'Always Looking Up'
Show: The Big C.
Premiered: Summer 2010.
Why Was It Made? As I noted of Nurse Jackie a few weeks ago, Showtime's brief for half-hour shows in recent years has been to take an actress of a certain age -- preferably one who's won or at least been nominated for a lot of awards -- and build a dark comedy around her. The Big C paired Laura Linney with cancer.
Why Did I Stop Watching? In the first season, Linney's Cathy had a fractious relationship with her teenaged son, Adam (the very good Gabriel Basso); in the series premiere, she gets back at him for some misdeed or other by setting up a situation where he walks in on what he thinks is the scene of her suicide. Hilarious prank? The mean-spiritedness of that moment really put me off, as did, if I'm being completely truthful, Gabourey Sidibe's supporting performance as Andrea, a student of Linney's Cathy, a high-school history teacher. I really have a hard time with amateur -- or amateurish -- actors (as I described when I wrote about giving Girls another shot), and I know she's an Oscar nominee (and I didn't see Precious), but for me watching Sidibe is like watching community theater.
Why Give It Another Shot? Now that it's wrapping up, I'm interested in seeing how Cathy's story ends -- particularly since producers have changed the show format to the hour-long it probably always should have been. (Also I...got screeners.)
What Aspects Of The Latest Episode Would Seem To Invite Further Viewing? Oliver Platt's annoying Paul, Cathy's ex-husband, has been largely sidelined; the moments when we do see him, he's interacting with Amber (the very funny Liz Holtan), the assistant he needs now that he's become a self-help guru. And since I stopped watching, Adam's stopped being such a shit to Cathy; in the season premiere, all my favourite scenes were between the two of them.
What Aspects Of The Latest Episode Discourage Further Viewing? It seems like producers still haven't figured out how exactly they feel about Sean (John Benjamin Hickey), Cathy's homeless freegan brother. He's supportive enough to forego vegetarianism in order to iron-load with Cathy (she's anemic), but when she has a very unfortunate accident in a bouncy castle at Adam's birthday party, he's utterly useless. I love Hickey as an actor and I wish his character made more sense. Also: Andrea has gone to college, but not far enough away from Cathy for me.
Final Verdict: I'm back in. Linney is luminous and tragic and I want to see how she closes out Cathy's life.