Six Feet Under · Season 1 · Episode 1 · 3 June 2001
S1E1 Pilot
THE MOMENT Nathaniel Fisher Sr.'s first appearance as a ghost - the show's surrealist register introduced without apology.
The series premiere establishes the Fisher family's loss and the funeral home world with economy and black humour. The format - cold open death, then the family's professional and personal response - is introduced with confidence. Nate's arrival back in Los Angeles sets the show's central dynamic between the person who left and the family that stayed.
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Six Feet Under Season 1 Episode 1 'Pilot' aired June 3, 2001 on HBO as the premiere of the 13-episode debut season. Rotten Tomatoes holds Season 1 at 90 percent from 119 critics. The Washington Post called the series 'scorchingly brilliant'; the Baltimore Sun called it 'so daring, richly multi-dimensional and culturally provocative that it's almost anti-television.' The pilot opens on the death that reorganises the Fisher family's world, then installs Nate's return from Los Angeles with the confidence of a show that already knows who every character is. Alan Ball's cold-open format - a death, then its human ripples - is established without explanation in the first minutes. Nathaniel Sr.'s first appearance as a ghost introduces the show's surrealist register without apology. The balance between black comedy, genuine grief, and family dysfunction is set in the first episode and held.