THE BIG C “The Darkest Day” Season 2 Episode 12 – Throughout this season I’ve been praising every single episode bar a few near the beginning. I’ve really enjoyed this season. Sure, sometimes it took a false step, but when it worked, it provided ample opportunity to see that this show could, potentially, become something very good.
The penultimate episode is generally one of two things: it’s a setup for the big season finale, or it’s the climax of the series, like Game of Thrones did in its first season, like The Sopranos did in, I think, all of their seasons. This season of The Big C appeared to take its finale structure from the latter category: Andrea found out that Myk is an illegal alien, Hugh Dancy’s Lee, looking like a very pretty, well manicured hunger striker, died of cancer.
Emotional, hard hitting stuff which, it has to be said, was edited together so poorly that it felt cheap. Juxtaposing Andrea’s stupid wedding with Myk with Lee’s death? Or, even worse, attempting to contrast Adam’s sorrow that his crackpot friend turned out to be a lying crackpot with Lee’s death? It all made Lee’s death seem so cheap. No matter how well Hugh Dancy and Laura Linney were in his final scene, all I could think about was Andrea beating Paul with a bouquet of flowers.
I’ve liked the Andrea and Myk relationship from the get go. Its main appeal was that Myk was sweet and Andrea was sassy and together they made an awesome combo. But this whole “illegal alien” subplot shoehorned in (‘by the way,’ said the Native America, ‘get the fuck out.’) was just cringe-worthy and the fallout was terrible. I felt no sympathy for Andrea because I couldn’t believe she’d be as big of an idiot. She still has at least four months left of school, wouldn’t it be handier to wait the four months? That whole wedding plot was a fiasco and should have been tossed.
Even worse than the wedding plot was the insane subplot with Adam and Poopy or Poppy or whoever the hell the forty year old chick wearing a beanie is. That’s not interesting or believable. Adam’s relationship with his high school girlfriends was far more interesting. But this year the writers have taken turns with both Andrea and Adam’s characters – such as the hiring of a prostitute – which reveal that they really have a hard time writing for teenagers.
In the end, Lee died, which was supposed to be sad but I just wanted to fast foward through the whole thing since I’m heartless and it was boring. It doesn’t have to be boring, of course. Deathbeds are often a rich source for drama and emotional heft. But man, was this dull.
What did you think of this episode? Sound off in the comments below.
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