A Man. And His Blog.

Okay then. Maybe I was expecting a bit too much from the show now, or maybe the first three episodes were actually good. Or maybe my personal hiatus of the show between the last and this episode was just too big, but I didn’t like this episode. It told me nothing, it had boring storylines, it wasn’t funny, and I was thinking about falling asleep. So what happened?

Yes, the acting is still quite good, and Laura Linney doesn’t have any difficulties in carrying the show. But the other actors have, since their characters aren’t drawn in a way I wanted them to have. Paul (Oliver Platt) becomes the husband with a hilarious tone, who is always out for something “funny” to do, and who kinda doesn’t care about his family – I realized he couldn’t be more a wrong character for the show, especially since it deals of a (house?)wife and mother with cancer. Adam (Gabriel Basso) is the son with troubles, who lives his normal teen life, but it ain’t interesting one single bit. And he doesn’t care about his family too, which is a shame. And Marlene (Phyllis Somerville)? I already ask myself what she has to do in this show…

When Cath was about to get her bank account empty, I was asking myself, where all the money was coming from. Did I forget that she has a job, or is there no reason of where the money is coming from? And even though I can understand why Cath is on her way to spend all her money, I wonder why nobody is noticing it. She buys a car, shows it to Sean (John Benjamin Hickey), and he doesn’t even ask why she bought it, especially after he realized it’s a stick? The writing doesn’t go into Paul seeing the car, and asking himself why she bought it, especially after she was discussing with him about buying Adam presents? Does Adam even notice, what his mother is doing? Either the scripts don’t go into all of this, which could become good character drama, or the writers just don’t care. And this was the thing, which basically ruined the episode for me.

The side plots weren’t interesting. I didn’t care about Tina (Nadia Dajani), and that Paul was flirting with her; I didn’t care about Adam stealing, and Marlene “saving” him from his mother. Only the Cath/Todd (Reid Scott) story was quite nice, but only because Cath could behave like a teenager for a little while, living in another life – and the pool scene had at least something of a greater meaning.

But other than that, this episode was just boring. I hope that’s a one-timer… 4.5/10

Introducing: Cath's love-red cancer car

And Marlene is happy about her fish tank

Some people actually don't know, what this tagline means...

Welcome to the Laura Linney show, starring Laura Linney, her body, her sense of humor, and Laura Linney. You will only see Laura Linney in the Laura Linney show, and what is unfortunate is: You won’t see her naked. Not even the stainless steel revealed some more from Laura Linney. This is a double-review for the episodes “Summer Time” (1×02) and “There’s No C in Team” (1×03), and both episodes showed like the pilot episode, why I already love this little dramedy about a dying wife and mother, which is basically more funny than emotional. Even though these two episodes didn’t reach the emotional quality of the pilot episode, I am still impressed and want to see more. From now on, Showtime is the mother of all 30-minute-dramedies, and at least one pay-TV network manages to shoot out some favorite TV series of mine.

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Time is running out for Cathy to build sand castles

Let’s just say that my TV season 2010/2011 begins with the pilot episode of Showtime’s new dramedy The Big C. And not just because I want to start the season with an almost excellent pilot, where I had fun all the 28 minutes and where I finally got my answer of why Laura Linney never got her own TV series. Showtime has a few hand full of half-hour dramedies, and once again I wonder why they didn’t make an hour-long drama series with comedy elements out of The Big C. After the 28 minutes were over, I wanted to see more; every little scene pleased me; and it couldn’t have been more fun to see Laura Linney raising her son, who has his mouth full of bad jokes, while playing the blonde, soon dying version of Mary-Louise Parker’s Nancy Botwin (Weeds, for those who don’t know). Or to say it short: I don’t watch a lot of Showtime shows (as I should), but The Big C could grab me from the start, left me wanting more at the finish, and now I am sitting here and writing this pilot review…

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