The return of Six Feet Under

Call it morbid fascination with our own mortality or mild intrigue concerning our neighbours' sex lives — audiences have been watching actors simulate sex and death long before Shakespeare put pen to paper. From daytime soaps to legitimate theatre, no one addresses these subjects quite like the HBO series, Six Feet Under.

In its fourth season in the US, the long-running drama continues to deliver original yet absurdist death and realistic sex, even if it is sometimes disturbing.

In this and previous seasons the sex has been turned up a notch or three as the lines blur between homosexuality and heterosexual behaviour. But revealing any more on this subject would spoil the view for avid fans of the one-hour show centred around the Fisher family's funeral home.

The antithesis of the warm and fuzzy cast of the now-defunct Friends or Will and Grace, the appeal of this dark drama is the risks it takes in refusing to succumb to or heighten its characters' likeability factors.

Whether it be the sex-addicted behaviour of Rachel Griffiths' character, Brenda, or the sex scenes between Michael C. Hall and Matthew St Patrick, who play David and Keith, the content and the way in which it is executed is supposed to make the viewer feel uncomfortable. And it does. But is there no limit to what the actors will not do?

"I will not have sex with animals!" declares Griffiths, loudly ... "but I will", adds Hall, straight-faced, such is the jocular atmosphere on this sunny afternoon in Los Angeles.

Laughing together like old school buddies over lunch in a Beverly Hills hotel, they discuss the merits of their beloved TV show.

St Patrick, who plays the burly, angst-ridden ex-cop and lover of Hall, says, "I don't have any anxiety at all any more when I have to do love scenes with Michael. I don't even think about it, I just show up and do the work."

Recalls Hall: "The first scene we ever did together was a love scene. Matthew was like, 'Could you come at me a little bit easier?' I basically hit him in the face," he remembers, laughing.

St Patrick agrees. "It was very uneasy in the beginning because this was new for both of us and we didn't have the opportunity to spend time talking about it."

For St Patrick, playing a gay man is a far cry from realising his childhood dream of a career in the macho world of professional basketball.

"Ultimately, I thought after five to eight years [of basketball] I would have ended up acting, anyway." He has no regrets about his career choice.

"Things happen for a reason. And in all honesty, I don't think I would have been able to deal with the magnitude of success that would have come from being a professional athlete."

A realistic connection, insofar as their relationship is treated in the same way as a regular, heterosexual coupling. St Patrick says, "We're both grateful that we can do it that way on the show. We've had a great response from the gay community, and since the conception of our show we see a lot more gay relationships on television."

Griffiths adds: "Yeah, and as much as I love Will and Grace, this is a great counterbalance. You know, gay does not just equal fabulous. It can be fabulous. It can also be torture."

Hall says, "I think you could also say that Nate and Brenda are a nice counterbalance to a heterosexual sitcom couple, too."

Sex being the subject du jour, Griffiths, who gave birth to her first child (a son, whom she named Banjo) a few months earlier, says, "I had a baby and then I have to have sex on screen. And at first I felt like a real prude. I was like, 'I'm a mum now! I can't be doing this'." She laughs.

"Actually, I'm having sex with someone new this season. I'm used to having sex with Peter [Krause, who plays Nate] and all those other guys but it's different now. I have to ease my way into it."

Meanwhile, the show continues to garner critical acclaim and doesn't rely on showy gimmicks. Says Griffiths, "We're still going strong because we offer an alternative to the usual one-hour drama where you present the problem and solve it by the end of 60 minutes.

"The popular view is that because our lives are so busy we can't invest in a whole group of people, but obviously there is some craving or appetite for that," she says. "Doing this show is a privilege. Unlike some other TV shows, we don't have to talk all the time. Like, Law and Order, you say your line and the camera moves off you on to the guy who's crossing in with a cup coffee, saying his line.

"I'm not saying that show doesn't have its place, but these actors do not have the opportunity we have."

Adds Hall: "Yeah, and I can't see the producer of this show firing half the cast and bringing in other people to fill in the spaces. Like, the show's getting dull — let's do something drastic!"

For its fans, the show's pace is certainly interesting enough without making big changes in the casting. "Yeah, it's pretty interesting. But wait until you see what happens towards the end of this season," warns St Patrick.

"It's mayhem. Absolute mayhem."