TVSquad

On the website Jump The Shark, you can vote for the scene or episode in which a once-quality show turned ridiculous - and never recovered. (The term "jump the shark," incidentally, got its name from an inane Happy Days episode in which Fonzie hit the water and did exactly what the phrase entails.)

I now state for the record that - barring improvement, Time Flies is a way serious candidate for Six Feet Under's "Jump The Shark" episode. The repeated scenes of Nate, acting morose on his 40th birthday, is insufferable enough. Yet when a bird flies into the Fisher house during Nate's birthday party, and Nate inexplicably takes out his rage by terrorizing and then, apparently, killing the unfortunate creature - that's a Jump The Shark moment.

The title of this episode implies some sort of metaphoric relationship between a bird who is stuck in a house doesn't seem to want to fly away - and Nate's trapped circumstances. A trapped bird, a trapped husband.. get it? College sophomores get "C's" for short stories with plots that transparent. How such a device got a whole episode wrapped around it is beyond me.

That said, Nate's bird-bashing behavior defies conventional analysis. Brenda is, after all, pregnant again. For some reason Nate is not jumping for joy. In fact, considering how well Brenda seems to be accepting of his child (Maya), the fact that Nate is less than pumped about Brenda being pregnant with their child, shows what a self-absorbed, inconsiderate jerk Nate can be.







Time Flies has only two redeeming scenes.

Nate and George's daughter Maggie -who bonded over accounts of shared tragedy in the previous episode Hold My Hand, find themselves alone at Nate's party, downing shots of tequila and obviously feeling chemistry. George and Billy - two mentally tortured souls who have been over the edge and back, share a beer and tales of their medications. Both find their meds confining.

As we all expected, Billy has indeed gone off his meds. But for Billy, the return of passionate attitude is not something that can be mediated. He's one of those people who lacks the skill to edit himself.

Billy's now one ragin' maniac. This upsets Claire to the point so much that after he leaves Nate's party and stomps home, Claire gets high and apparently sleeps with one of Nate's friends. Claire comes home the next day to an enraged Billy who wants to be with her at that very moment. Claire is anything but willing. Can't wait to see how that turns out.

As Six Feet Under races toward a series conclusion, one hopes that this dreadful episode was a blip, not a ruinous "jump the shark" milepost. I know the bird is dead, but hopefully the creativity is not. The writers can do better. Here's hoping they will.