Television

SIX FEET UNDER The over-the-top series returns to knock us off our feet

For those of you who missed the first season of this deliciously dark dramedy series, Six Feet Under addresses the subject of death through the eyes of the fabulously dysfunctional Fisher family, who own and operate Fisher & Sons Funeral Home in Los Angeles. The dialogue is delectable, the humor ... to die for.

The family includes: Nathaniel (Richard Jenkins), the now-deceased father, who appears to his family members at opportune times; Ruth (Frances Conroy), the sometimes-weird-but-always-endearing mother; Claire (Lauren Ambrose), the vulnerable-but-doesn’t-wanna-show-it daughter; Nate (Peter Krause), the straight-but-far-from-narrow son; and David, the gay-but-REALLY-rigid son (Michael C. Hall, pictured with the gay cop character Keith Charles, played by Mathew St. Patrick).

Created by openly gay Alan Ball (winner of the Best Original Screenplay Oscar in 2000 for American Beauty), Six Feet Under was recently awarded a Golden Globe for Best Drama Series. Second-season directors include Rose Troche (Go Fish), Alan Taylor (The Sopranos, Sex and the City), and Dan Attias (The Sopranos). Returning directors include Kathy Bates (Oz), Miquel Arteta (Chuck & Buck), and Michael Engler (Sex and the City).

On the first episode, we find Ruth struggling to accept her son David’s homosexuality. She throws him a dinner party that goes awry. Premieres on HBO, Sunday, March 3, at 8 p.m., with repeat airings during the month.

THE MATTHEW SHEPARD STORY

We don’t know the exact year Stockard Channing began her "gay-friendly" roles, but we are aware that in 1988 she starred in Tidy Endings with Harvey Fierstein. We know, too, that she won us over in 1995’s To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar, again in 2000 with The Truth About Jane, and in 2001 with A Girl Thing. Now she tops them off by playing Judy Shepard in The Matthew Shepard Story.

The TV movie, directed by Roger Spottiswoode (And the Band Played On), recounts the story, as Judy Shepard becomes a very public person in October 1998 when her eldest son, Matthew (played by Shane Meier, pictured), is brutally beaten and left to suffer for 18 hours. Meier admits that the beating scene, both mentally and morally, was the toughest to shoot. "We shot it at midnight and went until 5 or 6 in the morning," the straight actor tells The Advocate. "The rehearsing of all the hits–all the blows to the face, the blows to the stomach–it was difficult."

Matthew lay unconscious for five days in the hospital before dying. The two men who are arrested for his murder admit they beat him because he was gay.

Judy Shepard becomes an activist and forms a foundation in her son’s name to reach out to the youth of America. But her efforts are interrupted as she and her husband (played by Sam Waterston) have to re-live the nightmare of their son’s death while enduring the trial of those accused of his murder.

The Matthew Shepard Story airs Saturday, March 16, at 8 p.m. on NBC.

THE LARAMIE PROJECT

Scheduled to air on the same night as NBC’s The Matthew Shepard Story (see above), HBO opted to premiere The Laramie Project a week earlier "to broaden the audience for both projects," said Chris Albrecth, the president of HBO original programming. The ratings will surely broaden, and it will probably become another sure-fire hit for HBO.

Some background: To create the stage version of The Laramie Project, members of the New York—based Tectonic Theatre Project traveled to Laramie in the wake of the murder of Matthew Shepard, recording over 400 hours of interviews with the townspeople over a two-year period. This film adaptation dramatizes the troupe’s visit, using the words from the transcripts to create a portrait of a town forced to confront itself in the aftermath of this tragic event.

The ensemble cast includes, among many others, Steve Buscemi, Peter Fonda, Janeane Garofalo, Joshua Jackson, Laura Linney, Amy Madigan, Camryn Manheim, Christina Ricci, and Frances Sternhagen. (Pictured, left to right: Grant James Varjas, Kelli Simpkins, Andy Paris, Clea Duvall, and Nestor Carbonell.)

The Laramie Project premieres Saturday, March 9, at 7 p.m. on HBO, with repeat airings throughout March.

THE AMERICAN EMBASSY

Film and Broadway actress Arija Bareikis (Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, The Last Night of Ballyhoo) plays Emma Brody in this new series. The American Embassy reveals the inner workings of the U.S. Embassy in London as seen through Brody’s eyes. Also seen through her eyes are her co-workers and–our main reason for tuning in–her next-door neighbor, Gary Forbush (Michael Cerveris, pictured), a London native and cross-dresser.

Premieres Monday, March 11, at 8 p.m. on Fox. (Ally McBeal will be pre-empted for six weeks during the run of The American Embassy.)

THE BELIEVER

There’s really nothing gay about this engrossing film, unless of course you see the correlation between the main character and what he does. This young Jewish man, Danny Balint, becomes a neo-Nazi skinhead who becomes a Jew-basher. Does that sound anything like the self-hating heterosexual who bashes gays?

All that aside, the film explores the inner turmoil of this "Jewish neo-Nazi" and his struggles to keep his conflicting identities a secret from those around him.

Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival, The Believer has been given six Independent Spirit Award nominations.

Trivia: One of the nominees, Ryan Gosling (pictured), the actor who plays Danny Balint, starred on The Mickey Mouse Club at the age of 12.

Premieres Sunday, March 17, at 7 p.m. on Showtime.