Cathy- "Fat people are jolly for a reason. Fat repels people, but joy attracts them. Now I know everyone's laughing at your cruel jokes, but nobody's inviting you to the prom. So you can either be fat and jolly or a skinny b*tch. It's up to you."
So The Big C, starring Laura Linney, premiered last night on Showtime. It is another in a long run of premium cable half hour comedies that aren't all that funny. Between Weeds, Nurse Jackie, United States of Tara, Entourage and Hung, you can probably get two laughs per week. Having all that in mind, I went into this premier not expecting to like it. In fact I thought about reviewing it before I watched it, because I wanted to write a scathing critique.
Well what do you know, I actually enjoyed it. I have never watched the other three Showtime dramedies, but after one episode I'll tell you that I enjoy this ten times more than Hung, and it's definitely funnier than Entourage (not as enjoyable, but more comedic). Five to 10 minutes in, I was planning on writing about how great an actress Linney was, but that didn't mean she was necessarily entertaining. That changed about a half of the way in. Maybe it was the run of mean comments she made to Gabourey Sidibe's character about being fat, or maybe it's because I kept imagining she was acting in a completely fake world (because I can only picture her in The Truman Show), but I jumped right on board the Laura Linney train.
The rest of the cast is fine so far. Oliver Platt is funny per the usual. Both Sepinwall in his latest podcast, and Linney's character herself refer to Platt's Paul as being an overgrown child. And that works for me. The son seemed just okay and Linney's doctor hasn't done much yet, but I'm seriously considering continuing to watch this for a while.
As opposed to others, who have watched the other Showtime non-comedies, this doesn't seem that repetitive to me. It's definitely not innovative, but it could be a nice change of pace until the fall season kicks into gear.
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