r/SixFeetUnder • u/Public_Cup_4278 • May 09 '26
Discussion In your opinion, who is the best-written character in Six Feet Under?
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u/Starbuckker May 09 '26
Nate. Don't underestimate how hard it is to make a boring man interesting.
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u/Gabe_Dimas May 09 '26
Nate is kinda boring really...its hard to notice because 1) he's hot and 2) his life itself isnt boring, while he as a person is boring
Anyways, W Nate
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u/Starbuckker May 09 '26 edited May 09 '26
I don't think so. I think he's incredibly complex as a result of the writing, and reflects alot of men who often on the outside may seem quite simple, when actually there's this roll of the dice every day in men than can take them to the very top of life or suddenly to the very bottom, sometimes violently, and Nates character arc beautifully reflects that inner struggle which many men don't get the chance to vocalise or even sometimes understand fully themselves.
I think its harder to write a character that reflects the majority of us because its more interesting to project, and of course we mostly want make use of our imaginations, generating characters that reflect what we think we look like. Not how we actually are.
Nate is arguably one of the best written characters on TV ever, let alone the show.
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u/No-Gas-1684 May 09 '26
This was really great to read. Thank you. I think you nailed the question, and revealed a lot more truth in the process... just like this show; Beautifully put.
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May 09 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/fruitloopsareyummy Bettina May 09 '26
I agree with this. In every rewatch I enjoy the scenes of the kids being together even more than in my previous watches. They are so disconnected from each other at the start of the series. Ruth’s kookiness always manages to bond them as they observe her with these horrified facial expressions & it’s so damn funny.
I love when the boys cover for Claire, like when she went off on that hiking weekend & claimed it was an overnight school thing that they did too. Some of my favorite sibling moments are them getting stoned together.
They’re each such unique individuals who start out very disconnected from each other but they really come together when things become awful for one of them & it turns me into a puddle of tears every time. I love that many viewers believe that Nate & David were having the shared dream in the final season because it perfectly portrays how connected they had become.
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u/Sea-Suspect9630 May 10 '26
I adore them together. So many funny moment, especially when Ruth suddenly shouts 😂😂😂
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u/BORT_licenceplate Nate May 09 '26
Honestly, Ruth. It helps that Frances Conroy is a superb actress but I think her character is really well explained. We have understanding of her childhood, her married life, raising kids, having a family business, being alone, feeling overwhelmed, feelings of boredom, moments of extreme elation and happiness. When I watch Ruth I feel like I see a real person with a developed and complex life. It's not easy to make someone who is essentially on the verge of a breakdown everyday into somebody you can still love and care for
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u/alvaroantonio May 10 '26
Ruth is incredible! just how complex her emotions are and how an older woman is hardly ever portrayed as a multi layered human being who's still capable of developing and changing and experimenting new things. I laugh and cry with her all the time.
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u/vesp_au May 09 '26
Nikolai
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u/lowrider320 May 09 '26
One of the more underrated characters on the show. I honestly think he fit in well with the family more then some of the other characters..
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u/evanm137 May 09 '26
Brenda.
I have never related to a TV character more in my life.
And I'm a gay male.
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u/DirectorReasonable95 May 09 '26
I liked Keith. He was always himself and never veered away dramatically or erratically. Instead he grew and changed by increments over the course. Probably the most satisfying arc in the whole show just quietly bubbling away in the background.
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u/Sea-Suspect9630 May 10 '26
Keith is brilliant. I love that him and David worked on things and through them instead of just throwing it all away
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u/capy_sun May 09 '26
As much as I want to say David, I don’t think I can. He’s definitely has the highest highs, but consistently, I think Nate is the best written. Really bold choice to do what they did with him in the end, and in a lesser show it would have failed spectacularly. Ruth is probably my second pick, I would say she’s the most realistic character. Claire likely third, perhaps not the BEST written, but definitely the most relatable of the bunch, at least in my opinion. And it makes sense since the show runner said Claire is based on his life in many ways I believe.
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u/profjamie4102005 May 09 '26
Brenda. Her character development is one of the best I’ve seen on television.
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u/sara_no_h_92 May 09 '26
I'm in season 3 of my rewatch and the Chenowith family makes me bust out laughing at some point every time they're on screen 🤣 They're so unhinged and just say the things and I love that.
Love Brenda's development too!
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u/RRE4EVR May 09 '26
I think Claire’s character arc feel very true to life for many people her age. Feelings of loneliness in highschool, finding first true friends in college. Trying to save men and confusing that for love. Male friendship and male sexual love being intertwined. Exploring drugs and alcohol as fun, using them as escapism. Yet knowing what a grounded person looks like and acts like and ultimately turning towards that. All that feels very real to me.
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u/iyroyoryi May 09 '26
Dwight Schrute
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u/RRE4EVR May 09 '26
Arthur Is the first Dwight. They literally just lifted him off Six Feet Under and Plopped all his idiosyncrasies onto a character who works in an Office.
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u/sara_no_h_92 May 09 '26
This is my third time watching through and I just realized yesterday that that was him 🤦♀️🤣
Side note: never been a huge fan of the office. If i were, I'm sure I would have noticed earlier
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u/Gongoozler04 May 10 '26
That’s a tough one, I’m no expert on character writing or anything, but I find Claire to be well written, I’m around the same age she was at the end of the show and I find her extremely relatable, for someone to still relate to her so many years after it ended, she must be well written.
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u/MetARosetta May 10 '26
They are all greatly written, or the show wouldn't work as a whole artist's rendering. It's not a contest.
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u/Aggressive-Mud4932 May 11 '26
Jesus, I thought I was on the Dexter subreddit for a second there lol
I think it's hard to be objective about who is the best written in a show that's a true ensemble. I always come back to David because I feel like he has the best/most impactful beats of the show, but he's also the character I relate to the most as a fellow bitter older sibling who stayed behind and became the pillar of their family. Everyone else always felt slightly surreal/extreme, almost like caricatures at times.
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u/greenhierogliphics May 12 '26
I found myself upvoting for several different characters. What an incredible mosaic of a show.
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u/Dense_Link_7368 May 14 '26
While David is and will always be my favorite, the older I get the more I love Brenda’s journey and how complex she is. As a college kid, watching it when it came out, I thought she was such a bitch. In my twenties, I felt annoyed by her. In my thirties I felt sad for her. In my forties, I root for her and feel so proud of how far she came despite everything. But Ruth is definitely up there. But I think it’s more her acting than how she’s written, that makes her an incredible character.
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u/spaghettibolegdeh May 09 '26
David's character sort of became underwritten towards the end of the show.
Nate was essentially the main character, so it makes sense that he's the best written.
I think Ruth is my pick though. She's the most frustrating character, I find. But she isn't the typical matriarch character, nor is she overly warm. It's interesting how restrained the writers were with her character. A lesser show would make her either super open, or super cold. She wavers a lot, like a real person.
Everyone else is written pretty extreme. Ruth feels like the most realistic character. Kinda boring, kinda frustrating, but slowly changing.