Not particularly detailed discussion of House finale
The Other Half and I have a running gag that every show that contains any degree of action, whether it's a cop show or science fiction or horror or whatever, must sooner or later have its Die Hard episode. You know the one I mean: someone takes over the building/ship/station/city, and Our Hero alone is left free to take out the bad guys one by one. Please note, this isn't a complaint. Storm and Eye are two of my favorite SGA eps. But still, it's awfully common.
It also seems that many shows sooner or later have a Rashomon episode, something that plays with conflicting accounts of the same events. Either that, or they do some kind of play with an unreliable narrator.
And then there was last night's House, which was the "Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" episode, aka "it was all a dream" or the Holodeck episode.
I actually tripped to the reveal about 20 minutes in. Well, that's not true. I didn't know for sure, but I began suspecting fairly early, not through any particular cleverness on my part, but for the same reason that I figured out the reveal of The Usual Suspects: there are certain things ingrained in anyone with a lit degree. Never entirely trust a first person narration, and if bizarre events or weird narrative jumps start happening after a trauma, you're back at Owl Creek Bridge.
Again, this isn't a complaint. Owl Creek Bridge episodes can be a gold mine of character information, and I look forward to unpacking what we got in this episode, when my torrent finally downloads and I can watch over and over.
For now, I only say: there is something fundamentally unfair in Elias Koteas getting hotter as he gets less good looking. Unfair, I say.
It also seems that many shows sooner or later have a Rashomon episode, something that plays with conflicting accounts of the same events. Either that, or they do some kind of play with an unreliable narrator.
And then there was last night's House, which was the "Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" episode, aka "it was all a dream" or the Holodeck episode.
I actually tripped to the reveal about 20 minutes in. Well, that's not true. I didn't know for sure, but I began suspecting fairly early, not through any particular cleverness on my part, but for the same reason that I figured out the reveal of The Usual Suspects: there are certain things ingrained in anyone with a lit degree. Never entirely trust a first person narration, and if bizarre events or weird narrative jumps start happening after a trauma, you're back at Owl Creek Bridge.
Again, this isn't a complaint. Owl Creek Bridge episodes can be a gold mine of character information, and I look forward to unpacking what we got in this episode, when my torrent finally downloads and I can watch over and over.
For now, I only say: there is something fundamentally unfair in Elias Koteas getting hotter as he gets less good looking. Unfair, I say.