The Big C

Plot

Cathy Jamison (Laura Linney), a high school teacher in Minneapolis, is diagnosed with melanoma. She withholds the diagnosis from her husband Paul (Oliver Platt), homeless brother Sean (John Benjamin Hickey), and son Adam (Gabriel Basso). This news, coinciding with the beginning of summer, inspires Cathy to get a pool built in her backyard. Her cranky neighbor Marlene (Phyllis Somerville) opposes the project but ultimately begins to bond with Cathy and becomes the first person to learn about her cancer. Cathy also begins exhibiting increasingly odd behavior in reaction to her cancer, such as emptying out her retirement fund and burning the couch she's always hated. Meanwhile, Paul and Cathy remain separated over an incident that occurred prior to the start of the series. Cathy begins an extramarital affair with a painter at the high school (Idris Elba). Paul witnesses the two of them together and asks for a divorce; Cathy, in turn, ends the tryst and informs Paul that she has cancer. Paul begins to understand what Cathy's been going through, moves back in and pledges to assist her with her disease. Marlene, who has been succumbing to Alzheimer's, dies by suicide after inadvertently putting Adam in harm's way. Her death inspires Cathy to begin seeking treatment, something she was initially opposed to.

In the fall, Cathy begins a clinical trial run by the highly renowned Dr. Atticus Sherman (Alan Alda). By this point, Cathy's friends and family are all aware of her diagnosis and provide her with support; financially, however, the Jamisons are struggling to foot the bill for Cathy's treatment. After Paul is fired from his job, he accepts a demeaning position at an electronics store solely for the insurance benefits. Meanwhile, Cathy befriends Lee (Hugh Dancy), a fellow patient in Dr. Sherman's trial. The two become close over their shared experience and Lee becomes a close friend of the Jamisons. Cathy begins experiencing symptoms of the drugs in the clinical trial, a sign that the treatment is working; Lee does not fare as well and announces that he plans on quitting treatment altogether. Lee dies shortly after and Cathy plans on running the Minneapolis New Year's Eve marathon in his honor. Meanwhile, the stress of providing for the family leads Paul to become increasingly reliant on cocaine. With insurance bills mounting, Paul crashes the agency's holiday party and has a heart attack. Although he is pronounced dead for several minutes, he ultimately survives.

One month later, Paul is recovering from his heart attack and begins chronicling his near-death experience in a blog. Cathy's tumors have shrunk immensely as a result of the clinical trial and she enters remission. Seeking direction in the wake of their new leases on life, Cathy and Paul attend a retreat by a self-help guru named Joy Kleinman (Susan Sarandon). Cathy, although initially resistant to Joy's teachings, comes to the realization that she wants another child. Joy sees potential in Paul's blog and invites him to join her on stage; Paul subsequently becomes a popular speaker. Meanwhile, Cathy and Paul speak to a couple regarding the possibility of the Jamisons adopting their yet-born child. This is ultimately a scam and becomes a point of contention between Cathy, who really wanted the child, and Paul, who is more concerned with his newfound popularity. Suspecting that Joy is having an affair with Paul, Cathy confronts her but Joy is hit by a bus in a freak accident. Paul replaces Joy at a speaking engagement in Puerto Rico over Easter and becomes the successor to her self-help empire. Cathy is informed that her tumors are growing and that she will probably die within a year. While scuba diving in Puerto Rico, Cathy experiences a vivid hallucination caused by the growing tumors and requires brain surgery.

Cathy spends the next several months undergoing chemotherapy but quits when she realizes that it is ultimately pointless. Her relationship with Paul is cordial although she suspects that he's waiting for her to die to move on; Cathy in turn encourages him to begin dating other women so she can approve of who he may remarry. Per the advice of a counselor, Cathy sets a goal that she wants to see Adam graduate high school before she dies, although this appears unlikely considering he's only starting junior year. When Cathy begins experiencing memory loss, she goes to live in hospice. This upsets the whole family and Paul and Adam fall apart in her absence. The following spring, Cathy's four months of insurance coverage expires and she returns home, albeit bedridden. Adam, fulfilling one of Cathy's wishes, reveals that he's secretly taken an entire year's worth of school online and has received his high school diploma. Paul, having gone out to buy Cathy's flowers, returns home to find that she's dead. In the very last scene, Cathy is seen in a serene swimming pool with Marlene and Thomas, Marlene's dog.

