The first season of HBOs critically acclaimed series Six Feet Under starts out with a bang; or, perhaps more appropriately, a crash, as the patriarch of the Fisher family (Richard Jenkins) is hit by an oncoming bus while driving the family hearse. Suddenly, his business -- Fisher & Sons, a family-owned California funeral home -- is left without an owner, and his survivors, of course, are left without a husband and father. The sons portion of Fisher & Sons includes David (Michael C. Hall), who is still closeted after recently having come to grips with his homosexuality, and Nate (Peter Krause), who had left the morbid funeral trade and his anxiety-ridden mother, Ruth (Frances Conroy), for a career as a health-food store manager. Ultimately, his decision to come back and help the family cope with the elder Nates (Jenkins) death sets the premise for the entire show; it isnt long before hes fully absorbed in the family business, consumed in a relationship with the quirky Brenda (Rachel Griffiths), and serving as a well-meaning, if distant, influence on Claire (Lauren Ambrose), his angst-ridden teenaged sister. In the meantime, the Fishers are individually affected, both directly and indirectly, by the continuous stream of cadavers into their household, which, along with the loss of their father, forces them to grapple with their own mortality and place in the world far more than most people would be prone to do. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide