This reeks of boldness. (House 4.1, "Alone")
So, huh. I have this whole list of things I loved-because, as usual, the more Wilson there is in an episode, the more I enjoy it-but there wasn't much to chew on otherwise.
Except maybe this:
I'm not sure how I feel about House needing a team to solve the case. Sure, it's been brought up before, in "Airborne" and "Epiphany" and elsewhere, but it seemed, or I'd hoped, that having people around to challenge him made the process of diagnosis easier, not that he was incapable of functioning on his own. He seemed perfectly able to predict each fellow's response to his theories in "No Reason," for example. At least by the end of the episode, Cuddy and House had agreed that he can do it, but things go more smoothly and quickly when he has his sounding boards around to fire back counterarguments and alternate angles (e.g. Cameron's humanitarianism). I just kept wondering-didn't House solve cases on his own before he hired the Three Stooges? Shouldn't he and Cuddy and Wilson remember that? Will we ever get solid backstory detailing how long he ran his own Diagnostics department before the fellows joined in? Did he even run one on his own, or did Chase happen right after House came back from medical leave post-infarction or right after House got his job description switched from some other department? Questions, questions. Every year it's like everyone forgets what happened before and they have to rediscover these basic House-truths, like, Hey, he functions better on Vicodin!, or, Hey, he's dangerous but strangely effective at what he does!
On that note, seeing Wilson and Cuddy conspiring in her office in the third scene was worrisome for a while there, as if we were about to be treated to Season Three all over again, the two of them plotting behind House's back to get him to act the way they thought was best for him. I even wrote on my little note sheet, "Have they learned anything?!" While it'll probably take a few more episodes to be sure, it seems that they did: this year, they're working with House to get him to do what they want. There's still plenty of manipulation, but it's all out in the open; Wilson flaunts it in his face, with humor, that he has kidnapped the guitar to force him to read resumes, and Cuddy straight-out bargains with him on whether he needs to hire a new team. No subterfuge. Well, less subterfuge, and this time it was more good-humored. (Until things turned "ugly" with the TiVo-erasure threat and cancer patient abduction!) And I did agree with Cuddy, for a change, on her decision to send out that memo forbidding people to participate in House's floating crap game differential, because unlike giving him his medication, this would have been unnecessarily enabling; if he needs a team, he should get a team, not pester everyone else when they're trying to do their own jobs.
I very much liked how House's need for input sent him out into the hospital we hardly get to see, teeming with doctors, nurses and staff (and sensitive janitors! whee!) doing their jobs. I really wish they'd appear more; House's department doesn't work in a vacuum, and it gets claustrophobic with such a small cast interacting only with each other in the same few spaces week after week.
Not much different about the show's structure. Variations within the theme: a falling building instead of misdirection with an "unexpected" person falling ill in the teaser; identity confusion instead of a medical twist in the conclusion; House playing an electric guitar in his office instead of his acoustic guitar and/or piano at home; otherwise, the same credits, the same misdiagnoses along the way with some self-referential comments as if in apology (this time, the plastic surgeried-out mother demanding to know what the hell PPTH was doing to her daughter with all these disasters), the same challenge from Cuddy and lecture from Wilson and Lesson Learned But Kind of Not from House, the same Epiphany Moment, etc. etc.
Do we need to discuss the titular theme? House is alone because his team left and he's sad and less effective! Wilson's alone and has nothing better to do with his time than construct elaborate ransom notices and photographs doubtless based on his favorite black-and-white movies even though he fails at hiding the cut-up newspapers! Cuddy's alone because they totally dropped the plot where she wanted a baby! The boyfriend and mother are alone because their girlfriend and daughter is a stranger to them! No wait, I mean, dead! The patient's alone because nobody realizes she's not who they think she is, and her boyfriend's nowhere to be found! Cameron, Foreman and Chase are all alone wherever they are, because they're not a team anymore and they find themselves oddly missing their old jobs! …Okay, I think we're done.
Okay, and here's that list of things I loved.
- Janitor! How awesome is it that they didn't just have him play dumb while House bounced ideas off him like the trio on the airplane last season, they kept going with it-offering relatively useful suggestions for the ddx, into the lab coat for the family meeting, back to get them to sign the form, standing up to House (sort of) when it came time to break into the patient's house, and then back again at the end for a little farewell-at which point I was sure he was going to say offhandedly that he found a nice-looking guitar in one of the storage closets, because he'd been in cahoots with Wilson the whole time.
- "My grandma has lupus"! That's a new, creative way for the show to poke fun at itself.
- Field trip! Camera angles are weird, and I'm not a fan of the crazy handheld cinematographic style, and the colors are saturated too far into green for my taste, but-who cares when House and Wilson take a field trip that includes Wilson being tricked into thinking House was actually going to pay for lunch, and gratuitous shots of Wilson's leg, and House smiling his devious little smile at having tricked him into doing work for him, and House lying on a big bed, calling to him? (Note to self: Wilson knows YouTube.)
