The topic of the night is how cancer changes how one watches TV. Suddenly commercials that seem quite benign make you cry, hearing about Farrah Fawcett dying of cancer bald and wilted is horribly upsetting, and the Denver Cyber Knife commercial with the guy who claims to get up riding on his horse just a week after having his tumor for prostate cancer radiated just cracks me up...yeah right. And, of course, every mini-series seems to have some cancer scare. During these shows I analyze the accuracy of the experience with a dose of salt knowing fair well that it is drama.
Just before I lost my hair to chemotherapy, Izzie Stevens, the former model and played by Katherine Heigel, has melanoma with brain mets. She goes bald and wears these rockin' scarves looking quite elegant. I put in my own head that I would rock the scarf. Which, I think I did pretty well, actually, minus the grey tone to my skin, purple bags under my eyes, and lack of full eye brows and lashes. But, that is what concealer, bronzer and brown eye liner is for, right?
Then, there is there was Samatha Jones, over-sexed older bombshell played by Kim Cattrall, who concurred breast cancer in season six without any mention of a continued journey of yearly scans and oncology visits in future seasons. She also rocked the whole chemo-head and bopped around between rounds like there weren't thousands dollars worth of drugs running around her body killing cancer cells; not really authentic. I had seen the series years before my own chemo, but I still was looking for my three best gal pals to walk in the door during my first round of chemo yielding cosmo-flavored popsicles (I did have my mom...I love you.) I had to just watched that portion of the series to authenticate the accuracy recently. Ya, sort of missed the mark. And, I won't even talk about how Samantha famously returned to a sex-pot enjoying her breasts just months after treatment. (Insider note, chemo sort of kills the sex drive for, well, hopefully only a couple of years.)
So that brings us to Lynette Scavo, mom of a half a dozen kiddos and played by Felicity Huffman, who travels down the cancer journey in season three. Looking back on her journey and being pictured laying grey faced on the couch one day and bouncing up to mind the needs of her family the next day, I have to say the script played pretty true to form. I even remember just a few months ago there was a mention of her breast cancer in a script in season seven.
Now, in season seven, Susan Mayer, mother of two, illustrator and acknowledged klutz played by Teri Hatcher, is going through dialysis. Okay, this isn't cancer, but her experience in this evening's episode brought back a few of my own memories of the infusion room. She has her own Mr. Black Cloud amply named Dick. She even cracks a joke about the his name. Yes, there is a bit more drama then reality, but if you want to know what it is like in one of those rooms, then tonight's episode pretty much hits the nail on the head (episode 712.)
Yes, cancer, and I am sure any illness, changes how you watch TV. Trite script writing of serious events can either be laughable or irritating. Good writing that plays true to form with added drama for the value of good entertainment will keep a few viewers in tune. So, way to go Desperate Housewives. You managed to connect and not totally annoy this evening.
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