Six Feet Under IQ Score 189/200
Six Feet Under has an IQ Score of 189/200 on TV Intelligentsia's Intelligence Quotient rubric, placing it in the Masterclass tier.
Exceptional cognitive and educational substance, delivered with craft that sustains close attention
Score Breakdown
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IQ = round((Cognitive × 0.4 + Educational × 0.35 + Craft × 0.25) × 4)
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What these dimensions mean
- Cognitive Stimulation: observable narrative complexity, conceptual density, ambiguity, inference, and sustained intellectual demands in the work.
- Educational Value: the density and integration of substantive academic, historical, scientific, cultural, ethical, or practical information in the work.
- Craft & Quality: production excellence in service of the work, its direction, writing, performance, and aesthetic intent.
- Cinematic Score: composition quality, emotional impact, and how the music integrates with the work. Does not affect the IQ Score.
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Six Feet Under scores 189/200 on the TVI IQ Score, placing it in the Masterclass tier. Alan Ball's five-season series treats mortality and family dysfunction with the patient observation that earned Cultural Impact, Rewatch Value, and Lasting Significance as a sustained examination of the human condition. TVI Essential is an editorial designation; IQ Score is a content rating, not an intelligence measurement.
The TVI Take
Alan Ball's 2001-2005 HBO series, the Fisher family running a Pasadena funeral home, each episode opening on a different death and following the Fishers as the consequence ripples through them. Nate, David, Claire, Ruth, and Rico are the ensemble; Federico Diaz's working-class struggle against the Fishers' upper-middle bohemia is the show's class architecture.
The final episode's montage of every character's death is the most-praised series finale in television history.
People & Production Alan Ball · HBO · United States 20 connections
On screen & sound
Production & release
Credits and relationships: Wikidata, CC0. TVI preserves production, broadcasting, and distribution as separate roles.
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The Trailer
Official trailer, embedded from YouTube.
Where to Watch
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This title is a pick in The Syllabus: five courses of the smartest television, scored on the Educational Value dimension.
See The Syllabus →This show is on The Substance List, our guide to the shows that reward the time you give them, read beyond what the number can hold.
Get the guide →Where to go next
Six Feet Under scored 189/200 (Masterclass tier) on TV Intelligentsia's published methodology. Source: tvintelligentsia.com/titles/six-feet-under/
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