'The Big C' isn't true to life: Cancer isn't funny

THE SHOW "The Big C"

WHAT IT'S ABOUT Cathy Jamieson (Linney) is a schoolteacher, mother and wife with stage 4 melanoma. With a year or maybe two to live, she decides to do exactly that - live - deeply confusing her son Adam (Gabriel Basso), husband Paul (Oliver Platt), brother Sean (John Benjamin Hickey), neighbor Marlene (Phyllis Somerville) and student Andrea (Gabourey Sidibe).

Because she has told no one of her illness, they are left to puzzle out her behavior - effectively a reversal of her pre-cancer self, which was a bit controlled, frustrated and unhappy. "You're starting to get your weird back, sis," says Sean, a homeless person who rages at the world while declaring himself ecstatically happy. Shot in Stamford, Conn., not far from Linney's home and active Broadway career, "The Big C" is set in Minneapolis.

MY SAY "The Big C" tends to raise questions that it's disinclined to answer. For example, how long does Cathy have to live (she wants to know, too), and how would such a wasting disease be portrayed over the course of this series? "The Big C" operates in compressed time, with the first episodes set in summer, so subsequent seasons may be set in (well) subsequent seasons. But an even larger puzzle is this: Can cancer be funny? One struggles to imagine in what context. "The Big C" skirts the issue by mining humor in Cathy's conversion from repressed housewife to liberated free spirit.

We are supposed to smile at her antics, nod in approval at her outbursts but also do a little repression of our own - that in real life, this isn't how most people confront their mortality. As a result, "The Big C" often feels stagy and forced. Lines and scenes are delivered with great theatrical flair, yet never quite sell either the comedy or tragedy.

BOTTOM LINE There's genuine pathos in Cathy - particularly her refusal to tell loved ones she is dying. But don't be surprised if you find yourself admiring Linney's performance rather than feeling it.

GRADE B-