04
de Setembre
de
2015
Act.
09
de Setembre
de
2015
[This text could contain spoilers, but none of them significant enough to ruin the series for viewers. We apologise in advance to the reader for any accidental spoilers.]
The family business is as traditional as it is complicated to manage. An old cliché says that what the grandfather creates, the son maintains and the grandson causes to close. To whatever extent this sentence is true, what is without doubt is that the family business is a challenge that goes beyond purely business management. It also requires family harmony, and it is well-known that mixing money and feelings is not always a good combination.Six Feet Under (2001) tells the story of the Fisher family and their business: an undertakers in Los Angeles. Over the 63 episodes shown in the five seasons, the story created by Alan Ballreflects on how to focus on human mortality. And it does so through those who manage it on a daily basis.
Translated in Spain as, A dos metros bajo tierra, the series combines drama and comedy in equal parts. Beyond the complexity of the characters, in which each member of the family has some distinctive feature that makes them special, the series deals with different key moments in the evolution of any family business.
Generational changeover
The series begins with the return home at Christmas of older brother, Nate (Peter Krause). He has never taken any interest in the family business, which is run by his parents and his brother David (Michael C. Hall). The sudden death of the father in a road accident, however, sets up the issue of generational changeover in the company. It does so in a way that Nate will never return to Seattle in order to stay in Los Angeles to run the business alongside his brother. The story reveals the unforeseen events when there is no protocol prepared for the event of a sudden, unavoidable change at the head of the family business.
The evolution of the character of Nate Fisher shows how a son who has no interest in becoming involved in the family business is forced to do so after the sudden death of his father. Little by little, he will come to terms with running the business, finding by surprise that he has a taste for it, so that he ends up bringing his own, more human, vision to it.
However, his brother David embodies the figure of the submissive heir, who cannot imagine any other option in life other than continuing in the family business. He is a genuine professional in the sector, with a mastery of each aspect, but perhaps without the empathy shown by his brother when it comes to dealing with clients, who in the end are nothing more than family members who have lost a loved one.
Beside these two is the widowed mother and the younger sister, who does not know how to refocus her life. The four of them, each with their own different nature and problems, always end up coming together to keep the family business alive.
The competition
And that togetherness will be needed when a large company in the sector tries to buy out Fisher & Sons. This company is buying up most of the small undertaking businesses in the area, and it wants to do the same with that of the Fishers. At first in good faith, and later at any price, they try to convince the family of the advantages of giving up the business to become part of a large chain.
In order to put pressure on them, they block suppliers and try to give them a bad reputation. They even manage to tempt away the only employee of the family business, the talented embalmer Federico Díaz (Freddy Rodríguez). To convince him to return and satisfy his professional aspirations, the Fishers invite Díaz to become a partner in the company, so that its name changes to Fisher & Díaz.
During the episodes of this drama, one can see how other traditional businesses in the sector succumb to the easy money and the convenience of becoming another piece of a large company. The Fishers, however, resist in order to maintain the spirit and values of their business.
Throughout the series, we can see how the characters evolve and, at the same time, how they go about running the family business. Their personal vicissitudes affect the development of the business. And what they discover is that in a family firm, there is no such thing as a day off.
The family business is as traditional as it is complicated to manage. An old cliché says that what the grandfather creates, the son maintains and the grandson causes to close. To whatever extent this sentence is true, what is without doubt is that the family business is a challenge that goes beyond purely business management. It also requires family harmony, and it is well-known that mixing money and feelings is not always a good combination.Six Feet Under (2001) tells the story of the Fisher family and their business: an undertakers in Los Angeles. Over the 63 episodes shown in the five seasons, the story created by Alan Ballreflects on how to focus on human mortality. And it does so through those who manage it on a daily basis.
Translated in Spain as, A dos metros bajo tierra, the series combines drama and comedy in equal parts. Beyond the complexity of the characters, in which each member of the family has some distinctive feature that makes them special, the series deals with different key moments in the evolution of any family business.
Generational changeover
The series begins with the return home at Christmas of older brother, Nate (Peter Krause). He has never taken any interest in the family business, which is run by his parents and his brother David (Michael C. Hall). The sudden death of the father in a road accident, however, sets up the issue of generational changeover in the company. It does so in a way that Nate will never return to Seattle in order to stay in Los Angeles to run the business alongside his brother. The story reveals the unforeseen events when there is no protocol prepared for the event of a sudden, unavoidable change at the head of the family business.
The evolution of the character of Nate Fisher shows how a son who has no interest in becoming involved in the family business is forced to do so after the sudden death of his father. Little by little, he will come to terms with running the business, finding by surprise that he has a taste for it, so that he ends up bringing his own, more human, vision to it.
However, his brother David embodies the figure of the submissive heir, who cannot imagine any other option in life other than continuing in the family business. He is a genuine professional in the sector, with a mastery of each aspect, but perhaps without the empathy shown by his brother when it comes to dealing with clients, who in the end are nothing more than family members who have lost a loved one.
Beside these two is the widowed mother and the younger sister, who does not know how to refocus her life. The four of them, each with their own different nature and problems, always end up coming together to keep the family business alive.
The competition
And that togetherness will be needed when a large company in the sector tries to buy out Fisher & Sons. This company is buying up most of the small undertaking businesses in the area, and it wants to do the same with that of the Fishers. At first in good faith, and later at any price, they try to convince the family of the advantages of giving up the business to become part of a large chain.
In order to put pressure on them, they block suppliers and try to give them a bad reputation. They even manage to tempt away the only employee of the family business, the talented embalmer Federico Díaz (Freddy Rodríguez). To convince him to return and satisfy his professional aspirations, the Fishers invite Díaz to become a partner in the company, so that its name changes to Fisher & Díaz.
During the episodes of this drama, one can see how other traditional businesses in the sector succumb to the easy money and the convenience of becoming another piece of a large company. The Fishers, however, resist in order to maintain the spirit and values of their business.
Throughout the series, we can see how the characters evolve and, at the same time, how they go about running the family business. Their personal vicissitudes affect the development of the business. And what they discover is that in a family firm, there is no such thing as a day off.