There's a new pecking order at the Fisher & Diaz funeral home, but Nate, Ruth, David and Claire still try to make every day above ground a good one. Death and dysfunction are par for the course in The Complete Fourth Season of Six Feet Under.

CRITIQUE

There’s not a great deal of new stuff I have to say about Six Feet Under as a show. The fourth season is pretty strong and tells some very good stories dealing of course with Nate’s relationship with Brenda (who comes back into his life later in the season) and him becoming a single parent to Maya (Nate must also deal with his late wife’s relatives and so on). The other storylines concern Ruth and George going through some troubling times in their marriage, David and Keith spending some time apart (while Keith works security for a celebrity David tries to make the best of his time alone) and later dealing with an unfortunate incident, and Claire making new friends and finally finding her inspiration for an art piece.

The writing continues to be good, and the same goes for the direction, photography, editing and locations. The most memorable episode is That’s My Dog. Written by Scott Buck and directed by Alan Poul, the episode makes a complete 180 turn not long after it starts. Without spoiling too much, David goes through hell and back when he drives home from picking up a body and then picks up a seemingly friendly hitchhiker Jake from the side of the road. David’s ordeal is very chilling and features terrific acting by Michael C. Hall and Michael Weston (Garden State). Other memorable/strong episodes include Parallel Play, The Dare, Bomb Shelter and the season finale Untitled. Overall, the fourth season is very good stuff.

Among the guest stars this season are Mena Suvari, Ellen DeGeneres, Veronica Cartwright and Michelle Trachtenberg, as well as returning guest stars Kathy Bates, Joanna Cassidy, Patricia Clarkson, Ben Foster, Richard Jenkins, Justina Machado, Justin Theroux and Rainn Wilson.

The fourth season’s 12 episodes are presented on five discs.

Disc One:
401 - Falling Into Place
402 - In Case of Rapture

Disc Two:
403 - Parallel Play
404 - Can I Come Up Now?
405 - That's My Dog

Disc Three:
406 - Terror Starts at Home
407 - The Dare
408 - Coming and Going

Disc Four:
409 - Grinding the Corn
410 - The Black Forest

Disc Five:
411 – Bomb Shelter
412 – Untitled

THE VIDEO

HBO presents Six Feet Under in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen. Colors are bright and well-saturated, although the show's color palette is not all too vivid. Image quality is quite nice, sharpness and detail look good, and the print is mostly clean. Some images are a bit soft, but generally the lighting looks pretty good. Grain is minimal, and there are no issues with compression artifacts and edge enhancement. Overall, I find the presentation looks pretty good. Optional subtitles are English, French and Spanish.

THE AUDIO

HBO presents Six Feet Under in English 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound. Dialogue is clear and easy to understand. There are no disruptions or noises in the presentation. Surround sound is evident a few times in the score and during the natural sounds. Overall, it's a nice audio presentation. Also available are French and Spanish 2.0 stereo dub tracks.

THE EXTRAS

7 Audio Commentaries with Alan Ball, writers and directors on episodes 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 11 and 12. We get two more commentaries this time, upgraded from five tracks on the Season 3 DVD.

Falling Into Place with writer Craig Wright.

Parallel Play with director Jeremy Podeswa.

That’s My Dog with director Alan Poul.

Terror Starts at Home with writer Kate Robin.

The Dare with director Peter Webber.

Bomb Shelter with writer Scott Buck.
Untitled with director Alan Ball.

This is what I said about the commentaries in my Season 3 review: “A lot of time on these tracks is spent analyzing what's going on the screen and talking about the characters and so on. In a way these tracks are good but really only decent. I didn't really get a lot of interesting information out of these tracks, which is also partially due to the fact that they're kind of dry with only one person speaking.”

Granted, the quality of the commentaries varies between the participants, and each track offers something unique, but one person speaking is usually not very engaging. It appears HBO is not really responding to reviews that suggest (I’m sure I’m not the only one with this idea) putting two people in the recording booth to record a commentary, preferably episode writers and directors who can go back and forth in discussions, and of course some of the cast which I’m interested in hearing from. Let’s hope HBO is listening this time as they prepare the Season 5 DVD. HBO, take notice from Fox who do commentaries right (24, The Shield).

Cut by Cut: Editing Six Feet Under (18:34) examines how an episode (in this case Parallel Play) is cut together editorially and dramatically featuring interviews with Alan Ball, exec producer/director Alan Poul, writer Jill Soloway, director Jeremy Podeswa, the show’s editor Michael Ruscio, and music supervisors Gary Calamar and Thomas Golubic. We get to see the episode’s original ending and an extended bonfire scene which was part of the director’s cut, but we find out how the producer’s cut compressed the last few minutes of the episode. This featurette (presented in fullscreen) gets as close to the (post) production of an episode (also good was the featurette about creating dead bodies on the Season 2 DVD) as you’re likely going to see on a Six Feet Under DVD - unless there’s a comprehensive documentary on the final season DVD., All in all this is good stuff and I recommend watching it after you’ve seen Parallel Play.

Costas Plus (15:41) is an exclusive Bob Costas interview with the show’s stars including Peter Krause, Michael C. Hall, Frances Conroy and Lauren Ambrose. This session is recorded around a little table and large brown chairs with the camera moving around quite a bit. There’s some good stuff in here.

3 Deleted Scenes running an aggregate of only 3 minutes are presented, and these are from one episode! Something tells me this is not everything there is…

There is also a Soundtrack Spot menu that offers a track list for the new Six Feet Under CD called Everything Ends. Plus, you can listen to Six Feet Under Title Theme (Fila Brazillia Remix) by Thomas Newman, but for my money this remix sucks (not to mention it’s three minutes too long).

Lastly there is the Series Index menu that lists all 12 episodes complete with each show’s synopsis.

Episodic previews and recaps are available for each episode presented in letterboxed fullscreen (which sucks for people with widescreen TVs).

Also helpful for new viewers are brief recaps for seasons 1-3. The menus are scored and presented nicely in widescreen.

FINAL THOUGHT

While the DVD cover may not be as good as the past covers in my opinion, the fourth season and the extras are reason enough to make this 5-disc set worth a purchase.