So I’ve watch two episodes of this terrible show and I think I’m done. I first thought the “C” in the title stood for cancer, but it’s become clear that Crap is a much more fitting substitution.
I continue to be amazed at the lauding of Laura Linney’s completely absurd, one-note performance. Every scene she’s in and line she delivers teems with the same phony, self-assured, jubilation. I don’t buy that this woman has cancer. Not for one second. She doesn’t even seem bothered she’s gonna die. Who knew the actual stages of grief were Denial, Anger, Cartwheels, Acceptance? Is she sad? Does she even care? I’d like to see an ounce of nuance rather than Linney making the exact same acting choices in every single scene.
In the show’s second episode, whose title I really don’t care enough to look up, Linney proved that her character, whose name I really don’t care enough to remember, is an absolutely terrible person. What she did to her son in storming onto his school bus and talking about how close they were when he was an infant, in front of all his classmates, was unforgivable. She basically guaranteed in no uncertain terms that his social life will be a living hell for the rest of high school. And she's a high school teacher, so it's not like she doesn't understand the gravity of what she's done to him. If my mom had done that to me, I’d have refused to ever go back to that school. I’m serious. I’d have said, “Put a gun to my head. An actual gun with bullets. And then maybe, maybe, we’ll talk. Because truancy and juvie hall is a far better option right now.” That’s on top of throwing her husband out of the house and only giving him the explanation that he leaves the kitchen cabinets open. The list goes on: burning her son’s clothes, storming out of the therapy session, etc.
I hated the character of Jackie when Nurse Jackie came out. I thought she was an utterly despicable person. But at least the show was up front about it. It didn’t expect me to like her as she cheated on her husband and stole people’s organs. I feel I’m somehow expected to like Laura Linney’s detestable character…CATHY!!! Glad I remembered that, now I can die happy. To be clear, I gave up on Nurse Jackie eventually as well, once I realized she truly had no remorse for anything she’d done. But at least I was able to stick around longer than 2 episodes.
I also hate Cathy’s over-the-top, clichéd brother. He’s the most boring homeless person I’ve ever seen in my life. Save the whales, stop global warming, I only eat garbage and dried shit…blah, blah, blah. I get it already. Tone it down.
I also find the show’s handling of cancer massively offensive. I should say upfront that my dad is the executive editor of the Skin Cancer Foundation, so I happen to know a little bit about this. There are abso-friggin-lutely treatments for melanoma at her stage. No dermatologist would tell a patient who was more than a year away from death that there's no viable plan of attack. I’m not saying those treatments would necessarily work, but they would absolutely be tried by any competent doctor and patient who isn’t crazy. My dad has informed me that in the week since The Big C aired, the foundation’s blogs and message boards have been flooded with posts from actual melanoma patients who are outraged by its representation on this show. The creators clearly just played Pin The Tail On The Donkey in choosing what brand of cancer to give Linney, and then decided it wasn’t worth doing a single second of research about it.
In summation, I am done with this show….FOREVER.
Good night and good luck.
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