SEASON FOUR

EPISODE 3: PARALLEL PLAY

A group of teen girls are making prank phone calls when one of them topples over the bed backwards. It's presumed she's broken her neck. Her parents meet with David and Arthur, who is in training for intake meetings.

Ruth is cleaning out the cupboards of unwanteds to make room for George in the house, and plans to hold a rummage sale.

Nate takes baby Maya to daycare, and is attracted to a woman he meets during the "Mommy And Me" sing-a-long. The woman seems presented as wealthy, but then she says she's a "stay-at-home" mother. So since I never got a clarification (I may not have been listening as acutely as I should have), I am assuming she's married. Nevertheless, she ends up feeling so sympathetic towards Nate that they have a brief fling. Her rather callous treatment of Nate afterwards leads me to ask, "Is she really happy? In spite of her self-help books and her big smile?"

As Rico and Arthur try to stitch away the silly grin that the fourteen year old girl is still wearing post-mortem, we are at least given a glimpse of the technical world of SIX FEET UNDER, that world that exists in the embalming room, yes, that one. The one we haven't really seen much of lately. It's a brief glimpse, but a welcome one.

Claire is beginning to come up from her funk, and befriends an art student named Jimmy (Peter Facinelli, the cutie who previously starred with Ambrose in CAN'T HARDLY WAIT). At an art-whore party, Russell sings awful songs and tries desperately to obtain Claire's attention. The party becomes fun only when Edie gets up on stage and jerks off an electric guitar.

Ruth accuses Arthur of being the one who sent packages of shit to husband George. Indignant, and rightly so, Arthur leaves, never to be seen again. Although I side with him in believing Ruth to be a jerk, accusing him without proof, I was glad to see this character go. I have no idea why they invented him in the first place. Almost every moment, including the "thing" he had with Ruth, amounted to a dead-end character.

Joe and Brenda are in a blissfully happy sexual relationship, until Brenda gets a little too serious on Joe when he suggests the fun of role-playing. Brenda is so ashamed of her sexual past that she feels that the only way to be "normal" is to have "normal sex". Like there's any such a thing!!! Still, Brenda's revelation is very interesting and is probably the strongest storyline in this episode. Her past sex life was about avoiding true intimacy, and she is afraid to try things with Joe, for fear of losing the strange feeling of "purity" and "wholesomeness" she feels with him. Luckily, she soon realizes her fears are unfounded. She can still have a "real" and "loving" relationship with Joe, even if they decide to employ whips and handcuffs to spice it up a bit.

Keith is set to work for the latest pop-tart, Celeste (Michelle Trachtenberg), and learns that she doesn't like anyone aside from herself to pee in her dressing room toilet. Maybe next time Keith should piss in her sink. When you gotta go, you gotta go. Or should he just piss his pants and get it on her carpet/furniture?

Rico is still torn between being faithful to Vanessa and his family and trying to "be there" for the wily Sophia. He has a Madonna-Whore dream about his two women. I'm too unsophisticated to interpret the dream apparently, except it's just his guilt making itself known.

As you can guess, these first few episodes of Season Four are just not my favorite. They seem awkward in their attempt to get the season's plotlines up and running. But remember, these are only my opinions, the opinions of one of zillions of fans, and overall, I do like this show. : ) As they say, missing one episode is like neglecting to read a chapter of a great book. So even though I like some episodes more than others, it's all good. This episode gets a C+ or a B-.