House 4.3, "97 Seconds"
Sponsor commercial after the preview: "House. Presented locally by HUMMER."
Everyone in the room: *bursts into giggles*
NO BUT SERIOUSLY. FIRST: SOMEONE GET ME A SCREEN SHOT OF WILSON IN THAT GREEN POLO, STAT. KTHNX. ETA: Yay.
I feel like I need to watch this episode again in order to discuss it. At the same time, I don't really want to watch it again. Guess we'll go with these notes for now.
- "Hold my metaphor." Meta in-jokes are all well and good, but they're best when they make sense within the show's context too. This one didn't. But it still made me laugh.
- Not happy with the gender assumptions so far. Competitive women are bitches, guys go for the "gang bang," "brute force" method. Girls are weak and non-aggressive, yet also clever-too clever for men. Also duplicitous, manipulative and back-stabbing. Argh. Evil!girl!fellow (can be counted on to do what it takes to earn/keep her job) and good!girl!fellow (cries at death, torments self with guilt) present both sides simultaneously, and both are returning for another shot at the slot(s).
- Theme of competition (male) vs. cooperation (female): fellowship candidates want the job; evil!girl!fellow flaunts the fact that she'll do whatever it takes to win; "if it weren't for competition, we'd all still be single-celled organisms," arguing that cooperation gets you nowhere; Foreman encourages cooperation rather than competition among his team, and they don't diagnose their patient (although neither did House's team) (Foreman trying the "female" approach and failing?) (and what happened to happy mediums? oh yes, this show doesn't comprehend them); eventually, competition poisons House's candidates' ability to participate in the diagnostic process, until they nearly grind to a halt. Cuddy: "You can't beat me in a foot race." House: "I thought we were dancing." Some see competition (Cuddy, candidates) where others see a complicated, productive, choreographed partnership (House)? That is to say, the candidates think they're fighting, but they're actually participating effectively in the diagnostic process House has orchestrated-one he repeatedly calls a game?
- So, no connection then between the ER patient who shoved a battery up his/her something-or-other and the clinic car accident guy who stuck a knife in a wall socket, despite House's comment about "voluntarily shoving" electrical objects where they do not belong.
- Oh hi there, Foreman's sad attempt to recreate the trio of fellows to which he recently belonged. Nothing like repetition within repetition. The Gospel According to Wilson dictates that House wants to replace the team he lost because he grew attached to them and wants them back; Foreman, who has for some reason been given his own department, probably followed the formula because (a) he doesn't know how to choose his own team because he's inexperienced, and/or (b) he's realizing that he needs the same thing House needed (although the resemblances appeared merely superficial, since nobody really argued with anyone else). Alas, poor Foreman. He tried not to be like House ("good job, guys"), and when that didn't work, he did what House would do, and then that got him fired, like what happens in real hospitals when doctors don't follow the rules. I liked that administrator; she did what Cuddy threatens and never follows through on. Of course, if she did do that, we wouldn't have a show. Unless we had a fun traveling season where House gets fired for a while and does stints in hospitals across the country/world because doctors keep calling him for help when they get desperate. But that's thinking too big; let's take it one step at a time-say, with a pretty new establishing shot of the Manhattan skyline, and then a bizarre backdrop of the Brooklyn Bridge. (Is there even a building of that height in that location?)
- Has Wilson ever had a male patient? Ever? Other than a married couple or two?
- Yes, that was House making a pocket knife spring up a few times while he talked with Wilson. /slash
- House to good!girl!fellow: "What's your secret? [...] Gay porn?"
- Patient: "I've been trapped in this useless body [...] it'd be nice to finally get out." Someone, please, do a count of the number of patients-of-the-week-and clinic patients, while we're at it-who embody or contrast with something about House. Or count the ones who don't; it'll go a lot faster.
