Last night's House

[kalimyre]

So after three weeks, there was this new House on last night. One day and one room, or something like that. I recorded it and didn't get around to watching it until today, but I noticed a curious lack of general squee on my flist in the interim. I can say now that it is not all that curious after all.

Comments

[msliz4857]

Amen, sister!

I'm as happy for a good philosophical debate as the next person, but not from these two characters in this situation. God, are these people just puppets? "Why are you doing that?" "I dunno." "Why do you want me as your doctor?" "I dunno." "What do you want to talk about?" "I dunno." Gah! [/NapoleonDynamite]

I'm definitely in the meh camp. Leaning a little closer to grrrrrr because I waited three weeks for this?

OMG I was terrified that entire time when rape!girl and House were in the park that they were going to wind up kissing.

And WTF with House calling the fetus rape!baby all the time? That was just, just, just uncalled for. Just no.

Chase and "let her sleep"? Bwuahahahahahahahaha! Best line of the night.

Unless BLOTN went to Wilson: "Are we role playing? Because I don't want to be you!" Hee

[skyblue_reverie]

Hee, jinx! We both posted nearly at the same time to agree with kalimyre. I had forgotten, in the wave of crap that came after it, the totally annoying "you owe me" litany from Cuddy. SO LAME OMG. Because a) it's already getting tiresome and b) no, Cuddy, you idiot, House now owns you because he knows you perjured yourself. Your fates are now linked, you ignorant slut! {/snl} You can't turn him in without risking jail, as well as, I'm sure, losing your job and medical license yourself, you dumb bint. Grrrrr

[kalimyre]

OMG I was terrified that entire time when rape!girl and House were in the park that they were going to wind up kissing.Or hugging, which would possibly be worse. And yes, I agree about the rape-baby thing. Was that his way of trying to pound it home to her? Like maybe she forgot. I swear this whole thing was like the Very Special Episode for Emmy consideration or something

[skyblue_reverie]

YES YES SO MUCH YES. Total word. I sort of wasn't sure what I thought of it right afterwards - other than being sort of bored and vaguely dissatisfied, but you've completely hit it.

The girl was a total mary-sue, and the writers have totally been trawling ff.net for their material. (Remember the emo!cutting!House with matching hurt!comfort!Cam from a few weeks back?). They could at least copy from the good fanfic writers, preferably the house/wilson ones, if they're going to blatantly steal fanfic material

[kalimyre]

Okay, first, your Stephen icon is made of awesome. *luffs

[leenys]

Hm. Well, I loved it, I've watched it twice so far

[kalimyre]

Ah, well then you're on the other side of the coin. This does seem to be a love it or hate it episode. I do see what you're saying about how House always deals with ethical and philosophical issues, that's true. The show loves the gray area, and loves exploring it and usually I do like that. This was just a little too much of it

[kalimyre]

Oh, don't judge House based on this episode. It gets way better. It's still one of the best shows on TV, I think.

And yeah, Chase was good. I liked Wilson, too. Wish this ep had more Chase and Wilson and less pointless Cameron.

[boy_ish]

A tragic Mary Sue. All perceptive and connected and everyone drops what they're doing to worry about her and talk about her and offer advice on how to help her. And then she gets through to House and he admits his OMG!tragic!past and Daddy Issues and seriously, I have read this fic somewhere. Possibly on ff.net.
I thought something similar, and it was a really WEAK way to draw out 'character depth'. I thought the episode sucked, too--and I'd never thought a House episode outright sucked before. But the other two House-watchers on my f-list loved it.

[boy_ish]

Also, here's my reply to one of other said House fans, as it gives more of my initial thoughts:

But I also thought a lot of the 'revelations' were obvious (after all, it's clear that House was abused--"assholes" aren't just born that way), and I thought it was really tired how they dragged it out ("you have something to say!" "no I don't; you have something to say" "no I won't, you have to tell me what you've gone through" "no i don't" "yes you do!" "okay: *lies*" "that's a lie!" "No it's not, now what about you" "I'm not telling!" "okay, here's the truth"). That girl friggin' bugged the crap out of me. I don't like the episodes where outside characters are like omgsosmart (she *knows* him!) and are, clearly, there just for the sake of character development. I saw through it too much to see it as a quality episode.

[kalimyre]

Oh, so much yes to that. It dragged forever. House should either have snapped the "big dark secret" out right away or not given it up at all. This makes it look like he just caved in the space of one day. House, the guy who refused to admit his drugs were a problem even after going through detox and having the fact that he's an addict shoved in his face. The guy who stole a dead man's pills rather than take a deal for rehab. The guy who fought tooth and nail to keep his leg even with excruciating pain and everyone telling him to cut it off. House does not just give in.

I didn't like the girl at all. The whole episode rests on whether she works as a character and to me, she didn't.

[kalimyre]

This is one of those polarizing episodes which people either really like or really can't stand. And yes, it was a weak way to show characterization. It went against the most basic rule of writing--show, don't tell. This was all telling.