MovieChat Forums > The Big C (2010) Discussion > The Show's writers/producers are lazy an...

The Show's writers/producers are lazy and sloppy

posted 11 years ago by strangerdave-2
9 replies | jump to latest

1. As I pointed out earlier, the kid's favorite baseball player (Frank Viola) stopped playing for his home team 7 or 8 years before the kid was even born.

2. The kid can't even pronounce the name of his supposedly favorite player (It's VI-ola, not VEE-ola).

3. The kid is impressed with how good the soccer players in Puerto Rico are, as if Puerto Rico is some hotbed of soccer. I guess we're supposed to assume this because the population there is Hispanic. In fact, soccer is probably less popular in Puerto Rico than it is here in the states - a distant third, at best, behind baseball and basketball.

4. Anytime the storyline needs a lift they conveniently kill someone off, and anytime the situation or the dialog gets a little mundane they throw in an "F" bomb to liven things up.

Granted, these are relatively small points, but really, really, good shows like Mad Men, Breaking Bad, The Wire, etc. pay inordinate attention to even the smallest contextual details; the plot lines take unexpected yet logical turns; and conversations between the characters are believable.

[–] iheart_ny 11 years ago

All of those are inconsequential semantics that mean very little to me.

[–] Helena727 9 years ago

All of those are inconsequential semantics that mean very little to me.

"Semantics" is not a synonym for "details." It means the meaning of a word, phrase, or text.

Ex.: quibbling over semantics means "quibbling over how something is phrased," which is not the same as quibbling over the actual content. For ex., quibbling over whether certain actors are hot or sexy or hunky or attractive (or some other adj.) is quibbling over semantics, but quibbling over who belongs on that list (George Clooney? Carrot Top?) is quibbling over content, which is weightier.

And,if you consider those details inconsequential, then of course they mean little to you (= redundant).

If you're trying to say something like "I think that stuff is small potatoes" or "To me, those details are insignificant," then please do. Using (misusing) fancy language in an attempt to sound brainy never works.

"All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people."

[–] The_Yellow_Wallpaper 11 years ago

Your first two points went over my head.

For the third, I have two close friends that just moved here from Puerto Rico and soccer is a HUGE part of their culture. Everyone they know at home watches every game closely.

As for the fourth, sorry the show offends you. I don't think this is true at all. The writers simply write the show how people normally talk. The swearing is not there for shock value, it's for realism.

This is not to say these writers are perfect. After all, season three was a thing.

___
everyone deserves one good scare.

[–] Stirchley 10 years ago

I agree with the OP. I bought the season 1 DVD and I wish I liked this show, but I don't. (Too late to return it, unfortunately.) I think the show lost me when the doctor told Cathy she has an amazing rack. So icky; like a doctor would say such a thing to his patient.

[–] kamarya89 10 years ago

i really like the premise of the show, but i agree there are a lot of lazy writing.

one minute they are supposedly struggling financially but they have a newly bought convertible. paul is promoted, he is fired, he gets another job, he quits, he find a whole new career in public speaking. they seem to get rich/poor whenever it is convenient.

there are no story arcs at all, they begin story arcs but they never follow through.

cathy trying to correct the ways of her son, trying to make him a better person, what happened to that?
andrea, who leaves their daughter in the care of a couple of strangers? who gets married while in high school?
that ukrainian guy, what was the purpose of that?

sean and his bipolar, he goes off the medication suddenly and the most traumatic thing that happens is he gets cold. WHAT?

how many times did cathy offer a guy to touch/look her boobs?

all the character and their characteristics seems to get introduced to us very elaborately, like it actually matters but then they get taken away.

it is really a shame. such good premise, i really love laura linney and oliver platt. but i felt like the writer were given me a huge "up yours" for continuing to watch this show.

[–] brewersfantoday 9 years ago

okay. she cashed out her 401k. she has been saving for 20 years.
lets just do some quick math and finance equations here. keep it simple
20 years.
lets say she makes 50k, saves 5 percent, employer matches up to 2 percent.
so that would be, 2500 + 1k.
3500 a year for 20 years.
but lets say she is in a standard regular 401k, that basically follows the index funds of dow jones, nasdaq, sp500, etc.
over a long period of at least 20-30 years, the standard rate of compounding return is on the low end 9.5 percent. i could put it as high as 12 percent but in this example 9.5 is fine.

doing some quick math, saving 5 percent for 20 years she would have just a tad of 200k in her 501k. to be exact 207,423.56

she would have put in her self 33,773.45

this is why they tell you in school, and at work to save the max of 5 perecnt. because over a 30 year period, with the standard long term rates and up and downs on index funds you will cash out ahead. of course this is also adjusting for age and stock flucations, how much you are invested in stocks vs bonds etc etc. but again, just a good guestimation.

if you want to see for yourself. find a finance calulcator online that has N, I/R, PMT, PV, and you want to find FV

okay. obviously even with the 50 percent hit she would take, she would have 100,000 dollars. that is free and clear 100k.
dunno how much that car cost, who knows. 30k, i guess.
that is still 70,000 free and clear.
that is basically 2 years of wages for her.

you wanted to know, so there you go.

[–] Helena727 9 years ago

the standard rate of compounding return is on the low end 9.5 percent. i could put it as high as 12 percent but in this example 9.5 is fine.

Waaaaaaay optimistic and unrealistic, pal. Most people lost a huge chunk when the Dow sank in 2002 and in 2008-09, and it took years to recoup those losses, let alone start re-accumulating interest.

"All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people."

[–] 9 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Helena727 9 years ago

OP, I agree -- and, I suspect that you wouldn't have been moved to post this IF the writers had gotten the big stuff right (= if the characters had been complex and three-dimensional, showing us both familiar and new territory) -- but they didn't.

The show is such a tremendous let-down, especially considering how hyped it was, that many disappointed viewers are tempted to point out its huge flaws, and these smaller concrete details come to mind first.

"All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people."