TV Eye
A Matter of Life and Laughs
By Belinda Acosta, Fri., Aug. 6, 2010
Maybe it's too early in her career to call Laura Linney a grande dame of, well, anything. But to me, she's one of the sparkling talents that we've been privileged to watch on film, TV, and, for some, live on stage. She was doleful and heartbreaking in Love Actually, kooky and fun during her run on Frasier, and now she is starring in her own TV series where we will get to see more of her talent, front and center.
Linney stars as Cathy Jamison on The Big C, a new dramedy on Showtime. I don't have Showtime, but I am seriously thinking of ordering it just so I can watch her. Fortunately, I was privy to an early peek of the first episode, and while I was not blown away by it, I am still a Linney fan and am looking forward to seeing how this series develops.
The Big C has two meanings. The first is a reference to the main character. The second is in reference to her life-changing challenge: She's been diagnosed with terminal cancer, and she must decide on all those things none of us who take for granted that another day, another month, another year is around the corner typically think about.
Among the decisions Cathy is contemplating is a swimming pool. Her yard is too small, but she wants one. Still, she allows the friendly but overly aggressive contractor she's hired to talk her into a nice hot tub/deck combo. You can read the disappointment on her face, but Cathy, it seems, is not one to put up a fight. Soon enough we learn that her life is filled with overbearing men – her husband, Paul (Oliver Platt), who probably doesn't deserve her; her teenage son, Adam (Gabriel Basso), who is unsurprisingly surly; and her kooky brother, Sean (John Benjamin Hickey), who lives life as an outsider. It's Cathy's relationship with Sean that is the most interesting. He's an eco-nut, prone to ranting and performing guerrilla theatre (as in hanging from a noose made of plastic shopping bags in a parking lot). Sean pointedly makes fun of his sister's uptight, tightly cinched lifestyle, while Cathy worries about her brother's safety and if he's getting enough to eat. They love each other in that adversarial yet devoted way that siblings do, which is a great source of sentiment and humor.
Cathy is reluctant to tell her loved ones about her diagnosis, which allows the viewer insider knowledge from Cathy's point of view. This makes the experience of confronting her mortality both intimate and sometimes uncomfortable. Unlike the typical disease-of-the-week TV movies of yesteryear, The Big C is not focused on the melodramatic outpouring of emotion from those surrounding the stricken. Instead, the experience is distilled through the patient and through the performance of one very capable actor.
Thankfully, just when the reality begins to cut close to the bone, The Big C turns to humor. Besides the volleying between Cathy and Sean are breathtaking interactions with Cathy as a high school teacher with another brusque teenager, the ebullient Gabourey Sidibe (Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire). Here, Sidibe plays Andrea, another typically surly teenager. But instead of letting Andrea get the best of her, Cathy shows her backbone, tossing back salvos at the girl in a way that would be ghastly coming from someone else.
TV Guide, among others attending the Showtime presentation for The Big C during the Television Critics Association press tour, posted this quote from Linney on Twitter on the making of the show:
"What hit me the most was ... that we all have a limited amount of time and that it's a privilege to grow old." It's this thoughtful, clear-eyed approach that I believe will make The Big C much more than a tearjerker, mining unexpected humor when needed and mining emotion without sentimentality. And while it's presumed that Linney's character will die at the end, this is one series I can't wait to begin.
The Big C premieres Aug. 16 at 9:30pm after the season premiere of Weeds.
