Question

[damelola]

For those of you who will continue to watch House next season:

WHY?

This is not intended as an attack, I swear.  You know I don't pick fights with my friends (random trolls and evil people on the other hand...).  But how are you justifying it to yourselves?  Is it just a case of 'I've started so I have to finish'?  I mean, I know some of y'all would

Comments

[spoggly]

i'm still surprised i stopped watching, in some ways, because i hate giving up halfway through stuff

but the endless feelings of "ugh" and "UGH," depending on whether it was actual t.v. quality (which i can waver quite a lot for, lol) and how angry it made me (which is less forgiving)...ughhhh

and tbh, i stopped watching at all, not just casually, when house went to inpatient treatment, and ~became happy~ because that's not what i wanted to see, idk

[ohbilliejean]

Like Zulu said below, I really stopped watching properly after the whole 'white privileged boy saves an African nation and then has angst issues over whether his precious white skin will be flanked or not for the murder he committed (meanwhile, a whole nation of African people are still starving and facing no end of prejudice BUT THAT'S OKAY BECAUSE WHITE PRIVILEGE BOY FIXED THEIR NATION THROUGH KILLING THEIR DICTATOR, CHASE SOLVED RACIAL HATE CRIMES AND GENOCIDE WITH A SIMPLE FLICK OF HIS PRIVILEGE)'.

[spoggly]

ugh which episode was this? b/c racist to the max.

[ohbilliejean]

It was in season six and arced over a number of episodes. It was Chase's ~main storyline~ for that season.

[spoggly]

uuuuuuuggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

didn't we already do the whole, "chase has moral problems with 'killing' people y/n" thing ANYWAY? i will never understand why fandom likes him more than foreman

and i am super-glad i stopped watching before that bullshit

[ohbilliejean]

BECAUSE CHASE IS WHITE AND FOREMAN IS BLACK, AND PEOPLE WILL ALWAYS HATE FOREMAN FOR BEING BLACK EVEN THOUGH THEY WILL NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS ADMIT THIS (and may not even realise they think this because it's so socially conditioned to be extra critical of black people that it's "acceptable").

And I also think the writers inflected their own bias towards people of colour into Foreman. His character seemed to sometimes do extra asshollish things for no real reason and with no real justification, and everyone would automatically go, "BOREMAN IS SUCH A FUCKING ASSHOLE, I HATE HIM" without knowing why they thought this of him.

IDK IF I AM MAKING SENSE

[spoggly]

lol so true i forgot to mention that part. when chase is ruthless or whatever he's supposed to be, he's fascinating and emulating house. when foreman takes charge, he's a house-wanna-be and totally boring and so mean

you are def. making sense and i agree totally - i feel like the show has, in some ways, demonized foreman's decisions where chase or cameron's were treated more sympathetically (foreman's extraction of that kid's bone marrow vs. cameron killing the old dude, imo)

[ohbilliejean]

omg i forgot about that bone marrow scene. UGH YES. That was... what even WAS that? Foreman was depicted as being like some kind of crazed, mentally deranged psychopath in that scene - but if it had been Chase or Cameron, or even House, it would have been "character building" or they would have at least been given excuses for their behaviour because they were 'acting for the benefit of the patient'. Foreman, however, was just being an asshole doctor and everyone took a lot of pleasure in ripping his character to pieces for his ~atrocious action

[spoggly]

yeah, srsly! in the real world, no shit it would be unacceptable. in the show's world? all of them have done much worse things (especially house and wilson); but even the way the show set it up, and not just the characters' reactions, treated it as a worse action

at least if foreman had been involved, from what it sounds like, they wouldn't have the added racism on top of the western vs. global south dynamic. as it is, it's like the worst possible way to treat such a storyline (assuming such a storyline is even necessary, which it never really is)

ikr. i will always be enormously happy with the people i've met through it, but i'm really glad i no longer feel a real attachment to the actual show

[ohbilliejean]

I will forever be bewildered by people who think House (and Wilson) deserve any sympathy, for ANYTHING. Back when the show was new and the writers hadn't fucked things up yet, House was kind of a protagonist people sympathised with. At the very least, House often said things that people wished they had the social freedom to say, which is where a lot of the 'sympathy' aspect comes into it imo

[spoggly]

honestly, that's why I have never, ever been in favor of a present-day relationship between House and Cuddy - her characterization as a strong person could only suffer when she allowed him that much more power over her. UST is awesome, but between them? I have always vastly preferred the less sexualized, more guilt-driven dynamic that was present in the early seasons. And that's why I enjoyed Thirteen a lot, when I was still watching - yeah, there was some UST, because titular character and hot younger woman. But she took no shit back then

[ohbilliejean]

that's why I have never, ever been in favor of a present-day relationship between House and Cuddy - her characterization as a strong person could only suffer when she allowed him that much more power over her.

Ha, yup. Hence why I chose to create my own House/Cuddy universes when I was into fic writing/roleplaying, lol. I could enjoy the dynamic AND control the characters/choices/actions! Way better than cringing at every turn on the show.

I would even go so far as saying that show not just excused their actions but also exploited them. The show has come to capitalise on inexcusable behaviour. I know it's "just a show" and fiction should never be taken seriously - except fiction is a huge commentary on society and socially "acceptable" opinions and behaviour, not to mention media in any of its forms hugely influences society. Inexcusable behaviour is still inexcusable behaviour, whether that's in the real world or the fictional world, and it irks me so much that the show now PRIDES itself on inexcusable behaviour

[spoggly]

Yeah you're definitely right. Someone, I think in the house_cuddy reaction to LE's quitting, made the point that the show is actually incredibly conservative, despite the way we, and probably the majority of the audience, think of it. No ground-breaking views have ever been really aired, especially in a way that wasn't later undercut by the show's development, and the main attraction was, like you said, House voicing un-socially-acceptable things. The show has always been fundamentally conservative, in holding up the male-dominated medical landscape, and especially later, in undercutting characters who deviated from non-white-male social norms (even, later, House, imo, by going through the whole ~nice guy, quit vicodin, what leg probs~ storyline

[ohbilliejean]

OHHH MAN, SO TRUE ABOUT ITS CONSERVATIVENESS. I was just thinking about that yesterday, actually. I was thinking about the shit hitting the fan with LE's departure, which led to thinking about the attitude of the show, and was like, "Wow, the show is really nothing but extreme conservatism disguised as progressive thinking BECAUSE of the socially unacceptable things House says and does." Except lol, there's nothing progressive about the things House says and does, and there's NOTHING progressive about the attitude of the show as a whole.

A lot of people fall for it, though - a LOT of people seriously think House is progressive thought and opinion and fail to identify the conservativeness throughout. They're like, "OMG IT'S SUCH A REVOLUTIONARY SHOW TO HAVE ON SUCH A CONSERVATIVE NETWORK". Um no, not really. The bullshit House sprouts isn't a great deal different to the bullshit that Glenn Beck sprouts. It's offensive and hateful and infringes on people's equal/human rights. There is NOTHING progressive about that

[spoggly]

i want to frame your comment

i've missed you too, and i'm so sorry about so shitty about communication, i've been in such a weird place lately, but i wanna try harder

ilu <3

[damelola]

You two have made me so glad I made this entry, for srs. <3