SnoopyStyle
Cathy Jamison (Laura Linney) has cancer and she wants to change her life. She's not sure how. She and childish Paul (Oliver Platt) have a problem marriage. Her brother Sean Tolkey (John Benjamin Hickey) is deliberately poor. Her son Adam (Gabriel Basso) is a bratty teenager. She has a tough time telling everybody. She's not a particularly good teacher and Andrea Jackson (Gabourey Sidibe) is her smart-mouthed student. Marlene (Phyllis Somerville) is her pain in the ass neighbor until she becomes her most profound friend.This show tries very hard to be quirky but it never really achieves full comedy. I like Laura Linney and Oliver Platt. I also love the storage locker with all the birthday presents. The show fades a bit after the end of season two. It seems to take the show one way but season 3 took it all back when it opened. The show deals with death all the time but it seems it lost its nerve. I do like the final 4 episode wrap up.
SDAim
Well, after hanging in there this far into Season 3, I think I'm about done with The Big C after the young couple has decided that Cathy and Paul would be perfect adoptive parents for their baby. You have got to be kidding me -- what a stupid and completely unrealistic plot twist. Besides, I've had enough of seeing those two raise an a-hole of a son . . . why in the world would I want to see them start from scratch with someone else's child. Yeech.I'm tired of every character in this show -- some I had a hard time tolerating from the start, and others who have become unbearable especially this season. I miss Cynthia Nixon in the roll of her good friend (although her relationship with Cathy's brother was ridiculous), as well as Marlene -- the cranky neighbor lady who they killed off at the end of Season 1.Don't get me wrong, I am so thankful that Showtime, HBO, and the other cable TV outlets do original programming, because there hasn't been a single show on Network TV that I've liked for many years. That having been said, I think they should be careful about not wearing out their welcome with shows that are ill-conceived or that stay on long after the writing has ceased to be decent. The Big C is already in this category, and I find myself hoping that Cathy's melanoma makes a comeback pretty quickly.
caldor-118-802106
Mediocre trivial and cliché ideas about terminal illness. I love Linney but can't help wishing her obnoxious character would just die. The writers must watch so much TV they think this is reality. Her reaction to her condition revolves around materialism. Like most modern series it is a mixture of product placement held together by recycled ideas. Supporting characters add some interest but generally, nothing happens. There is no crisis, no resolution, none of the elements of a story. And forget laughs; this thing is about as funny as a Republican in the White House. Don't make my mistake and watch until half of episode three to find out there's no story. No, it doesn't get any better.
gwarwyn
I liked this show at first Laura Linney is fabulous as is the guy who plays her hubby though I can't remember the actor's name. But one of the reviews is right it's not realistic or true to life and it's American. Cancer is serious, if your GP even suspected you may have it and was going to send you to a specialist or a cancer hospital you'd take your spouse otherwise what kind of relationship do you have? or failing them a parent or a sibling. I don't know many people who can go to a specialist without someone. Besides that even with cancer (which yes i do have) you don't just drop your life and start doing crazy things that's what people on TV do it's called escapism. And being diagnosed terminal yeah you'd want to do things you may have put off or not got round to but I for one would want to spend as much time with the people I love close around me most of all. Not push them away to do stupid things and indulge selfish whims. Cancer shouldn't be an excuse for being bad or good, it just is what it is, and we do our best and live our lives, and it's hard, being ill is not a happy place to be. But I've always believed that you should make the best of what you've got.
AD
