Although the first four episodes of the final season of Alan Ball’s series about a family of dysfunctional undertakers were available for preview, I stopped after one. Partly, this is because the wedding of Nate and Brenda is ruined by everything from miscarriages to electroconvulsions to vengeful ghosts. And partly because halfway through last season I fell off the turnip truck. The world is difficult, maybe impossible. Why do these jerks make it worse? “Hold the mercury!” says George when Ruth fixes him a tuna sandwich. “Just rent out some woman’s uterus like it’s a storage locker?” says David to Keith about surrogate mothers. Four years ago, I thought it was hilarious when Brenda objected to be introduced as Nate’s “girlfriend,” saying, “I prefer the term Fuck Puppet.” Now I’ve had it with people who insist on making themselves miserable, as if it were an art.

HBO
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• Archive: “Television”
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