- Ransom note! Sale on liquid Tide, my ass, Wilson (although I completely believed you, you big dork who's played by the infamously penny-pinching RSL). I LOVE YOU.
- OMG and the deep voice over the teeny fan voice modulator (thank you, Deelaundry!). Better than House-this-is-God voice. LOVE.
- All together, now: picture Wilson alone in his room arranging the guitar to his satisfaction and snapping Polaroids of it and judging their dramatic impact before selecting just the right one to pack up and give House.
- Flirting and bickering and pranks and knowing each other so so well and only mini-lectures and gazing adorably at each other and Wilson making silly faces and having lines and oh. I don't know who pressed the big RESET button to send us back to pre-Season Three and I'm not sure I like the fact that Wilson's observation post-Tritter that nothing's changed may be true and I'm not sure this dynamic will even reappear after the premiere, but this is a very happy place.
- SWEATSHIRT and TOUSLED HAIR. That poof you just heard was me exploding from the pleasure of having a canon visual to go with all the imagined scenarios of Wilson called out of his comfy bed in the middle of the night because of House. And it continues! Spanish soaps on TiVo that I thought was porn! House making fun of Bush! House having broken into Wilson's hotel room in the first place! I wonder what else he ferreted out in there that'll come up for humiliation and/or blackmail material later.
- I hope that girl from the ER/ICU comes back. She was smart and plucky without being annoying (yet?).
- Ho boy, so much fodder for audio manips. "Can I watch?" ... crap, and half a dozen other things I've forgotten but were awesome in and out of context. ETA: Such as "Bring it on!" (thanks, purridot!) ETA 2: And let's not forget the out-of-context visual clip of Wilson going to check on his patient and instead whipping the hospital blanket off the smiling staff guy in scrubs. RAVISH ME NOW, his devilish smile says to Wilson.
- SO MUCH FUN. Guitar strings, tortured oh so slowly, screaming. "Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee." Your guess as to whether that's a transcription of Wilson's imitation or my reaction. (That poor torn-out piece has got to be from a dummy guitar, right? Right? Wilson? You wouldn't hurt House's baby-you'd only make him think you did.)
- Oh, God, there aren't words for the joy of so many House-and-Wilson scenes in a row.
- And then Wilson said "plangent." My heart.
David Shore is back, baby. May he stay here.
The end.
No, wait -- where was the guitar being held hostage?
Except maybe this:
I'm not sure how I feel about House needing a team to solve the case. Sure, it's been brought up before, in "Airborne" and "Epiphany" and elsewhere, but it seemed, or I'd hoped, that having people around to challenge him made the process of diagnosis easier, not that he was incapable of functioning on his own. He seemed perfectly able to predict each fellow's response to his theories in "No Reason," for example. At least by the end of the episode, Cuddy and House had agreed that he can do it, but things go more smoothly and quickly when he has his sounding boards around to fire back counterarguments and alternate angles (e.g. Cameron's humanitarianism). I just kept wondering-didn't House solve cases on his own before he hired the Three Stooges? Shouldn't he and Cuddy and Wilson remember that? Will we ever get solid backstory detailing how long he ran his own Diagnostics department before the fellows joined in? Did he even run one on his own, or did Chase happen right after House came back from medical leave post-infarction or right after House got his job description switched from some other department? Questions, questions. Every year it's like everyone forgets what happened before and they have to rediscover these basic House-truths, like, Hey, he functions better on Vicodin!, or, Hey, he's dangerous but strangely effective at what he does!
On that note, seeing Wilson and Cuddy conspiring in her office in the third scene was worrisome for a while there, as if we were about to be treated to Season Three all over again, the two of them plotting behind House's back to get him to act the way they thought was best for him. I even wrote on my little note sheet, "Have they learned anything?!" While it'll probably take a few more episodes to be sure, it seems that they did: this year, they're working with House to get him to do what they want. There's still plenty of manipulation, but it's all out in the open; Wilson flaunts it in his face, with humor, that he has kidnapped the guitar to force him to read resumes, and Cuddy straight-out bargains with him on whether he needs to hire a new team. No subterfuge. Well, less subterfuge, and this time it was more good-humored. (Until things turned "ugly" with the TiVo-erasure threat and cancer patient abduction!) And I did agree with Cuddy, for a change, on her decision to send out that memo forbidding people to participate in House's floating crap game differential, because unlike giving him his medication, this would have been unnecessarily enabling; if he needs a team, he should get a team, not pester everyone else when they're trying to do their own jobs.
I very much liked how House's need for input sent him out into the hospital we hardly get to see, teeming with doctors, nurses and staff (and sensitive janitors! whee!) doing their jobs. I really wish they'd appear more; House's department doesn't work in a vacuum, and it gets claustrophobic with such a small cast interacting only with each other in the same few spaces week after week.
