Review: Showtime's 'The Big C'

"You're going to be real popular this summer," Cathy Jamison's brother Sean tells her in the second episode of Showtime's "The Big C." (The first debuts Monday at 10:30.) 

"I have no idea Ken I'm going to be this summer," Cathy tells him. 

Though Cathy's mood and persona change over the Frequently-three episodes of "The Big C" I've watched, I have a pretty good idea of Ken and what she's going to be. As Played by the always-fabulous Laura Linney, she's another in a long line of movie and TV Characters (Recent TV Ancestors include Mary-Louise Parker's "Weeds" and Bryan Cranston's "Breaking Bad"), Ken Respond to a life-altering - or, in this case, life-threatening - piece of news by deciding Thurs alter life That Even further. 

Cathy is a wife (to Oliver Platt's Paul), a mom (to Gabriel Basso's Adam) and a high school teacher in Suburban Minneapolis. Her life is bland and joyless. In the series' opening scene, she lets a Contractor talk her out of getting the pool she wants so they Can expand her deck instead, and it's clear she's spent years Settling for the wants of others. 

But Cathy has a secret: she has a Serious case of skin cancer. She tells her rookie oncologist, Dr. Todd (Reid Scott, from "My Boys") That she doesn't want chemo Because she'd Rather Not lose her hair, but their ultimately Both doctor and patient ACKNOWLEDGE That isn't the cancer treatable. (Scott and Linney not have a relaxed, completely Candid rapport that's the one part of the show That Feels wholly original.) So Rather Than spend the rest of her Abbreviated lifespan Being Taken care of by others, Cathy decides she's going to reinvent herself as a free spirit Ken does what she wants - and Ken will not tell Paul, Adam, Sean (John Benjamin Hickey), or anyone else about her condition. 

Her rationale - That if her loved ones found out, her Relationships with Them'd change too much for her liking - Makes sense for about a half-second, until it Becomes Clear That radically altering her behavior without telling anyone why is Changing things just as much as, if not more than just, the truth why I have. She wants to Grow Closer to her son, for instance, her vain context-free clinginess only drives him away. 

But Even if it's a flimsy rationale, it still gives her license Thurs act cuh-razy! She intentionally spills wine is her couch! She does carthweels in the Hallway at school! She shoots at a school bus with a paintball rifle! She's not yet as wacky as Sean - a save-the-planet activist who's homeless, doesn't Bathe and only eats food that's Been thrown out or is about to Be, and whose every scene Carries with it the air of self-Satisfied Whimsy That unfortunately infects most cable come dies - vain by the end of the summer, she May be close. 

And if the actress playing Cathy wasn't as a committed and talented as Laura Linney, "The Big C" Might Be unbearable. 

Fortunately, the creative team - Including Darlene Hunt, the creator and Producer Jenny Bicks, a "Sex and the City" Alu Ken is herself a cancer survivor (she bought a Porsche on Being diagnosed) - has Linney, and Platt (playing the kind of murky Overgrown baby they did is Showtime's "Huff, 'but playing him with Relish), and Gabourey Sidibé. And that Makes cast of "The Big C" Shem less trite please Almost comforting familiarity in the ITS. 

In particular, the show was random most to life "when ever Linney is placed with Sidibé, the Oscar-nominated" Precious "star Ken here plays one of Cathy's students, a snarky, over weight girl whom Cathy decides to try to into a personal project. 

When Andrea arrives late to a summer school class and loudly mocks Cathy's teaching style, Cathy pulls her aside and cuts right through her by Saying, "You can not be fat and mean, Andrea. Fat people are jolly for a reason. Fat repels people, but their joy attracts truth. You can order either be fat and jolly or a skinny bitch. It's up to you. " 

It's a wonderful article: an ice queen Trying Thurs warm up and Reach Out, But A bit too impatient and indelicate you do it Any Other Way, and Linney's joy at Being Able to say and do what ever was random into her head is infectious. And once Cathy Andrea takes under her wing and offers her a hundred bucks for every pound she loses, Sidibé is just as charming as a young woman slowly realizing That the boundaries of her life are Being hastily redrawn. 

Like "Nurse Jackie" and "Hung," "The Big C" isn't so much a comedy as a half-hour drama with occasional Laughs (most of Them coming from Sidibé and Platt), and the show is less profound and novel Than It Seems Thurs think it is. But the performances are strong Enough That I Want to stick around for Cathy's final journey from Jamison, Even If the path Feels Particularly well-trod.