Notes from Pop Culture & Politics: Obama's Bad Day, Solid 'Parenthood,' 'The Big C' Gets Emotional

Obama's Bad Day



Does anyone else think that President Obama is having some rather bad luck these days?

Days after the so-called "Dog Whisperer" criticized him for the way he handles his dog Bo, watching the presidential seal fall off of Obama's podium while he was in the middle of a speech seemed to symbolize so many things that are going badly for the president these days, the least of which are the election results that’ll likely not go his way next month. Current presidential approval numbers are a pretty brutal right now, with a recent Rasmussen poll showing that 29 percent of respondents strongly approved of "the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president," while 41 percent strongly disapprove.

Another Solid Parenthood Episode


Image credit: NBC

 Okay, I know I’m at risk of sounding like a fangirl cheerleader here, but last night’s Parenthood was really strong. The Tuesday night drama continues to provide insightful, authentic and relatable stories, the likes of which we haven’t seen since Once and Again.

When you have everyone from educators to parenting “experts” telling parents that they’ve got to be super-involved, always positive and always available to their offspring, it’s no wonder that the parents get upset when they discover that there’s precious little time left to have a life.

See my review of Parenthood’s latest episode, “Date Night” here.

The Big C Gets Emotional

In my episode reviews of The Big C over on CliqueClack TV, a frequent complaint of mine has been that it hasn’t allowed its main character, Laura Linney’s Cathy Jamison, to exhibit much authentic emotion since receiving her cancer diagnosis. Not only has she not told her husband and child about it, but she’s avoided dealing with the messy, ugliness that is raw pain and potential loss of her situation. The show has spent most of its time having its main character go around and check off items on her bucket list, avoiding the intensity of the fear that cancer instills in everyone.

Until the last episode which included a turn of events which greatly pleased me.

Image credit: NBC.

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.

'Weeds' and 'The Big C' Combo Promo: Which Mom Has It Worse?

Which character has it worse: The married high school teacher/mom of a teen who has terminal skin cancer and isn't telling anyone about it as she unravels and acts out (declaring she's only going to have "desserts and liquor" at a restaurant), or the on-the-run, drug-dealing mom of three who married a powerful, drug-dealing politician, had his baby, then fled when her middle son killed an aide to her husband who threatened her kids?

You decide.

Laura Linney and 'The Big C'

I read the profile of Laura Linney in this past Sunday’s New York Times Magazine and fell in love with her. Now, I must admit that I was already a Linney fan, what with her awesome depiction of Abigail Adams in the HBO mini-series John Adams, her raw performance in The Squid and the Whale, her no-nonsense turn in Kinsey and the crisp desperation of her Mrs. X in The Nanny Diaries.

Getting a tiny glimpse into how she thinks, as I did while reading this particular article, was like taking in a big gulp of fresh air given all the garbage spewed by actresses/celebrities who frequently tell the rest of us peasants how we should live our lives, how we should look, how we should act and how we should eat while they live their own pampered little lives.

Consider what the 46-year-old Linney had to say about “the privilege of aging,” a touchy subject for Hollywood actresses who seem to be largely Botoxed, surgically altered and plumped and generally messed-around-with in order to look as though they’ve discovered the antidote to aging (while the likes of George Clooney gray and wrinkle and still winds up on lists of sexy celebs). Here’s what the Times’ Frank Bruni wrote:

“As we sat in the new Jean-Georges Vongerichten restaurant ABC Kitchen, [Linney] worked her way through a curious pea-centric line-up of pea soup and pea salad and talked about aging, and about her mystification and frustration with so many people’s rebellion against it. She conceded that sagging skin, waning energy and creaky joints aren’t fun, but said that the early deaths of beloved friends had opened her eyes to the fact that growing old is the greatest of blessings. ‘A lot of people don’t get that privilege,’ she said. ‘And there’s an extreme disrespect toward that that’s cuckoo.’

I asked her how many friends had died, and who, but she waved the question away: I’d crossed into one of those no-fly zones. ‘A lot of people,’ she said. ‘And I miss them.’ She added that whenever she realizes that she’s about to complain about aging, ‘I imagine them taking me by my shoulders and shaking me: ‘Snap out of it!’”

Aging as a blessing. What a wonderfully, down-to-earth way of looking at things. That makes me just want to watch her more, especially as she takes the reins of a new, dark Showtime drama, The Big C, about a high school history teacher with a terminal case of skin cancer who, at least early on, not only refuses to tell her family about it, but decides to stop being so timid and restrained -- so very suburban about everything --and embraces life. Linney’s character, the 42-year-old wife and mother of a teen, is named Cathy (like the Cathy comic) and, based on the previews, seems as though she's going to unleash her true self in interesting ways, kind of like the opposite of the melodramatic story of Izzie Stevens'/Grey’s Anatomy skin cancer.



The Big C premieres on Monday, Aug. 16 at 10:30 after the season premiere of Weeds. Showtime has posted the pilot episode online at its web site. You can watch it here to see if Linney’s turn as a cancer patient has you as intrigued as I am.

Image credit: Hendrik Kerstens/New York Times.

Showtime Releases Promo for New Dramedy 'The Big C'

Whenever I think of Laura Linney, I envision her as either in her Emmy winning role of Abigail Adams in the fabulous HBO mini-series John Adams or as the angsty, off-beat mom in The Squid and the Whale. But based on the freshly released trailer for her upcoming Showtime dramedy The Big C -- which is slated to begin this summer -- I think that may change.

Linney's high school teacher character is, according to Showtime's web site, "a reserved suburban wife and mother whose recent cancer diagnosis forces her to shake up her life and find hope, humor and the light side of a dark situation, while managing her immature but well-meaning husband, played by Oliver Platt."

Finding humor in cancer seems like it could be a risky proposition, particularly if the writers have Linney's character's cancer be terminal, as writers have with the Breaking Bad lead character. But can cancer be funny? We'll have to see. Showtime's already managed to walk a fine line and have a show about a suburban mom struggling with multiple personalities work -- plus net its star an Emmy -- so who knows?

Showtime just released a preview -- featuring Gabourey Sidibe (from Precious) as one of her students -- what do you think, can a comedy about a cancer patient work?