Not much different about the show's structure. Variations within the theme: a falling building instead of misdirection with an "unexpected" person falling ill in the teaser; identity confusion instead of a medical twist in the conclusion; House playing an electric guitar in his office instead of his acoustic guitar and/or piano at home; otherwise, the same credits, the same misdiagnoses along the way with some self-referential comments as if in apology (this time, the plastic surgeried-out mother demanding to know what the hell PPTH was doing to her daughter with all these disasters), the same challenge from Cuddy and lecture from Wilson and Lesson Learned But Kind of Not from House, the same Epiphany Moment, etc. etc.
Do we need to discuss the titular theme? House is alone because his team left and he's sad and less effective! Wilson's alone and has nothing better to do with his time than construct elaborate ransom notices and photographs doubtless based on his favorite black-and-white movies even though he fails at hiding the cut-up newspapers! Cuddy's alone because they totally dropped the plot where she wanted a baby! The boyfriend and mother are alone because their girlfriend and daughter is a stranger to them! No wait, I mean, dead! The patient's alone because nobody realizes she's not who they think she is, and her boyfriend's nowhere to be found! Cameron, Foreman and Chase are all alone wherever they are, because they're not a team anymore and they find themselves oddly missing their old jobs! …Okay, I think we're done.
Okay, and here's that list of things I loved.
- Janitor! How awesome is it that they didn't just have him play dumb while House bounced ideas off him like the trio on the airplane last season, they kept going with it-offering relatively useful suggestions for the ddx, into the lab coat for the family meeting, back to get them to sign the form, standing up to House (sort of) when it came time to break into the patient's house, and then back again at the end for a little farewell-at which point I was sure he was going to say offhandedly that he found a nice-looking guitar in one of the storage closets, because he'd been in cahoots with Wilson the whole time.
- "My grandma has lupus"! That's a new, creative way for the show to poke fun at itself.
- Field trip! Camera angles are weird, and I'm not a fan of the crazy handheld cinematographic style, and the colors are saturated too far into green for my taste, but-who cares when House and Wilson take a field trip that includes Wilson being tricked into thinking House was actually going to pay for lunch, and gratuitous shots of Wilson's leg, and House smiling his devious little smile at having tricked him into doing work for him, and House lying on a big bed, calling to him? (Note to self: Wilson knows YouTube.)
- Ransom note! Sale on liquid Tide, my ass, Wilson (although I completely believed you, you big dork who's played by the infamously penny-pinching RSL). I LOVE YOU.
- OMG and the deep voice over the teeny fan voice modulator (thank you, Deelaundry!). Better than House-this-is-God voice. LOVE.
- All together, now: picture Wilson alone in his room arranging the guitar to his satisfaction and snapping Polaroids of it and judging their dramatic impact before selecting just the right one to pack up and give House.
- Flirting and bickering and pranks and knowing each other so so well and only mini-lectures and gazing adorably at each other and Wilson making silly faces and having lines and oh. I don't know who pressed the big RESET button to send us back to pre-Season Three and I'm not sure I like the fact that Wilson's observation post-Tritter that nothing's changed may be true and I'm not sure this dynamic will even reappear after the premiere, but this is a very happy place.
- SWEATSHIRT and TOUSLED HAIR. That poof you just heard was me exploding from the pleasure of having a canon visual to go with all the imagined scenarios of Wilson called out of his comfy bed in the middle of the night because of House. And it continues! Spanish soaps on TiVo that I thought was porn! House making fun of Bush! House having broken into Wilson's hotel room in the first place! I wonder what else he ferreted out in there that'll come up for humiliation and/or blackmail material later.
- I hope that girl from the ER/ICU comes back. She was smart and plucky without being annoying (yet?).
- Ho boy, so much fodder for audio manips. "Can I watch?" ... crap, and half a dozen other things I've forgotten but were awesome in and out of context. ETA: Such as "Bring it on!" (thanks, purridot!) ETA 2: And let's not forget the out-of-context visual clip of Wilson going to check on his patient and instead whipping the hospital blanket off the smiling staff guy in scrubs. RAVISH ME NOW, his devilish smile says to Wilson.
- SO MUCH FUN. Guitar strings, tortured oh so slowly, screaming. "Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee." Your guess as to whether that's a transcription of Wilson's imitation or my reaction. (That poor torn-out piece has got to be from a dummy guitar, right? Right? Wilson? You wouldn't hurt House's baby-you'd only make him think you did.)
- Oh, God, there aren't words for the joy of so many House-and-Wilson scenes in a row.
- And then Wilson said "plangent." My heart.
David Shore is back, baby. May he stay here.
The end.
No, wait -- where was the guitar being held hostage?