Six Feet Under sustained its critically-acclaimed quality throughout 5 seasons of family dynamics, dark comedy, heartbreaking drama and surreal flights of fancy. Most surprising, the show centered on that most avoided of topics -- Death. The Fisher family, owners of a Los Angeles funeral home far from the Hollywood glitz and glamour, contend with love relationships, business complications, strange funerals and mostly each other. Like many landmark HBO series, the show is more suitable for mature audiences comfortable with explorations of sexuality, drugs, mental illness, homophobia and other difficult topics.

Six Feet Under creator Alan Ball, of American Beauty and later True Blood fame, anchored the wide-ranging styles and stories of the extended Fisher family with a remarkable cast. Eldest son, Nate (Peter Krause of Parenthood and Sports Night) returns from Seattle, to help his family through an unexpected crisis, and meets mysterious and troubled Brenda (Rachel Griffiths, Muriel’s Wedding, Brothers & Sisters). Younger brother David (Michael C. Hall, now Dexter) has been running the family funeral business, while keeping his homosexuality in the closet, and hiding a relationship with police officer Keith (Mathew St. Patrick). Younger sister, Claire (Lauren Ambrose) is an artistically inclined high school student with a taste for bad boyfriends, rebelling against uptight matriarch Ruth (Frances Conroy), who has a few unexpected secrets of her own.

Always surprising, deeply resonant, Six Feet Under was heralded for one of the finest runs and finales in television history, never losing sight of life’s complexity and humor while fulfilling its tagline--Everything. Everyone. Everywhere. Ends.