Can’t bury the issues dug up on ‘Six Feet’

Bravo to Paul Brownfield for putting into words those feelings that kept me tossing and turning all night long after watching the final episode of “Six Feet Under,” especially the moving coda that detailed the outcome of the main characters’ lives [“A Fitting Epitaph for ‘Six Feet Under,’ ” Aug. 22]. With moments that echoed the equally mysterious and glorious end of Kubrick’s “2001,” I was left wondering about my own mortality, who would be with me when I died, where I would go and who would be there to greet me.

When the show made its final trademark fade to white, writer Alan Ball gave new meaning to the term “going into the light.”

MASHEY BERNSTEIN

Santa Barbara

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I’m dismayed by Paul Brownfield’s fawning over the finale of “Six Feet Under” -- as if he felt he had to say something nice at the funeral about a person that just wasn’t right in the end. Paul, please don’t sugarcoat the diagnosis. “Six Feet Under” was for several years this great piece of work that somehow got away from its creative integrity and instead became a sounding board for what the producers and writers think is wrong with America today.

America doesn’t want to be forced to listen to one side’s political views, show after show -- whether it was Ruth’s sister going into an anti-Bush tirade, or Claire telling off the owner of a gas-guzzling SUV with a “Support the Troops” bumper sticker whose Iraq war veteran son had just committed suicide. I’m insulted that executive producers Alan Ball and Alan Poul feel I must subscribe to their views in order to enjoy what was once just a fantastic piece of art.

I’m sickened by the trend to imprint politics into every fiber of our daily lives. How can we escape anymore?

JEL SAMAR

Santa Monica