Question for those watching 'The Big C'

Is Laura Linney’s character Catherine supposed to be likeable? Because I find her to be extremely unlikeable and unsympathetic.

IMHO, her character is a self-righteous stick-up-her-ass prude, and the show is supposed to show her becoming more likable and human as she gets closer to her mortality. She’s abandoned most of her empathy for the human race, and the show is supposed to show her getting back in touch with that. Her character is supposed to be the diametric opposite of her brother, who is so in touch with what the human race should be about (in the opinion of the producers) that he’s abandoned his own needs, and is totally trying to save everyone else.

But yeah, they’re showing her growth going very slow.

Exactly, it is just so unusual for a comedy to make the lead character so unlikeable.

I think the point is that she was completely likable (and extremely boring) before the first episode. Now she knows she has cancer and believes she doesn’t have long to live. So she’s trying to do two things

  1. Live to the fullest in ways she didn’t dare to do when not threatened with death
  2. Cultivate relationships she took for granted before

The problem is that #1 and #2 oftentimes are diametrically opposed to one another. Her need to live out her fantasies is inherently selfish and oftentimes hurts everyone around her. I think in this week’s episode it’s finally hitting her that that’s what she’s doing. Let’s see if it sticks.

Did you see the most recent episode? Not sure if you want open spoilers or not, so

she realized what a mess she’s made of her life and set out to make amends, first to Andrea (the student portrayed by Gabourey Sidibe) and later to her husband, and she finally told him about the cancer. And there was a previous episode in which she told her brother, whose response was to cry, obviously, so she pretended she was just kidding. (I thought that he’d have figured out that she wasn’t really kidding, based on her actions recently.)

I find her likeable… and I think the point of the show is that she doesn’t want anyone’s sympathy.