- Wilson: "Why can't you let him have his fairy tale?" Like the hoagie in "Son of Coma Guy," like Grace believing in miracles, once again Wilson wants his patients to be able to hold on to hope, even if it's illogical or, perhaps, harmful (not the case tonight). Wants them to be able to die with dignity (though House established that there's no such thing in the pilot), or some modicum of happiness (which we all know House eschews on principle). And House just has to go burst their bubbles, and Wilson gets angry: on their behalf, or really on his own? He's the one with three busted marriages and a best friend who doesn't mind if he [the best friend] dies. He's the one who's been living in a hotel room for a year and a half. He's the one on antidepressants.
- Wilson when he answers House's invitation to enucleate the patient = cute!!!!!!! All young and mischievous-looking! The eyebrows! The dorky enthusiasm almost masked by sarcasm! And he has a matching expression and head-tilt with House!
- Cameron does not have an engagement ring.
- SAGE GREEN SHIRT OMG. I HAD NO IDEA WILSON COULD BE HOTTER, BUT THERE IT IS. WHERE IS THAT SCREEN CAP.
- Oh yeah, something about House electrocuting himself to see if there's a pretty white light when you die. It's a terrible thought that House would off himself in a minute if he knew there'd be peaceful consciousness on the other side, but seriously-enough already. As Wilson points out, he's been almost-dead twice. Or five times. But then, what has this show done that it hasn't done three times before? I keep coming back (ha) to elynittria's theory of House as a fugue, where the writers deliberately return to the same themes in order to build on them, and I try to think about what new angle we're being given; nevertheless, it would be a more enjoyable viewing experience if we got to go someplace new once in a while.
- "Just looking at you hurts." Oh, Wilson. Oh, House. Oh, Wilson sounds angry, and he really is pissed off at you for basically trying to kill yourself, again, but it's because he loves you (to quote John Sheppard, "in the way a friend loves another friend"). He loves you. I say again: Everything he does, is because he loves you: the lying, the enabling, the supporting, the joking around, the hanging out, the covering for you, the taking-over of your fellows and/or fellowship candidates when you're recovering from suicide and/or flying back from Singapore.... Oh, his voice and his posture and his rushed-to-the-hospital-because-my-best-friend-almost-died outfit when he steps in front of the room and tries to lead the diagnostic process in House's place, and it felt like it might have if House really had died....
- And so when House says, "I love you" (obligatory pause for all the slashers to cheer), it's cheesy and it's jokey, but like his apology last season in that jail cell, it's probably also an excuse to say something that's true. And it was a truly wonderful thing to hear. In the pilot, Wilson said he cares. In the ensuing three seasons and change, House has liked to pretend that he doesn't. But in moments like this, he lets himself admit that he does. (It could even be the equivalent of an apology for the stunt he just pulled, although he didn't seem sorry for it, only curious despite the significant risks, as always.)
- "Maybe you didn't want to die, but you didn't care if you lived." I also feel that we've covered this point on the show before, but it doesn't grate as much as the other stuff. House does truly seem to have a death wish, but it's a passive one, and it comes down to wanting the pain to end, not for his consciousness to end.
- Other highlights: Vulcan joke, Chase resisting the temptation to support someone who's sort of trying to do what he used to do when he worked for House, post-bandanna House hair, the confounded expectation when neither the patient nor his dog got hit by the car, and the deviation from the formula to have gotten the diagnosis right but not realize it because of the mistake, and then losing the patient. The impact of which was oddly muted since it got all mixed up with House post-maybe-epiphany and Wilson lecturing him so he didn't start crying.
That's about it. All in all, it felt as if we were watching two or three episodes instead of just one; hence feeling the need to watch again. Not going to get into the study of the remaining candidates, the depressed patient and his dog and how it was sad and how it related somewhat to House (and Wilson? taking him down with him?), how the title did in fact refer to how long someone [if not House] was dead, and, uh, the thing about how this show has taken a turn for the bizarre with its obsession with metaphysics/existentialism/the afterlife. I did not sign up for this.
