The Big C: Season 1 (2010)

A comedy-drama about cancer may not seem to be a great premise for a show, but when it stars Laura Linney and is made by Showtime I had to check it out. Linney is one of those under-appreciated actors who should be an A-list star in recognition of the excellent work she does, often in smaller roles both on TV and in film - she was wonderful as the wife of John Adams in the HBO mini-series, as the protagonist in the adaptation of Tales of the City, and as the wife of Kinsey in the movie. It's fantastic that she gets to star in her own series then, which can showcase her talents for comedy, drama and anything else a script demands of her. 

In The Big C, Linney plays Cathy, a teacher, wife and mother who's considered a little boring by her husband Paul (Oliver Platt), son Adam (Gabriel Basso) and wild-dwelling econut brother Sean (John Benjamin Hickey). And then she's diagnosed with terminal cancer and is determined not to fade away, throws Paul out so she can live for herself and Adam and makes friends with crotchedy neighbour Marlene (Phyllis Somerville). As the series goes on Cathy has an affair with Idris Elba, flirts with her oncologist Reid Scott, crosses paths with her old college roommate Cynthia Nixon, and tries to soften student Gabourey Sidibe, all the while keeping her cancer secret from all but Marlene. 

The show carefully balances the pathos of a finite life with comic moments, and Cathy's new zest for life and her new found ability to let her hair down while she still has it (ok, she doesn't have chemo, so cheap cancer joke there) are uplifting and the show becomes not about impending death but about living life. It could be a twee, cloying 'message' but the writing is better than that, and Linney portrays Cathy as such a wonderful person, you want her to live and thrive, yet knowing that it is the cancer that has spurred her on to become such a carefree character. And The Big C is full of surprises - the biggest will be how the show can continue since it's lead character has a terminal illness - and in the penultimate episode of the series a regular character is killed off so quickly and ruthlessly you barely have time to register. It's the freshness and novelty of the series, along with a superb cast, that makes The Big C a show I will be eager to return to next season.