During the first season of Six Feet Under a few of the characters sit down to watch TV. There's a 1980's sitcom on (Family Ties, The Cosby Show?) and it was a jarring moment. There wasn't much of the old show on but it brought back to memory how nothing happened on thoses shows- they were endlessly repeating interactions between set characters.
I'm nearly through with the fourth season and the show has grown weaker. The editors have never wanted a scene longer than a minute which not only makes me feel babied but decreases the impact of major scenes. There was an episode where everything was building towards a dinner of conflicts. Schedules were being made, people were taking themselves on and off the list, there was planning and worrying. People sat down, I imagined the ways it could blow up and ... it was over.
The characters' motivations are no longer clear which make them hard to identify with. After his wife's death Nate becomes depressed, hostile, irresponsible and crazed and then, after burying his wife, a smiling saint. If I had heard these events would happen to him I would have predicted neither of these transformations.
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