Notes on Pop Culture/Politics: 'Big C' Going it Alone, 'Desperate' Season 7 and Status of Women Now Vs Then

The Big C Going It Alone

After watching the third episode of Showtime’s The Big C, I’m having a tough time figuring out Laura Linney’s character Cathy Jamison. She won’t tell her husband or her teenage son that she has stage four melanoma. She kicked her husband out of the house without explaining to him, or their son, why, other than the fact that she seems to have grown tired of being the responsible, do-gooder, vanilla wife and mother who martyrs herself, taking care of their every need while they take her for granted.

As Cathy continues to act in ways that are uncharacteristic for her, I wonder if she’s secretly waiting for her husband and son to figure out what’s wrong or whether she just wants to act in whatever manner suits her and not be questioned about it. My episode review is over on CliqueClack TV.

Desperate Season 7

ABC has released a promo video for the seventh season of Desperate Housewives and my question is this: Do people care anymore? Adding Vanessa Williams is certainly a good move, but is there any magic left in this once sharp show that deftly satirized the faux perfect life in the ‘burbs? I'm not so sure.



Status of Women Now Vs Then

My Pop Culture and Politics column this week took the occasion of the 90th anniversary of U.S. women’s suffrage to compare what my newly-minted 12-year-old daughter sees when she looks at the world – four female U.S. Supreme Court justices, women as a vast minority of elected office holders and CEOs, women’s sports still treated like the forgotten step-sister to men’s sports, Katy Perry’s “California Gurls” rocking the iTunes singles list – with what I saw when I was 12, way back in the Stone Ages of 1981, when the first female U.S. Supreme Court justice was nominated to the court, when everyone was obsessed with Diana marrying Charles, Olivia Newton-John topped the pop charts with “Physical” and there had been no female candidates on a major national ticket.

Despite some dismal numbers with regard to the number of women in politics, running major businesses and the paucity of media coverage of women's sports, things, as a whole, have markedly improved.