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Written By: Jami Attenberg
Rick Cleveland (Writer/Supervising Producer) has been with Six Feet Under since the first season. In addition to writing "Death Works Overtime" (#37), Rick has also written the following episodes: "The Trip" (#11), "Driving Mr. Mossback" (#17), and "The Liar and the Whore" (#24).
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Rick also co-wrote "Nobody Sleeps" (#30) with Executive Producer Alan Ball, who says of him, "Rick writes from a very personal place. He's very emotionally invested in it, and that's something you love to have in the writers' room."
Like most episodes of Six Feet Under, "Death Works Overtime" begins with a death: a Korean woman is shot in the convenience store she owns. A scene later, however, there is another death: a power line repairman is electrocuted during a minor earthquake. Another scene passes, and then, finally, the third death occurs: a fit young man suffers a heart attack at the gym. Death works overtime, indeed.
What was the inspiration behind the decision to use multiple death sequences instead of the traditional single opening sequence? And how does the show break convention in other ways? Writer Rick Cleveland discusses the unconventional nature of Six Feet Under.
The inspiration behind the multiple death sequences came from the first season, explains Rick.
"We had done one episode, 'Crossroads' (#8), where the Fishers didn't have any funerals. So we wanted to see what it would be like when the exact opposite happened - when they have too many deceased people to deal with. Thus, the title, 'Death Works Overtime.'"
Of the deaths, Rick felt that the demise of the Korean woman connected most with the rest of the episode.
He explains, "Her husband has trouble reconciling the notion that this woman has been with him for many, many years, and then, as of that morning, she's gone, like she was never there. And that resonates with Nate in terms of Lisa's disappearance. Probably all deaths resonate that way for somebody, whoever their loved ones are. If you're not there anymore, it becomes a little bit like you were never there. How can somebody just disappear?"
Lisa's disappearance resonated deeply for Rick, as well.
"I'm a married guy and I have three small children, and what struck a note for me was that first part of the disappearance. That first twelve to forty-eight hours for me seemed like they would be the worst. It scared me the most. That sort of blind panic - that first day or two - pretty much fueled the episode."
He adds, "The closing moment of the episode - the notion of finding Lisa's car and Nate being drawn to just sit there - was something I knew I wanted to try. When we were talking about this in the writers' room, I couldn't quite articulate it. But I knew as I was writing it, if my partner disappeared and they found her car, I would probably live in that car for the next three or six months. As impotent an act that might be, I can't imagine not doing that."
"In a sense, there is no convention on Six Feet Under," he says. "The whole show is done differently compared to network shows. We don't have your typical 'A' story, and then a 'B' story, and then a 'C' story, and we don't have act-outs1 to lead into commercial breaks. And what I love about that is it allows stories to develop and take over more organically."
He continues, 'We develop all the stories simultaneously; whichever one wants to take over, it just takes over. The formula isn't so rigid on our show. And because it's serialized - unlike most network shows - we don't have to resolve anything at the end of any given episode. We don't have to tie anything up in a neat little bow."
This unconventional strategy doesn't get in the way of good storytelling though, he emphasizes. "We've all been writing a while on the show, and a lot of us were playwrights. We all know our Aristotle's Poetics2; the whole notion of beginning, middle, and end."
In fact, Rick feels this unique strategy lends to the storytelling, and to the substance of the show.
"As much as the show is about a family that runs a funeral home, I think it's the most life-affirming show on television, and not in a way that is at all sentimental. I think it's really honest. That just appeals to me, not just as a writer, but as a human being. As dark and black and depressing and hilarious as that might be, I still find it tremendously life-affirming," he says.
He adds, "I like it that the light isn't always terribly noticeable. It's not Touched by an Angel3. There's no false sentimentality. Sometimes the moment of redemption lasts for two seconds between two characters that you don't expect it to happen between. It's more like life is."
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1. An act-out is a scene end on a television series before a commercial break.
2. Aristotle's Poetics is noted as the world's first critical discussion on the laws of literature, and is considered a guide to the well-written tragedy.
3. Touched by an Angel was a CBS drama from 1994-2003.
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