Due to my situation I find myself going to the cinema a much rarer experience than it used to be. All those other, different people are just too much of a risk for my immune system to cope with. So, on those odd occasions that I do go I try to pick the showing that will involve the least interaction with the public.
That's not bothering me as much as I thought it might though. You see I've found that boxsets of TV series (not seasons) are the most incredible way to pass the many, many hours of time I have on my own. Even back when I was first diagnosed with leukaemia I was quite the devotee of ER and it always gave me a little bit of excitement when they would occasionally have to go through something that I was going through. Somehow it being on a TV show made it a big deal.
All through my recuperation post bone marrow transplant I worked my way through the entire series of Northern Exposure and it was then also that I got hooked on a new show called 24. I can watch Northern Exposure over and over and it never loses any of its charm, while 24 was entirely devoid of charm but full of testosterone instead but no less enjoyable for that.
It was at this time also that my best friend gave me the boxset of the first series of The West Wing and I was hooked. This show made TV different for me. It was as exquisitely produced as any movie and the acting was fantastic. As well as those things though it just demanded your attention with a humour that is rare to find as it just expects you to keep up. I've watched it all through about four times now and it is still the most amazing show I have seen. That first boxset has been posted to friends all around the country in the hope that they would get as much out of it as I did.
I can't begin to list all the shows that I have loved, although pretty much anything made by HBO is worth a watch, but the ones that have affected me the most are House and Brothers & Sisters. Now the first one of those is fairly self explanatory, as it's just an extension of what I said earlier about ER although with an episode of House you're much more likely to hear about something I've encountered than the GSW's so prevalent in ER. Brothers & Sisters I'm going to have to explain I think.
I know it's saccharine sweet bollocks but there's part of me that identifies with the family dynamic on show. The 5 grown up kids in the family operate in ways that are just so familiar to me that it can actually ache. This was never more acutely obvious than when one of the characters developed leukaemia and needed a bone marrow transplant and they needed to find a match. Of course my family doesn't have any kids hidden away who come in at the last minute to save the day but that detracts somewhat from the point. It was wonderfully researched and beautifully acted out all the way through the transplant. In particular the scenes where she loses her hair could well have been lifted from my own life.
My only point of complaint is that considering how well done the whole storyline was handled it seems strange to me that it was so swiftly swept under the rug and they all moved on. I understand the dramatic reasons for it but for me it places in the public conciousness the idea that, even for Cancer, you just get your treatment and then get on with your life again. We all know that it's nothing close to being like that and that's there's as much drama to be found in the aftercare as there is for the big event. I would argue there's even more.
To something approaching that end the film Wit, starring Emma Thompson is as close as I've ever found to depicting the life of a cancer patient accurately. It's a tremendous movie and one I may have to revisit.
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