6FU: Pre-Plan

In anticipation of tonight's series finale of Six Feet Under, I offer the following thoughts:

• I'll miss the Fisher clan showing me how awful my life could be (or at least how awful my outlook on life could be) and making me feel all the better for it.
• While the show is sometimes overwrought and pretentious and definitely dark-to-the-point-of-depressing at times, I've always (save, perhaps, the middle of the third season) found it entertaining and thought-provoking.
• The show never quite again acheived the excellence of the final two episodes of the first season, but it was sometimes close and always, IMHO, worth the ride for its effort.
• One part of me hopes at least some of the Fishers get a happy ending; another part of me would feel that betrays the tone of the show.
• I understand there will be an epilogue to the finale, showing how each of the Fishers shuffles off the mortal coil. That strikes me as wrongheaded, but the proof of that will be in the pudding. I'll let you know what I think tomorrow.

Enjoy.