What I’m Watching: The Big C

The Big C: Season 3, Episode 2 “What’s Your Story?” (B+)

There is such a thing as being too honest, and both Jameson parents discovered that in this installment, as they managed to systematically ruin Adam’s life by airing their vices far too publicly. Paul blogging about Cathy’s affair and omitting his own was rather thoughtless, and Cathy insisting on Paul telling Adam that he too cheated was only fair. Admitting to her many indiscretions while drunk in his classroom, however, was a misstep that Cathy would have done well to have avoided. Flipping off the principal and then bumming a cigarette off a student on her way out indicates that she really just doesn’t care anymore, and her simulated life at the bar in which she’s a widow attending flight school is definitely not healthy. I do think that Sean’s in a much better place than usual, cleaning out the garbage in the school and getting to champion his beliefs via a peculiar platform. Setting up his voicemail system and taking down a sex caller’s credit card information, however, is considerably less mainstream, and that’s not likely to lead anywhere good. Andrea’s newfound African pride is proving to be interesting, and I enjoyed her lackluster efforts to start a Black Students Association, which turned out to be far more effective in detention when she managed to whip a few delinquents into shape than when she actually held a meeting. Adam’s interest in religion is intriguing too, and hopefully it’ll yield better relationship results than Parker Pokey’s disturbingly old child woman.