Cast

Main cast

Laura Linney as Cathy Jamison. Cathy is a Minneapolis–Saint Paul high school teacher who, at the start of the series, has been recently diagnosed with terminal (stage IV) melanoma. Reluctant to burden her family and friends with the news, she keeps it a secret for months. She does reveal her illness to elderly neighbor Marlene (who later dies by suicide), after Marlene figures it out since her dog, Thomas, who had often been hanging around Cathy, can sniff out cancer. Her behavior dramatically changes as she begins to make reckless choices in the face of oncoming death. These include kicking her husband out of the house, spending money on an expensive car, and having an affair. She befriends Andrea, a mouthy student in her summer English class. Desperate to make sure her teenage son is on the right path before she dies, she unintentionally drives a rift between them. She ends her affair when it is exposed, and allows her husband to move back in after finally revealing to him that she is sick. She gives Marlene's house, which Marlene left to Cathy in her will, to her brother Sean. She decides to undergo a treatment with great risks because she wants to live. Although initial results are promising, the treatment proves unsuccessful. In season four, Cathy plans for the inevitability of her imminent death.

Oliver Platt as Paul Jamison, Cathy's husband. Paul has a somewhat childlike approach to life, and Cathy kicks him out of the house because she is fed up of looking after him. He doesn't really understand the situation but appeases her in the hopes that their marriage can be repaired. While separated, he has a sexual encounter with another woman; this is ultimately forgiven in the face of Cathy's affair. After Cathy reveals her cancer to him, he moves back in and becomes overly attentive and doting. At the end of the second-season finale episode, Paul appears to Cathy as a hallucination at the end of the marathon she runs and then a cut scene shows him being worked on by an EMS team after ingesting cocaine earlier in the day. In season three, Paul begins to write a blog about his life and Cathy's cancer. They attend a motivational workshop led by Joy Kleinman, who becomes Paul's mentor. After Joy dies by getting hit by a bus, Paul takes over her motivational self-help empire, under his tag phrase "flip that switch".

John Benjamin Hickey as Sean Tolkey, Cathy's brother. Sean is an eccentric, homeless, anti-establishment environmentalist. He is frequently dirty and eats out of garbage cans. Though having a somewhat distant relationship, Cathy begins making a concerted effort to get closer to him after she is diagnosed with cancer. He starts a relationship with Cathy's college friend Rebecca, which ends badly. At one point Cathy reveals her illness to him and he has an emotional breakdown; she reneges, claiming she made it up to get a reaction. In the season one finale, Rebecca reveals to Sean that she is pregnant. At the beginning of season two, Sean and Rebecca have moved into Marlene's house. It's revealed that Sean has bipolar disorder but has refused to treat it in the past. He begins taking medications in order to become more stable for his unborn child, but then goes off the medications when Rebecca miscarries. After Rebecca leaves Sean, he has an emotional downward spiral that causes him to lash out against Cathy and other family members. He comes home at the end of second season and tells Cathy that he was working for a traveling circus. In the third season, Sean gets a job as a janitor at Adam's school. After finally getting a landline, he starts receiving calls for "Willy Wanker", discovering that the last person who had the phone number was a gay phone sex operator. Sean starts his own phone sex operation as a way to make extra money, and ends up connecting with a client named Tim. He then starts a relationship with him and his wife Giselle, but they break it off when Sean's presence begins to negatively affect their marriage. Wanting to do something meaningful and life-affirming in light of what is happening to Cathy, he decides to donate a kidney to an unknown recipient. He and that recipient, Ray, decide to meet days before the surgery. In the simple act of Ray offering Sean a gift of an expensive Rolex watch in gratitude of what he's doing, Sean can see that Ray is everything he abhors in life. Although Sean decides to go through with the donation on Cathy's urging, he also decides because of Ray that he will return to being homeless again.

