Jasmine Sahu is well suited with this new American drama exclusive to Dave.
Lois Cameron explains why this series is much more than your average cosy period drama.
The last episode of this series sees Sherlock and Moriarty attempt to solve the final problem with devastating consequences.
With major cast changes afoot, Jacob Martin ponders whether Being Human can live up to its own scarily high standard.
The Big C has got everyone talking. This new series removes cancer from the traditional hushed tones and ties to death and sadness and redefines it as something liberating which makes you appreciate life and all it can offer. The Big C has either provoked concern among people who feel that something so horrific should be treated with respect or it has given permission to others who feel that the spectre of cancer needs to be lightened.
To me, The Big C does a good thing. I think that cancer, a disease which causes so much waste of human life, needs to be faced with a strong and even joyful perspective. While there is nothing joyful about the physical effects of the disease, The Big C demonstrates a way in which sufferers could face their impending deaths with a reaffirmed relish for life and a liberation from the ties which have stopped them from doing whatever the hell they want to do in the first place. The Big C faces cancer without propriety or decorum.
Laura Linney’s stage four melanoma sufferer Cathy is approaching her terminal diagnosis as a new lease of life. She kicks out her deadbeat husband, choosing to raise her prank-playing, irreverent son instead before it is too late. One lesson she teaches involved pretending to commit suicide (which could bother some people), but since she’s dying, she’s decided that normal rules don’t apply to her. On a more light-hearted note, Cathy decides to build a swimming pool and reconnect with her eccentric voluntarily homeless brother in order to relive the happiest times of her childhood. She flirts and jokes with her handsome young doctor, consumes only dessert and hard liquor when at restaurants and sorts out her nasty fat pupil (Gabourey Sidibe), telling her “you can either be jolly and fat or a skinny bitch, it’s up to you.” Most importantly of all, she decides not to be so boring any more, a process she kicks off by drenching her hated-but-safe sofa in wine and then setting fire to it.
This may come across as typical American schmaltz - seeing the good in everything, finding a new respect for life (etc. etc. etc.) - but it’s not. Cathy chooses not to tell her family what is going on and this means that she is effectively alone in dealing with her own death. In some ways, this is a very selfish move. Her loved ones surely deserve to be able to prepare themselves, her son in particular. This choice also provides the flip-side to the feeling of liberation which having no consequences engenders. The final scene is of her crying alone in the garden with only the neighbour’s dog for company. It is moments like these when the distractions of living life to the full are put aside, and that we see how scared and vulnerable she is. Linney is excellent at portraying that feeling of overt cheerfulness, even cheerfulness which has pierced the surface, combined with omnipresent sadness and regret at not doing wonderful things sooner and realising that Cathy will have to prioritise her life-affirming list because she won’t have time for everything.
The Big C airs on More4 at 11pm on Thursdays
You must log in to submit a comment.
