Depth plus death equals great TV; Alan Ball's unconventional 'Six Feet Under' shines on HBO

The network television season doesn't begin for another six weeks, but you don't have to wait that long to see the best new program of the year. It's already on. "Six Feet Under" (8:30 p.m. Sundays, HBO), a comic drama about love, loss and spirituality inside a funeral home, may never have the maniacal following of "The Sopranos," but it has quietly asserted itself as every bit that show's equal. Utterly original in its setup and stories, "Six Feet Under" vindicates the unconventional wisdom of series creator Alan Ball, who after writing 1999's Oscar-winning "American Beauty" zagged into television when most of Hollywood expected him to zig into movies. It looks like he chose the right path. Although the show that precedes it on Sunday nights, "Sex and the City," is much better known, "Six Feet Under" now attracts nearly as many viewers. HBO actually picked up "Six Feet Under" for a second season before the first episode had even aired, so Ball has the luxury of ignoring the Nielsens. But he's glad people are watching. "I find it very heartening that there are a lot of people in this country who are hungry for entertainment that's not mindless drivel," he said in a recent telephone interview. "They're not participating in the dumbing-down of America which networks are more than happy to participate in." If Ball sounds like he has issues with network television, he's earned the right to gripe. Two years ago, while "American Beauty" was bowling over the Toronto Film Festival, Ball was in Studio City, Calif., toiling away on a situation comedy for ABC called "Oh Grow Up." Looking back, he blasts the network for being "gutless" and watering down his scripts. In late 1999, an HBO executive approached Ball about developing a show set at a funeral home. Skittish from his ABC ordeal - after which Ball vowed never to do network TV again - he agreed to write a script "on spec," meaning he could walk away if HBO tried to doctor it. "I knew I would be able to get spiritual with it," said Ball of his show about life in the death industry. "Certainly not in a mainstream, 'Touched by an Angel' way, but in a philosophical, adult, existential way." Undertaking a series "Six Feet Under" revolves around the Fisher family, a tightly wound if not exactly tightly knit bunch who start to unravel when the patriarch is killed in a car crash. Played by a talented ensemble of stage and screen actors, the Fishers at first are consumed by grief and guilt. Then they fear what will happen to the family business, fears confirmed after they're visited by an oily representative of the mortuary conglomerate seeking to gobble them up. But then, just as everything seems to be falling apart, the Fishers improbably start to put the pieces together. This is slow, patient work done over the course of an entire season, or longer. Network TV shows simply can't afford - pun alert - to undertake such careful story and character development. Thanks to HBO, "Six Feet Under" can take its time. One rewarding result has been watching the slow maturation of Nate Fisher (played by Peter Krause, formerly of "Sports Night"). Adrift from the family for years, Nate is pulled back in when half of the funeral home is willed to him. He acquires a girlfriend, the whip-smart Brenda (Rachel Griffiths, the Oscar nominee for 1998's "Hilary and Jackie"), whose emotional honesty and cheerful jadedness made her, for the first couple of episodes at least, the only appealing character on the show. Frances Conroy is given the difficult task of playing the Fishers' prim, self-denying mother whose emotions occasionally come blasting out, like an expelling of gas that mortifies the sender and stuns the recipients. The role could easily have been milked for shallow laughs, but Conroy, who recently won a Tony for "The Ride Down Mt. Morgan," deftly manages both her character's poignant and absurd moments. Then there is Nate's brother David (Michael C. Hall), an uptight, 31-year-old gay Episcopalian who keeps his sexuality a secret from his family even after his siblings begin to suspect. David has another life with his boyfriend Keith ("All My Children's" Mathew St. Patrick) that includes stealing away to attend church at a far-off, gay-friendly parish. (This is based on fact: The Episcopal Church keeps a list of "welcoming churches" aimed at gays and lesbians.) In a pivotal episode, David accepts the invitation of St. Bartholomew's, the crusty old church his mother attends, to become a deacon. This is good news for Fisher & Sons as it seeks new business, and David, seeking refuge amid family and professional turmoil, welcomes what he calls "a chance to serve God." But it's bad news for his relationship with Keith. Unwilling to come clean at his new church, David looks like a coward to his boyfriend, who says as much before storming out of his life. Though conservative Christians may not agree, David is in an ancient dilemma: He is torn between his love and his faith. This makes him, for the first time, a sympathetic figure. And it creates an extended spiritual drama the likes of which are almost never seen on television. David's story line is politically and personally meaningful to Ball. "It's curious to me all that's going on in the politics of religion in regard to gays and lesbians, and I wanted to write about it," Ball said. "I grew up in a church, and part of wrestling with who I am when I was younger was, 'Well, I'm going to go to hell.' It took me awhile to say, 'Wait a minute - this is how God made me.' I seriously doubt that God made me gay so that I would go through life with this self-loathing." Ball worried that HBO would reject David's story line, but the network welcomed it. HBO also accepted teen-aged Claire Fisher (Lauren Ambrose) smoking crack and then getting behind the wheel of a hearse. Every episode of "Six Feet Under" begins with a death - usually of a future Fisher & Sons client. Sometimes the corpse seems to be conversing with one of the Fishers. Occasionally, the ghost of dear old Dad makes a visit as well. This device has appeared on "Providence" and other shows, but not in the darkly comic way it does here. "One of the aspects of the show I love is, where else would I get to write this kind of stuff?" Ball said. "The great thing about being on HBO is whatever we do, 'Oz' has already done something worse." You can reach Aaron Barnhart at (816) 234-4790 or the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com. @ART CAPTION:Peter Krause as Nate @ART CAPTION:Frances Conroy as Ruth @ART CAPTION:Lauren Ambrose as Claire @ART CAPTION:Michael C. Hall as David @ART CREDIT:LARRY WATSON @ART CAPTION:'Six Feet Under' creator Alan Ball with actor Peter Krause @ART:Photos (5, color)CORRECTION: A July 29 article about the television series "Six Feet Under" contained erroneous information about actress Frances Conroy. She has been nominated for a Tony Award but has not won.