“Cancer is not a gift; cancer is not a passport to a better life.” So says Laura Linney as Cathy, the lead in the US channel Showtime’s new dark sitcom, The Big C. Kinney’s line, in rebuke to some happy-clapping Bible support group members, could also be taken as a rejection of possible preconceptions about this show.
Kathy, before the show has begun, has been diagnosed with malignant melanoma, stage four, meaning she hasn’t got long left to live. Cathy is the proverbial doormat to her childish teenage son, Adam (Gabriel Basso), more childish estranged husband Paul, played by the ever-reliable Oliver Platt, her even more childish brother Sean (John Benjamin Hickey) and even her pupils at the school she teaches at. The prognosis has led Cathy to re-evaluate her life and make some changes, starting with ditching Paul and becoming more assertive in her attitude to living.
With an acclaimed team (Linney won a Golden Globe in this role and Academy Award-winner Bill Condon directed the pilot episode), a soft focus, sunny look to the production and a chirpy female singer-songwriter (who is either Aimee Mann or does a great impression) providing just as chirpy songs to the soundtrack, everything would point towards over-earnest, sentimental, tired bilge about damaged characters learning to love life all over again.
Well, that is kind of the plot, but this is better than it sounds. Ditching the schmaltziness you might expect and counterpointing the cutesy characterizations with blunt, crass humour that pulls no punches, The Big C successfully handles big, heavy subject matter (life, death, love and loss) lightly but respectfully. Predictably, Linney is great in the lead role, as is the likeable Oliver Platt as an annoying husband being kept in the dark.
The real coup though is landing Oscar-winning Precious star Gabourey Sidibe in a great comedy role as Cathy’s tough-talking troubled student Andrea, who regularly steals the show. Given the team’s pedigree, it’s easy to compare this to a TV take on Paul Thomas Anderson’s film masterpiece Magnolia. Was Laura Linney in that? Well, no, but she damn well should have been from the depth of her comic, emotional performance on display here.
The excellent variety of ingredients don’t always gel as well as they should, with some plotlines highly predictable (a grumpy neighbour gradually opens up to friendship) and the oddball antics sometimes come across as irritatingly kooky (see John Benhamin Hickey’s layabout Paul) rather than genuine character traits, but as a whole, this is an entertaining, worthwhile show.
Released on DVD on Monday 2nd May 2011 by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment UK.