big chunky spoliers
I guess from very early on in Season 3, I could have guessed that Dana was going to die. I didn’t expect it so soon, and I’m a bit (quite) frustrated that their portrayal of cancer was quite so stereotypical – even to the point of damaging it’s believeablilty. But, for the suspension-of-disbelief periods of the episodes it was okay. I just presumed that Dana’s comments about the lump having been there a while – early on – meant it was that long type of while. That special ‘while’ that people leave their health problems for – and that accounted for it’s much-more-widespreadness than the original discovery might suggest.
I’ve been reading other people’s posts about Dana’s character – and the effect of the diagnosis on her – which is something I don’t normally do. Particularly after Episode 10, which I could sense would be a love/hate thing. This whole ‘I don’t think she’d’ve reacted like that’ commentry which people have running. I’d’ve never put my dad up to be utterly defeated by a cancer diagnosis; but he was. When the doctor told him he had cancer, his life was over in his head – he couldn’t fight that, somehow. So, I tend to think that the diagnosis of cancer – or anything else life threatening (or even changing) can be something that impacts people in a way which is totally unexpected.
So yeah, I was willing to accept that her body’s betrayal of her could completely destroy her. Especially someone who’s life is totally invested in the performance of that body.
The whole infection -> bp dropped (no it didn’t – her last measured BP was 160/70 (slightly odd for one who’s a fitness fanatic – her pulse was 180, which was more alarming (at least to me, and I grant I don’t have that much experience)), I think; what happened is she went into ventricular fibrillation; which oddly is one of the better ones to go with – if you’re going for a heart attack in hospital – because we’ve got a good chance of shocking your heart back into rhythm (as long as we’re quick)…) -> Death. Well, hrm. Potentially yes, but… it’s rather… far fetched with the whole rushing her into hospital very quickly – unless they’d neglected to give her some shiny shiny antibiotics. Meh.
But, for all that – the arguments about her death scene being interspersed with scenes from elsewhere? I thought that was actually very well done. People saying the hot Carmen/Shane sex scene being with the death scene was inappropriate; but I didn’t find that sex scene ‘hot’ at all; the whole thing is painful – it’s angry hurt sex; not anything to create desire. But the whole thing, well, it just felt like – while Dana’s dying the world’s continuing; people can be doing anything. It’s something that’s very true – very parallel lives – and rather than tying the characters together – as they seem to a lot – I thought the separation of their lives (for this episode) and the importance of time within the episode (this is happening at the same time as…) actually worked very well. It’s not a style I’d like to see continued, but for a one off I thought it was well implemented.
Anyway. I don’t normally have a huge running commentry on these shows; rarely I get the desire to comment. So, anyway, that’s my thoughts. I’ll shut up now
