he was working on the kid's body and the kid was sitting there beside David, asking all the questions I was sure David had to have been struggling with. I'm glad they FIANLLY, really addressed the How can I be really religious and gay question. I thought it was v. well done.

And poor Claire. Poor Gabe and Claire. But for now she's happy. At least she got that little bit, right?

Billy freaks me the eff out. Where will that go next season?

Any predictions??

-- Anonymous, August 20, 2001

I'm thinking they're gonna work the whole Billy is creepiest when head-tripping Nate via Claire angle... among others i'm sure. (Hey! I'm not the ultra-sexy-donkey-wrestler writer for that show... ergo, i cannot forsee all the brilliance.)

Here's a good prediction: In the Season 2 premiere, someone will die within the first five minutes.

...just you wait and see. *tic*

~er

-- Anonymous, August 21, 2001

Bumping this up for season 2, which starts tonight!

-- Anonymous, March 03, 2002

Since ya brought it up.

I got to see the first 4 eps. of the new season. It's really good and stays consistently good. They don't take it too fast, but there are some neat little plot turns.

Here's a review I wrote for our paper on it if you're interested. There are no real spoilers to speak of in the article.

-- Anonymous, March 04, 2002

Pleeeease help! I've been going crazy trying to find out WHO Nathaniel and Isabel are. Tonight I saw Claire reading a book "Nathaniel and Isabel in Space".... of course I ran right to the Barnes and Noble site looking for the book...not even on the out of print list. *sigh* I missed that episode where it was explained after the tatoos showed up. WERE they real characters in literature and fiction, or made up for the show?

-- Anonymous, March 04, 2002

Whoops... I saw Brenda reading the book... not Claire! doh

-- Anonymous, March 04, 2002

T, they are characters in a series of British children's books. When Brenda and Billy were children, Brenda read the books to him (evidently repeatedly) and the two of them would pretend that they were the characters.

-- Anonymous, March 04, 2002

and each of them got tattoos with the other's storybook name. Brenda has a "Nathaniel" tattoo (which confused Nate when he first saw it) and Billy has an "Isabel" tattoo.

-- Anonymous, March 04, 2002

Um, Billy doesn't have it anymore. Ouch.

-- Anonymous, March 04, 2002

I thought the first episode was excellent. Sometimes it's hard for me to watch Nate, although I'm not sure why. The dinner scene was hilarious.

I love Claire. I want to whisk her away.

-- Anonymous, March 04, 2002

I enjoyed the first episode also. I was glad to see them easing us back into each character's personal dramas without the need for a crazy smack-you-upside-the-head sort of season premiere.

Weren't the Nathaniel and Isabel characters based on Billy and Brenda? I had the impression that the books were actually written about them (or inspired by them, whatever).

-- Anonymous, March 06, 2002

The Nathaniel & Isabel books are real I believe. But there was a plotline that a book (Charlotte Light and Dark - I think) was written about Brenda cause she was so smart and clever and so on when she was a kid. Claire couldn't believe it was about Brenda because she'd read it so many times.

-- Anonymous, March 07, 2002

Did everyone see it last night? Did Claire make you cry?

Damn, that girl is the best actress on a show full of really good actors. Brenda is starting to really get on my nerves, mostly because she is starting to look exactly like a girl I used to work with, who would respond to everything you said with some comment implying that her life was full of tragic moments and horrors which have turned her cynical and pithy. Crappity crap. So entirely self centered. No wonder she's friendless. Run away, Nate.

-- Anonymous, March 18, 2002

The Brenda/Billy plotline made me quit watching last season about halfway through. I had hoped Brenda would become less insufferable this season since her ridiculous brother got sent away. Yeah, I'm disappointed. Her "I'm so brilliant and damaged" schtick is working my last nerve, which is sad because I think Rachel Griffiths is great. She deserves better. Currently I'm hoping Brenda cheats on Nate and he dumps her and she goes away forever.

I'm so glad I didn't give up on the show though, because Claire is fantastic. It did make me cry when she grabbed the cop's hand and said, "Will you be there?" Also I'm warming up to Ruth, who drove me up a wall last season, and I like the less self-destructive David too.

-- Anonymous, March 18, 2002

Keith (the cop) is so my gay boyfriend. Rufus Wainwright can move on over for Mathew St. Whatever. He hit all the right notes of tough & tender. I really hope he & David get back together. I think I injured myself rolling my eyes so hard during the scenes of Ruth at The Plan. Gawd.

Has anyone here seen Badlands? It's the Sissy Spacek-Martin Sheen flick that Claire was watching when she was waiting up for Ruth, and has some parallels to the Claire-Gabriel relationship. We were watching the scene where Marty shoots the guy they were eating lunch with and Marcus deadpans, "That's no way for a future president to behave."

-- Anonymous, March 18, 2002

Oh, I'm so glad someone posted what movie that was. Thanks sophie.

Yes, that last scene did make me cry. Claire is fantastic. I love it. (Did you know that Lauren Ambrose got married this summer? Weird.)

And did anyone notice that Brenda's "late client" was Jake of Melrose Place? I hate Brenda.

-- Anonymous, March 18, 2002

Damn, H, I was sputtering all my fizzy lemonade when I saw Jake sitting at the bar! Marcus was all, "what? who?" I guess they missed out on Melrose Place in England. Brenda's really pissing me off, and so is Nate. You just don't withhold brain tumor info from loved ones. Lauren Ambrose, married? Holy cow. Somebody better break the news gently to The Smoker. :)

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2002

Sophie, I'll do it just before we go see Attack of Natalie Portman in Various Stages of Undress.

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2002

Ahahahahaha! Thank god he has a spare sweet yet sassy young thing of an an actress to drool over. Smart thinking, WG.

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2002

Off-topic Melrose Place news: Apparently gay Matt and semi- evil Sydney are IRL married and just had a baby.

But I still want to know what happened to Daphne Zuniga.

I'd comment on this season, but both The Smoker and I are HBOless. Everyone's seen Muriel's Wedding, right?

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2002

I thought Lily Taylor was great in this week's ep. As was Lauren Ambrose, as ususal. And ew, Claire's counseler? Next week's looks good.

-- Anonymous, March 25, 2002

Ack! What did the preview show, H? Here in silly Canada, all I got was a promo for the show's soundtrack. Grr. Please share!

-- Anonymous, March 26, 2002

So, I don't have cable and I've never seen the show, but my fiance has (strangely) become the go-to man if you own a cemetery and you need a lawyer.

We were mingling with some of the industry folks, if you will, and I asked one of them what they thought of the show. Y'all, all these cemetery folks LOVE the show. Several of them had all fourteen episodes (or how many ever) on tape. They especially empathized with the folks who were threatened with takeover from the big conglomerations.

-- Anonymous, March 26, 2002

Sophie -- next week's preview showed Claire talking with her counselor, and he says something to the effect, "I think we need to address the sexual tension between us." And if I remember correctly, Claire gives him a digusted and confused WTF? look.

Ew is right, I thought that guy was just nosy and clueless but it turns out he's a creep.

-- Anonymous, March 26, 2002

So good. Claire is so great. What will happen with bitch Parker? Poor Ruth. All so sad. Rico is about to flip out.

-- Anonymous, March 31, 2002