Yes, I know I’m running three days behind on my Top 25 Christmas Epsiodes list. Christmas has gotten in the way of the Christmas list, but as the mushrooms simmer in red wine and the sticky buns rise, I’m going to try a little catching up.
Six Feet Under always had a snarky undertone (and sometimes explicit tone), and “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” the program’s 2002 Christmas episode (airing in April…what is it with April Christmas episodes on HBO?), is no exception. The death of the week is a Hells Angel who crashed while waving to some children on the street as he was going to a job playing Santa. It’s a Hells Angels kind of Christmas as the Fishers agree to open the funeral home to Jessie’s friends on the holiday for a send-off celebration.
Ruth Fisher is trying to bring some celebration to her own family’s Christmas, the one-year anniversary of her husband’s death. As always where patriarch Nathaniel is involved, much backstory is revealed to the viewers, but in “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” characters also reveal secrets to each other, which provide some nice parallels in the narrative.
For many people, the holidays require a lot of extra emotional energy to rise above the family tensions, especially if Christmas is going to truly become “the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.” A robbery and two broken legs put Nikolai on the Fisher sofa for Christmas, compounding the Fisher’s family stress. Fisher stress usually makes for the best Six Feet Under episodes, and “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” is no exception…it is a Most Wonderful Christmas episode.
Six Feet Under always had a snarky undertone (and sometimes explicit tone), and “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” the program’s 2002 Christmas episode (airing in April…what is it with April Christmas episodes on HBO?), is no exception. The death of the week is a Hells Angel who crashed while waving to some children on the street as he was going to a job playing Santa. It’s a Hells Angels kind of Christmas as the Fishers agree to open the funeral home to Jessie’s friends on the holiday for a send-off celebration.
Ruth Fisher is trying to bring some celebration to her own family’s Christmas, the one-year anniversary of her husband’s death. As always where patriarch Nathaniel is involved, much backstory is revealed to the viewers, but in “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” characters also reveal secrets to each other, which provide some nice parallels in the narrative.
For many people, the holidays require a lot of extra emotional energy to rise above the family tensions, especially if Christmas is going to truly become “the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.” A robbery and two broken legs put Nikolai on the Fisher sofa for Christmas, compounding the Fisher’s family stress. Fisher stress usually makes for the best Six Feet Under episodes, and “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” is no exception…it is a Most Wonderful Christmas episode.
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