Elaine Richardson

It's not easy to watch someone suffer. This truth is something that informs the way many of us act when dealing with death. It's worth thinking about -- do you want to pull the plug on grandma because you're concerned about her quality of life, or because you can't stand to watch her move inexorably toward death? In the same vein, do we want to keep her alive because it's better for her, or because it's better for us?

"Wit," based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning Margaret Edson play, is a difficult thing. Two hours of watching an exceptional Emma Thompson, mostly sans hair, suffer the humiliations of being a research subject as she slowly succumbs to cancer may not be your idea of entertainment, but it's a fascinating story. Already isolated by her life (she's a professor of seventeenth-century metaphysical poetry, a la John Donne) Vivian Bearing now finds that her intellect and sharp wit are sad company as she undergoes eight months of debilitating and intensive chemotherapy for stage four ovarian cancer.

It's a painful and isolating experience offering a sad commentary on the true lack of caring evidenced by medical professionals who poke, prod and speak about her like she's not even there. Every new day offers a lesson in loneliness, lack of privacy and basic humiliation. She, of course, provides witty commentary that's frequently at odds with her situation. "I am not isolated because I have cancer," she says. "I am isolated because I am being treated for cancer."

Intensely moving and sometimes agonizing to watch, "Wit" is worth the pain.

Frontline's "Organ Farm" It never in my life occurred to me that someone somewhere might be surgically attaching a pig heart to the neck veins of a monkey just to see how the monkey blood would recognize it as a foreign body and start killing it off.

This is one of the nastiest episodes of "Frontline" ever, as they explore how researchers (and pharmaceutical companies hoping to get rich) are trying to raise sterile pigs with the idea of eventually using their organs for human transplant. We're not quite there yet, as they haven't been able to really keep any animals on which they've tried these transplants alive for longer than forty days, but they have been working on implanting pig cells into the brains of those with neurological diseases with amazing results -- witness a man with Parkinson's who could barely move now able to speak, walk and drive a car. But it's all kind of, well, icky and uncertain, especially as scientists fret about a virus pigs can carry somehow spreading to humans and giving us AIDS2. Quite illuminating. (Note: There's lots of surgery in here, including a human heart transplant, so bring a strong stomach.)

"Wit" airs Saturday, March 24, 8pm on HBO. Check local cable listings.
"Frontline: Organ Farm" airs Tuesday, March 27, 9pm on PBS. Part two airs April 3, 9pm. (2001-03-22)

Also by Elaine Richardson

BAD BAD THINGS
The bottom line is I don't really care about what his life is like, who's in his band or what they do with their time. And if I did, it wouldn't be for a show that runs an hour (that's a cable hour, so no commercials) every week.
(2001-03-15)

GHOST TOWN
Never a bastion of decorating excellence, the confines of the once-great cheapo bookseller, Crown Books, were, at one time anyway, at least welcoming. But you've never seen a going-out-of-business sale look so threatening.
(2001-03-15)

MIDSEASON SHUFFLE
Want a fun waste of time? Lay out the grids from the start of the fall season and compare them to what remains on the network rosters -- it's difficult to miss the sight of blood in the water.
(2001-03-08)

HARSH REALM
"The Sopranos" hits this season with a host of problems, not the least of which is the very sad death of actress Nancy Marchand, whose turn as Tony Soprano's (the ever excellent James Gandolfini) agonized--and agonizing--mother Livia helped to make this show's original run so remarkable. Without her, Tony's mother conflict is automatically relegated into flashback--no new fodder for Tony's shrink sessions.
(2001-03-01)

THE HORROR
(2001-02-01)

WINTER WONDERS
(2001-02-01)

SPIKED
(2001-01-11)

FLAKING OUT
(2000-12-28)

IRRESOLUTIONS
(2000-12-21)

VIDEO ZONE
(2000-12-21)

ON LINE
(2000-11-30)

EASY MONEY?
(2000-11-23)

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