Seth Rogen and James McAvoy (yeah that guy with those blue eyes) are slated to be in I’m With Cancer, a film based on Will Reiser’s (a producer for some HBO and Vh1) experiences with young adult cancer. According to an article in First Showing, “The script is about Reiser’s struggle to beat cancer, with a story centering on a 25-year-old who finds out he has the disease.”
As noted in a recent post, cancer is often used as a plot trajectory for characters in movies and television series. A cancer diagnosis is often used to show some kind of ironic twist of fate (the selfless mother dying at a young age or the evil villain finally getting his due) orthey are thrown in a story just to add contrast to other characters (think Beaches).
HBO’s second season of the psychological dramatic series, In Treatment, features a newly-diagnosed twenty-three year old cancer patient named April. This time the portrayal of a cancer patient will be different because it is her inner journey that will control the plot. The series takes place in a psychologist’s office (Doctor played by Gabriel Byrne) and moves at a therapeutically mixed pace (silence followed by outbursts). Audiences will get to see how a diagnosis brings up every kind of past and present neurosis, either personal or familial, and just how complex things can get in the life of a young adult survivor.
In the first episode we can see her first stages of denial and an argument with her shrink about alternative medicine. It is curious that she has Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, an often more unpredictable cancer, meaning the writers will have an option to give her a fatal ending. But, April should be an interesting character to watch and ultimately determine — how well do the writers know the psyche of a young cancer patient and how real are audiences willing to get?
Have you noticed how much cancer is making it into tv and movies lately? I think its great because its seems to point to how many people are acknowledging that cancer is a part of their lives, that its more of a chronic, survivable problem than a death sentence…The new season of Nip/Tuck (which can be viewed gratis on hulu.com) has a breast cancer plot line running through it with one of the main characters followed from diagnosis through treatment and after. There are so many great things about this. Christian Troy, the best looking and most sexual character on the show is the prototypical asshole. He uses women mainly for sex and is a self-centered, narsaccist. His diagnosis of breast cancer, on the heels of a female friend’s relief at the news of not having it, is a surprise. It conveys how a cancer diagnosis is a surprise-the ‘I cant believe this is happening to me’ is for the viewer a sort of ‘I cant believe the writers gave this character cancer.’ Then there are these things-shame, fear, isolation, dependency, self-consciousness that this character experiences-and continues to in a real but not stereotypical way. The episode where he goes to a support group is amazing. I could go on and on…
And then there’s this:Funny People Looks good from the trailer, although the poster sucks.
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
This show is delightfully offensive. Charlie Has Cancer is one of the more inappropriate episodes.
Although its not my favorite (re: The Gang Finds a Dead Guy), it is pretty great in its depiction of what people’s reactions to a cancer diagnosis can be and how people actually think. It is satire, but has much truth to it. The “cancer card” is also a theme (as in using cancer to get what you want).
A totally unrelated piece of miscellaneous information about this episode is an inside joke about the movie Coyote Ugly. Kaitlin Olson, girl that plays “Sweet Dee,” was actually in the scene in the movie that they rehearse.
You can see the show Thursdays at 10:00 on FX. The new season starts September 18.
Hulu has all the episodes of Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia for free. Enjoy.
I finally saw Roger Corman’s Attack of the Crab Monsters. Its in black and white. Campy. I love the poster’s tagline “A Tidal Wave of Terror.” I saw this poster a long time ago and it hit close to home metaphorically. Cancer means crab in Greek. The “Father of Medicine” Hippocrates was a Greek who lived from 460-377 B.C. He thought that tumors looked like crabs. If you stare at our wallpaper you can see crabs and operating scissors…like cutting out the cancer. This is the shit I think up when I am up worrying about recurrence in the middle of the night.
