Why screenwriters should closely study Six Feet Under

Yes, I realise not everyone is going to be interested in the in-depth'ish (did I just invent a hideous new word there?) look at scriptwriting of the last few posts not to mention several more to come.

To those I say: hang in there, as I'll be chucking a few chunks of a different flavour into the cage every so often. But not today.

Having spent much of the Christmas-New Year break watching the HBO teleseries Six Feet Under, it strikes me that aspiring screenwriters and script editors (not to mention anyone interested in great screen drama period) could do a lot to worse than (i) working their way through the series and then (ii) taking individual episodes and scenes and breaking them down to see how they work, aided, where possible, by the DVDs' director commentaries.

Many, perhaps all of the points raised by Joan Sauers, Duncan Thompson and Billy Marshall Stoneking in my recent feature on screenwriting in The Australian, and the interview transcripts on this blog, about how great dramatic writing works (or in the case of so many Australian feature scripts, doesn't) are illustrated throughout this brilliant series.

If you've seen the series before, I'd suggest getting it out again and carefully taking it apart as if you were a watchmender with a priceless Swiss timepiece.

After marvelling at the precision of its construction, zoom in for a closer look. Check the way the characters usually have so little understanding of their own impulses, including they way their actions usually contradict what they say to one another.

Note the fine crafting of every single individual scene, in which conflict, whether it be forthright or subtle, almost always results in a totally unexpected outcome.

Also notice the way the minority of scenes lacking conflict end by revealing or expanding upon character in some new and significant way. Whether the scenes are constructed around conflict or non-conflict, the result is always the same: a shift in the relationships between the characters that keeps pulling us in, deepening our fascination and wanting to learn more.

Note also that none of the series' heavy use of conflict ever appears contrived, melodramatic, formulaic or "too Hollywood". When emotions boil over, which is not infrequently, the results feel authentic and believable. This is because the writers, actors and directors have burrowed so thoroughly into the characters that they seem to have created real people who behave in the complex ways in which real people behave.

As an illustration of Sauers' point that depressing subject matter should not lead to depressing viewing, see the third season's final two episodes, Twilight and I'm Sorry, I'm Lost, in which most of the major characters go through emotional crises.

Notice how Nate (Peter Krause and his sister Claire (Lauren Ambrose) go through long, dark nights of the soul (both these actors incidentally giving performances of such depth and conviction that they blow away the vast majority of showy feature film performances habitually garlanded with Oscars).

Note how these episodes, while uncompromisingly dark and bleak, are never depressing to watch but instead deeply compelling and moving. Think about why this might be.

There's plenty more that could be said but I'll simply apologise for making this sound like a screenwriting lecture and hand over to one of the series' writers, Jill Soloway (who also has a blog):

"Six Feet Under to me is beautiful for its absolute realness. There's an ethos in network television where the hero is always very clear — good guy, bad guy. This is our hero and these are the obstacles that come up against him as he tries to do whatever, dislodge the bomb or find his kidnapped child.

"Six Feet Under — actually nearly everything on HBO — has that very ambiguous anti-hero thing. The antagonists are internal. The villain is life. The villain is self." (emphasis Eyes Wired Open.)

"The forces that come in from the outside as a challenge to the protagonist waver from being good to bad to both to neither. This is a very odd experience for the average TV watcher but also what I think makes these shows feel so much like life."