Friday marks the 15th anniversary ofSix Feet Unders premiere.
Here, EW staff editor Ariana Bacle shares how the HBO show has impacted her life.
Two years ago, a family friend called to tell me my brother was dead.
Credit: HBO
I reacted as anyone would: I screamed, threw something, curled into the fetal position.
I desperately wanted a fictional character to connect with.
I desperately wanted the comfort of one of those happy, tidy endings found so often on TV shows.
The Fishers were those characters.
People die on TV shows all the time, but this death felt real.
It hurt, so much so that months after watching, I wrote apiece about its still-lingering impact.
While Nate had an arteriovenous malformation in his brain, my brother battled addiction.
Theres a difference between talking to someone whos been through something similar andseeingsomeone go through something similar.
Those are the partsSix Feet Undershowed.
Televisions often seen as an escape, a way to get away from how terrible your day was.
This is how everything will be from now on, I sometimes thought to myself.
But you cant get over a death, not one that rocks you to your core.
You get through it.Six Feet Underdidnt just get this; it was made of this.
Almost two years after my brothers death, that fog has mostly lifted.
There, they tell stories embarrassing, silly, sweet stories about Nate.
I have stories like that about my brother, too.
These feelings can and do live together.
I want to take a picture of everyone, Claire says through tears.
Then off she goes, driving off as the vision of Nate fades away in her rearview mirror.
And if Claire can do it,diddo it, then so can I.
