Laura Linney is a talented actress, and I’ve liked her in nearly everything that she’s appeared. However, I find myself conflicted about her Showtime series, The Big C. Linney plays Catherine Jamison, a Minneapolis teacher who’s been told she has incurable skin cancer. The young, good-looking doctor who delivers the bad news isn’t sure how long she has to live; it’s more than three months, he tells her, and could be as long as three to five years.
Catherine decides keep her diagnosis a secret, and live her remaining days to the fullest. Creating a ‘bucket list’ of sorts, she starts by kicking her clingy (immature might be a better word), husband (Oliver Platt) out of the house, and starts following her spoiled teenage son (Gabriel Basso), like Velcro, flirts with her doctor, befriends the cranky old lady across the street, sunbathes nude in her backyard, buys a sports car, and takes on an overweight mouthy teen (Gabourey Sidibe) from her summer school class as a special project, offering to pay her $100 for every pound she loses.
Each of these events is milked for all the comedy their worth, which often isn’t much. Perhaps if the events were to occur in a more realistic context, the humor wouldn’t feel so dull and confusing. Almost everything Catherine does rings somewhat false, which makes it hard to care about her situation. Almost immediately after her diagnosis, Catherine has workman digging up her backyard to install a pool. It’s understandable that she might want to teach her son to dive before she dies, but no practical concerns are addressed. Her husband, who mopes around in hopes of getting her back, never asks himself why his wife might be doing these odd things. Jamison herself is pretty one-note: We don’t truly see the fear, the depression, the disbelief, nor are we let in on the details of her diagnosis or her treatment options, all the minutiae that terminal patients face. She’s just busy having a great time.
For Catherine, cancer serves as the vehicle to transform this once uptight woman into a happier, free spirit. While all this is commendable, she also becomes a liar, which oft just doesn’t sit right.
While Laura Linney does a fine job with the material she’s given, the real bright spot for The Big C is John Benjamin Hickey as Sean, Catherine’s homeless-by-choice, bleeding heart brother. Living off the land, he believes the country wastes far too much. He is so strident in his beliefs that when he and his sister are eating at a fast food restaurant, he asks for a departing customer’s tray full of half-eaten scraps, takes a seat, and commences to eat.
The first season of The Big C left me on the fence about the series. While I don’t begrudge Catherine her fun, and want to see her make the most of whatever time she has left, I would like to see the series writers and producers also begin to address her illness with a bit more seriousness. The season finale, which I thought was the best of the season, seemed to suggest that a bit more realism is in the offing. If that comes to pass, The Big C could turn out to be a truly fine series.
This standard DVD sports a 1.78:1 aspect ratio, and an English, Spanish Dolby Digital soundtrack that serves the series well.
The special features are typical, and not particularly memorable: Deleted Scenes, outtakes, Complex Characters featurette and interviews with Laura Linney, Gabourey Sidibe, Oliver Platt and other cast members.