Recurring cast

Reid Scott as Dr. Todd Mauer (Seasons 1 and 2), Cathy's oncologist and friend. Compassionate and concerned, he goes beyond the doctor/patient relationship by going on several personal outings with Cathy. He begins to become her confidante as she tells him all of the secrets she cannot tell her family. He allows her to accompany him while house shopping for him and his girlfriend. He reluctantly accompanies Cathy to Canada for an alternative therapy treatment, and while there reveals that he is "confused" and has feelings for her.

Cynthia Nixon as Rebecca (Seasons 1 and 2), Cathy's college roommate and long-time friend. She resurfaces at Cathy's birthday party after a long absence. When she begins a sexual relationship with Sean, Cathy reveals that she has always found Rebecca to be selfish and a bad friend, which serves as a wake-up call and leads to the end of the romance. She becomes pregnant with Sean's child. This news leads to him telling her that he wants to raise the child together. She later moves in with Sean and they fall in love, becoming engaged; however, when Rebecca miscarries their child, Sean discontinues his medication, giving Rebecca no choice but to leave him.

Nadia Dajani as Tina (Seasons 1 and 2), who went to high school with Cathy and Paul and was then known as "Rugby Slut". Always attending the local rugby games, and not saying die to her youth, she starts an affair with Paul (Paulie) after Cathy kicks him out. Cathy discovers their affair when she comes to offer Paul an olive branch and sees Tina leaving with her thong.

Idris Elba as Lenny (Season 1), a painter at Cathy's school. They have a brief affair but Cathy ends it as she re-examines her feelings for Paul.

Alexandra Socha as Mia (Seasons 1 and 2), Adam's classmate and first serious girlfriend. She and Adam break up after she discovers that Adam had sex with someone else. She finds out about Adam's indiscretion when Cathy confronts her after he brings pubic lice aka crabs into the house, Cathy believing Adam having gotten them from having sex with Mia. She eventually forgives him leading to them getting back together for a short time.

Brian Cox (Season 1) and Brian Dennehy (Season 4) as Donald Tolkey, Cathy and Sean's father, with whom they both have an estranged relationship. Despite that estrangement, Cathy feels the need to see him before she dies.

Critical reception

The Big C's pilot episode was received positively by critics, while subsequent episodes received mixed reviews from critics. Season One received an overall score of 66 on Metacritic based on 27 reviews. Alessandra Stanley of The New York Times wrote: "The Big C works because most of the writing is strong and believable, and so is Ms. Linney, who rarely sounds a false note and here has perfect pitch... the series is at its best when sardonic and subdued." Washington Post critic Hank Stuever said: "Buoyed by scalpel-sharp writing and even keener performances, The Big C ...walks a fine line of having it both ways. It's for people who are repelled by the warm-fuzzy, disease-o'-the-week dramas of cable television." EW.com's Ken Tucker quibbled with its major plot point: "My big problem with The Big C concerns a crucial decision the show made for the early episodes: Cathy declines to tell those closest to her that she has cancer. While this is one of the many different reactions people have to such a diagnosis in real life, in a comedy drama like this, it makes everyone around her seem a bit dim."

The second season received similar reviews to the first, receiving a score of 64 on Metacritic based on reviews from 6 critics. Maureen Ryan of AOL TV stated that "Having a character and her family deal with a potentially fatal illness is such a rich arena for both drama and black comedy, but so far, The Big C hasn't been able to mine that topic with consistent freshness and depth." Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly was critical towards the show, but commended the acting, stating that "Much of The Big C's unoriginal dramatization of cancer concerns is mitigated by the fresh, dynamic performances of Laura Linney and Oliver Platt."

The third season received a score of 65 on Metacritic based on reviews from 4 critics.

The fourth and final season—consisting of four hour-long episodes received a score of 73 on Metacritic based on reviews from 10 critics.