The Big C

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The Big C is an American comedy-drama series airing on Showtime.

Cathy Jamison is a middle-aged woman like many others; she teaches English in a local high school, is a neat freak and has a peculiar family; a childish husband, an asshole of a son and an environmentalist to the pain brother.

But one day, her doctor gives her shattering news; she has terminal melanoma, and a year to live. He tells her that she could do chemo, but she refuses.

That ends up being the catalyst for Cathy to break out of her shell and finally live her life to the fullest, including disciplining her son and befriending obese student Andrea.

But she doesn't tell anybody of her cancer...

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This show has examples of:

• And Starring: (Season 3) Gabourey Sidibe
• Aborted Arc: The Sean-Andrea romance. It looked like at the end of Season 3, Episode 3 that they realized they had feelings for each other. Since then, it hasn't been brought up.
• BBW: Andrea.
• The Bear: Paul, as explained to him by Lee, who is fond of that sort of man.
• Birth-Death Juxtaposition: Rebecca finds out she's pregnant with Sean's baby at the end of season 1, and since every season of this show is an actual season (roughly three months) she will most probably give birth in season 4 or 5, which are most likely going to be the final seasons.
  • Well, apparently not--she has a miscarriage at the end of "The Last Thanksgiving."
• Catch Phrase: Adam can frequently be heard saying "JESUS!"
• Closer to Earth: Cathy used to be, but she doesn't want to be anymore. Literally, Sean.
• A Date with Rosie Palms: Andrea walks in on Paul having one of these. Cathy also has one in the bathtub--as she's listening to Lee's voice guiding her through breathing exercises.
• Dead Guy, Junior: Rebecca finds out she's having a girl, and decides to call her Cathy. Since the father's Cathy's brother Sean, she will have the exact name and surname as our leading character. Cathy and Paul find it's a bit Too Soon for that.
• Driven to Suicide: Marlene
• Embarrassing Tattoo: In college, Cathy and Rebecca agreed to get matching tattoos that said "a pair of freaks"...except Cathy backed out at the last second.
• Fake American: Averted with Idris Elba, who plays an Englishman. Played straight with Hugh Dancy's character Lee.
• Hey, It's That Guy!: Precious attends Cathy's class and is a bitch.
  • And Cathy's best friend is Miranda!!
  • Nadia Dajani, who's made cameos in various other programmes including Casualty and Holby City.
• It's All About Me: When Cathy tells her she has cancer, Rebecca answers that Cathy 'will be the first of her friends with cancer' and that she (Rebecca) will be forever changed. She didn't think once about how Cathy must feel.
• I Was Just Joking: Cathy tells Sean about her cancer...and then takes it back. Uh-oh.
• Jerkass: Adam, and how. Even for a teenager.
• Katy Perry: Rumoured to appear in the next series, if a radio station's Twitter feed is anything to go by. What role she will play is, well, anyone's guess.
• Killed Off for Real: Marlene, Baby Cathy, and Lee.
• New Age Retro Hippie: Played with with Sean--he's certainly an environmentalist and against the establishment, but he's also foul-mouthed and lecherous and not exactly 'laid-back.' Could be said about Liam Neeson's character. Lee is also a version of this, being a Buddhist, but he also eats meat, drinks, has anonymous sex and still has some anger/denial issues about his diagnosis.
• Platonic Life Partners: Lee and Cathy seem to be becoming this, declaring themselves to be "mole-mates."
• Real Song Theme Tune: The theme song is Leftover Cuties' 'Game Called Life'.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: Adam, when he thought his mom died. And again when he thought she was a ghost or a zombie.
• Secretly Dying
• Secret Keeper: Marlene.
  • And also Paul as of episode 11.
    • Cathy herself finds herself a Secret Keeper when Marlene tells her she has Alzheimer's.
      • Rebecca is asked to be one for a short while by Cathy, since she wants to be the one to tell Sean she has cancer. Rebecca fails spectacularly at this.
• Shock Party: In 'Happy Birthday, Cancer' Cathy's party goes fine... then she makes the mistake of saying that she hadn't been that happy in twenty years. Unfortunately, that's the amount of time she's known Paul. He's not happy with that. To his credit, though, he waits until the guests have left.
• Shout-Out: To Dexter. Playing a cruel prank on her son, Cathy lies in a bathtub full of what looks like blood, similarly to Rita. Except, with Rita it wasn't a joke.
  • Practically a whole series shout-out to the 1950 movie No Sad Songs For Me.
• Stop Being Stereotypical: Played with--Andrea tells Cathy all about her terrible life in the ghetto with a crack-addicted mother and a murdered father, except it all turns out to be crap and she's from a wealthy, wholesome nuclear family in the 'burbs.
• Teens Are Monsters: Played with with Adam, although he has occasional depth.
• The Man: Sean's entire life is a crusade against this.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives this to Andrea in the pilot.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Paul in 'Happy Birthday, Cancer'. Marlene joins in the fun in episode 10.

Marlene: Cancer doesn't give you the right to be a destructive bitch!

• Your Days Are Numbered