The Big C: The Complete Second Season

While it's possible to make a sensitive comedy-drama about a cancer sufferer, the 2011 second season of this Showtime series about Cathy Jamison, a schoolteacher diagnosed with melanoma, still hasn't managed to find the right tone. The humor is often puerile (one episode literally contains a string of fart jokes), the dialogue is forced, and when the scripts turn serious they become mawkish. Laura Linney works hard in the lead but comes across as frenetic, while Oliver Platt brings his lumbering affability into the badly written role of her supportive but troubled husband, Paul, and Gabriel Basso overplays their teen son, Adam (both are saddled with sequences about their sexual urges that are not only tasteless but also clumsily staged). The supporting cast—especially John Benjamin Hickey as Cathy's volatile bipolar brother, Sean—are prone to extravagant histrionics that serve only to emphasize the weakness of the writing, while guests Alan Alda, Gabourey Sidibe, Cynthia Nixon, Parker Posey, and Hugh Dancy add surprisingly little to the proceedings. Collecting all 13 episodes, DVD extras include deleted scenes and outtakes. Not recommended. (F. Swietek)