# The Big C: Season 2

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-c-season-2/587970>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [July 6, 2011, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-c-season-2/587970 "2011-07-06T01:30:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2011, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-c-season-2/587970/1 "2011-07-06T01:30:47Z")

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This is mainly a show I watch because it comes on after _Weeds_ and I don’t know if many others watched the first season, but if you did- anyone watching this one?

Sean (the crazy brother): he may be mentally ill and not responsible for all of his behavior, but so far this season he’s a total oxygen thief and needs to be dropped in a hole. Making his sister’s cancer all about him is dickish regardless of your diagnosis.

Glad to see Gabourey Sidibe back as Andrea. She was about the best part of the show last season, and she looks like she’s lost weight.

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**Author:** ![PeacePlease](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/71c47a/32.png) [@PeacePlease](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PeacePlease)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2011, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-c-season-2/587970/2 "2011-07-06T06:45:34Z")

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I just finished watching the entire first season. I’d never heard about this show (no TV) until I saw ads for it along with the premiere of Weeds (which I’ve followed all along.) I really enjoyed it. That black guy she was with was supremely hot!!! Yeah, that’s what I got out of the first season!

No, really, it’s pretty good. I think that Laura Linney is very good but Oliver Platt steals the show for me. I do like to brother as well. I don’t remember when he was outed as bipolar, though. Suddenly he had this diagnosis when, for many episodes, I just thought he was living the way he ‘should’ live, according to his principles. For some reason, that really pissed me off. Adam also seems to be a tad disaffected by Mom’s cancer this season. Kinda strange.

Showtime seems to specialize in selfish mother shows, doesn’t it? Aren’t Weeds, United States of Tara (which I will miss…even though they took away my dear, darling Eddie I.), and Nurse Jackie ALL Showtime shows? I watch everything from a streaming program I’ve hooked up with online so I’m not sure about UST and NJ at the moment.

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**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2011, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-c-season-2/587970/3 "2011-07-06T23:19:20Z")

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[QUOTE=PeacePlease]  
Showtime seems to specialize in selfish mother shows, doesn’t it? Aren’t Weeds, United States of Tara (which I will miss…even though they took away my dear, darling Eddie I.), and Nurse Jackie ALL Showtime shows? I watch everything from a streaming program I’ve hooked up with online so I’m not sure about UST and NJ at the moment.  
[/QUOTE]

Hadn’t thought about it, but you’re right. You can even add _Shameless_ (in which the mother abandons her 5 kids to go be lesbian) to the list. Dexter’s wife probably would have been a good mother but she got murdered, while his birth mom was a criminal. Some Showtime programming exec must have the mother from Hell.

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**Author:** ![lorene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@lorene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorene)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-c-season-2/587970/4 "2011-09-28T17:31:13Z")

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Just watched the finale of season 2 last night.

:eek:

Yes, I know, it’s entirely possible that they will revive Paul. Still, even though I kind of saw the possibility when he was flipping out at the Christmas party, the way it was done was pretty powerful. The only thing that was really, really bugging me was that the Marathon timeline didn’t make any sense to me.

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**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-c-season-2/587970/5 "2011-09-28T18:46:50Z")

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> [@lorene](#):
>
> Just watched the finale of season 2 last night.
> 
> :eek:
> 
> Yes, I know, it’s entirely possible that they will revive Paul. Still, even though I kind of saw the possibility when he was flipping out at the Christmas party, the way it was done was pretty powerful. The only thing that was really, really bugging me was that the Marathon timeline didn’t make any sense to me.

He’ll probably walk around as a ghost like Maureen or Dexter’s dad, which is the worst trend on television these days.

According to the below spoiler-boxed

[quote from the executive producer]  
([‘The Big C’ Finale: Is Paul Really Dead?](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/big-c-finale-is-paul-239818)):

I would guess he pulls through though.

> [@](#):
>
> “He passes over but who’s to say ultimately whether he lives or dies,” Bicks told The Hollywood Reporter. “But he did have a heart attack.”
> 
> While Bicks notes that the scene is a culmination of everything coming to a head for Paul, the story represents what many Americans are forced to contend with. “He stands up for what a lot of Americans are feeling right now about insurance companies who make these decisions – and you can never fight back; he becomes the man fighting back.”
> 
> “That story is less about the death or life of Paul as it is about the struggle of the spouse trying to deal with the pain that the other person is going through,” she adds.
> 
> While Dr. Sherman’s (Alan Alda) clinical trial has had positive results for Cathy, Paul’s decline also reflects what happens to many people who have a friend or relative with cancer. “It’s not just the person who has cancer who gets sicker mentally and physically, it’s also the people around them,” she notes.
> 
> Bicks, however, leaves the door open for Paul and how his apparent death will be interpreted during Season 3 the way Marlene’s (Phyllis Somerville) reappearance has been handled this year after her suicide in the dramedy first year.