ETA: house_wilson "I love you" discussion, kidsnurse, ; cryptictac screen shot of House & Wilson head-tilt
Everyone in the room: *bursts into giggles*
NO BUT SERIOUSLY. FIRST: SOMEONE GET ME A SCREEN SHOT OF WILSON IN THAT GREEN POLO, STAT. KTHNX. ETA: Yay.
I feel like I need to watch this episode again in order to discuss it. At the same time, I don't really want to watch it again. Guess we'll go with these notes for now.
- "Hold my metaphor." Meta in-jokes are all well and good, but they're best when they make sense within the show's context too. This one didn't. But it still made me laugh.
- Not happy with the gender assumptions so far. Competitive women are bitches, guys go for the "gang bang," "brute force" method. Girls are weak and non-aggressive, yet also clever-too clever for men. Also duplicitous, manipulative and back-stabbing. Argh. Evil!girl!fellow (can be counted on to do what it takes to earn/keep her job) and good!girl!fellow (cries at death, torments self with guilt) present both sides simultaneously, and both are returning for another shot at the slot(s).
- Theme of competition (male) vs. cooperation (female): fellowship candidates want the job; evil!girl!fellow flaunts the fact that she'll do whatever it takes to win; "if it weren't for competition, we'd all still be single-celled organisms," arguing that cooperation gets you nowhere; Foreman encourages cooperation rather than competition among his team, and they don't diagnose their patient (although neither did House's team) (Foreman trying the "female" approach and failing?) (and what happened to happy mediums? oh yes, this show doesn't comprehend them); eventually, competition poisons House's candidates' ability to participate in the diagnostic process, until they nearly grind to a halt. Cuddy: "You can't beat me in a foot race." House: "I thought we were dancing." Some see competition (Cuddy, candidates) where others see a complicated, productive, choreographed partnership (House)? That is to say, the candidates think they're fighting, but they're actually participating effectively in the diagnostic process House has orchestrated-one he repeatedly calls a game?
- So, no connection then between the ER patient who shoved a battery up his/her something-or-other and the clinic car accident guy who stuck a knife in a wall socket, despite House's comment about "voluntarily shoving" electrical objects where they do not belong.
- Oh hi there, Foreman's sad attempt to recreate the trio of fellows to which he recently belonged. Nothing like repetition within repetition. The Gospel According to Wilson dictates that House wants to replace the team he lost because he grew attached to them and wants them back; Foreman, who has for some reason been given his own department, probably followed the formula because (a) he doesn't know how to choose his own team because he's inexperienced, and/or (b) he's realizing that he needs the same thing House needed (although the resemblances appeared merely superficial, since nobody really argued with anyone else). Alas, poor Foreman. He tried not to be like House ("good job, guys"), and when that didn't work, he did what House would do, and then that got him fired, like what happens in real hospitals when doctors don't follow the rules. I liked that administrator; she did what Cuddy threatens and never follows through on. Of course, if she did do that, we wouldn't have a show. Unless we had a fun traveling season where House gets fired for a while and does stints in hospitals across the country/world because doctors keep calling him for help when they get desperate. But that's thinking too big; let's take it one step at a time-say, with a pretty new establishing shot of the Manhattan skyline, and then a bizarre backdrop of the Brooklyn Bridge. (Is there even a building of that height in that location?)
- Has Wilson ever had a male patient? Ever? Other than a married couple or two?
- Yes, that was House making a pocket knife spring up a few times while he talked with Wilson. /slash
- House to good!girl!fellow: "What's your secret? [...] Gay porn?"
- Patient: "I've been trapped in this useless body [...] it'd be nice to finally get out." Someone, please, do a count of the number of patients-of-the-week-and clinic patients, while we're at it-who embody or contrast with something about House. Or count the ones who don't; it'll go a lot faster.
