Before he won an Oscar for writing American Beauty, before he created the smash HBO shows Six Feet Under and True Blood, Alan Ball wrote Five Women Wearing the Same Dress. Five Women is a typically Ball-esque comedy-drama about five bridesmaids in a Knoxville, Tennessee mansion escaping from the reception to a bedroom upstairs. The characters explore sisterhood, lost dreams, and dark secrets while making cutting, often hilarious, observations on life, love, sex, marriage, and religion. Five Women showcases Ball's characteristic genius for using a single phrase to turn comedy into drama and back again.