The experience that stands out to me the most is the first meeting about “Six Feet Under.” When I worked at the broadcast networks, all the notes I got could basically be distilled into two thoughts: Make everybody nicer and articulate the subtext. Both of which are just death to good storytelling. When I turned in the ‘Six Feet Under’ pilot, the note I got was, ‘We love it, but it feels a little safe. Can you make the whole thing just a little more fucked up?’ Seriously. And I just had this moment of like, ‘OK, I’m in the right place.’ Doing any show is so incredibly hard, and I feel so lucky in that I’ve done two with HBO that have been really functional and sane. I’m actually working with people who seem to be interested in making shows better, not just different because they need to justify their salaries.