- Wilson: "Why can't you let him have his fairy tale?" Like the hoagie in "Son of Coma Guy," like Grace believing in miracles, once again Wilson wants his patients to be able to hold on to hope, even if it's illogical or, perhaps, harmful (not the case tonight). Wants them to be able to die with dignity (though House established that there's no such thing in the pilot), or some modicum of happiness (which we all know House eschews on principle). And House just has to go burst their bubbles, and Wilson gets angry: on their behalf, or really on his own? He's the one with three busted marriages and a best friend who doesn't mind if he [the best friend] dies. He's the one who's been living in a hotel room for a year and a half. He's the one on antidepressants.
- Wilson when he answers House's invitation to enucleate the patient = cute!!!!!!! All young and mischievous-looking! The eyebrows! The dorky enthusiasm almost masked by sarcasm! And he has a matching expression and head-tilt with House!
- Cameron does not have an engagement ring.
- SAGE GREEN SHIRT OMG. I HAD NO IDEA WILSON COULD BE HOTTER, BUT THERE IT IS. WHERE IS THAT SCREEN CAP.
- Oh yeah, something about House electrocuting himself to see if there's a pretty white light when you die. It's a terrible thought that House would off himself in a minute if he knew there'd be peaceful consciousness on the other side, but seriously-enough already. As Wilson points out, he's been almost-dead twice. Or five times. But then, what has this show done that it hasn't done three times before? I keep coming back (ha) to elynittria's theory of House as a fugue, where the writers deliberately return to the same themes in order to build on them, and I try to think about what new angle we're being given; nevertheless, it would be a more enjoyable viewing experience if we got to go someplace new once in a while.
- "Just looking at you hurts." Oh, Wilson. Oh, House. Oh, Wilson sounds angry, and he really is pissed off at you for basically trying to kill yourself, again, but it's because he loves you (to quote John Sheppard, "in the way a friend loves another friend"). He loves you. I say again: Everything he does, is because he loves you: the lying, the enabling, the supporting, the joking around, the hanging out, the covering for you, the taking-over of your fellows and/or fellowship candidates when you're recovering from suicide and/or flying back from Singapore.... Oh, his voice and his posture and his rushed-to-the-hospital-because-my-best-friend-almost-died outfit when he steps in front of the room and tries to lead the diagnostic process in House's place, and it felt like it might have if House really had died....
- And so when House says, "I love you" (obligatory pause for all the slashers to cheer), it's cheesy and it's jokey, but like his apology last season in that jail cell, it's probably also an excuse to say something that's true. And it was a truly wonderful thing to hear. In the pilot, Wilson said he cares. In the ensuing three seasons and change, House has liked to pretend that he doesn't. But in moments like this, he lets himself admit that he does. (It could even be the equivalent of an apology for the stunt he just pulled, although he didn't seem sorry for it, only curious despite the significant risks, as always.)
- "Maybe you didn't want to die, but you didn't care if you lived." I also feel that we've covered this point on the show before, but it doesn't grate as much as the other stuff. House does truly seem to have a death wish, but it's a passive one, and it comes down to wanting the pain to end, not for his consciousness to end.
- Other highlights: Vulcan joke, Chase resisting the temptation to support someone who's sort of trying to do what he used to do when he worked for House, post-bandanna House hair, the confounded expectation when neither the patient nor his dog got hit by the car, and the deviation from the formula to have gotten the diagnosis right but not realize it because of the mistake, and then losing the patient. The impact of which was oddly muted since it got all mixed up with House post-maybe-epiphany and Wilson lecturing him so he didn't start crying.
That's about it. All in all, it felt as if we were watching two or three episodes instead of just one; hence feeling the need to watch again. Not going to get into the study of the remaining candidates, the depressed patient and his dog and how it was sad and how it related somewhat to House (and Wilson? taking him down with him?), how the title did in fact refer to how long someone [if not House] was dead, and, uh, the thing about how this show has taken a turn for the bizarre with its obsession with metaphysics/existentialism/the afterlife. I did not sign up for this.
ETA: house_wilson "I love you" discussion, kidsnurse, ; cryptictac screen shot of House & Wilson head-tilt