Six Feet Under: The Complete Fifth Season

Oscar-winning screenwriter Alan Ball, who created this series for HBO, was determined from the start that nothing about Six Feet Under—from its funeral-home setting to the unorthodox relationships between its main characters—would smack of the predictable. This was especially true of the 2005 final season, which delivered one surprise after another. While there were a few “stiffs” (if you'll pardon the pun) in the 12 episodes collected here, most served up some of the best viewing available on series television last year (and with just three episodes left, a major character is abruptly killed off in one of the most jarring and unexpected twists in the history of episodic TV). The season opener, “A Coat of Primer,” gets off to a rocky start when George Sibley (James Cromwell) returns from the hospital to find wife Ruth (Frances Conroy) emotionally ill-prepared to cope with his condition, while in succeeding episodes the Fisher family continues to stumble along, with Nate (Peter Krause) and Brenda (Rachel Griffiths) dealing with her troubled pregnancy as best they can. Towards the end, the series embarks on an audacious downward spiral that takes viewers from the downbeat to the depths of despair, with the final episode, “Everyone's Waiting,” tying up all the loose ends—more or less—and bringing to a satisfying conclusion this landmark series. DVD extras include audio commentaries on six episodes, two half-hour retrospective documentaries, and a featurette on the show's impact. Highly recommended. (E. Hulse)