House 4.1 - 4.09
Jan. 22nd, 2008 12:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakAaaaand I've watched the rest of the existing House episodes.
When I saw the credits hadn't changed, I figured it was a cunning ploy to keep us from knowing whom exactly House would hire as his new fellows; I hadn't expected the original ducklings to be still on the show, so that came as a surprise. Mind you, I wonder whether they'll remain after 2.09 because right now, Chase has basically twenty seconds cameos, and Cameron has had some genuine scenes but as those revolved along the potential newbies and how House interacts with them, the dramatic reasons for them are gone. Foreman, on the other hand, does have a reason to be still around, not just from the Watsonian pov - i.e. that Cuddy was the only one willing to hire him - but from the Doylist: he still defines himself through House, whether in opposition or in parallel to him, which means he has still a narrative journey to make. Whereas Chase, despite minimal screentime, confirms the impression from last season that he outgrew this; look at the way he calmly told House that he was available for medical reasons but not if House just needed to vent.
The House: Survivor arc, in lack of a better term, really worked for me, as we got to know the newbies, and the writers took the trouble to make many of them into real people, not just, pardon the pun, numbers. I mean, it was obvious that Henry wouldn't make it as soon as it was revealed he didn't have a proper medical degree (no way Cuddy would let House hire him under those conditions), but he still remained around for two or three more episodes, and was so endearing I hoped he'd become House's Alfred. As long as he stayed in some capacity. It was also fascinating to see that House went from doing his usual indifference and insult stick at the start with them to being downright regretful and civil during the final selection ceremony.
As for the "winners": I was hoping Taub the plastic surgeon would make it, because he didn't have a precedent either on this show nor in what admittedly few other doctor shows I recall watching; he's not a youngling but House's age, he's small and avarage-looking, not American tv style handsome, and as opposed to 99% of the plastic surgeons tv and movies grace us with, he's not a satire or caricature. So I was delighted when he made the cut. Kutner, I have benign indifference towards so far; he's an enthusiastic puppy, which is fun to see, but I hope we get to find out more about him than just "the enthusiastic one". Amber/Cutthroat Bitch NOT making the final selection I had expected because I know tv, but it made me sad nonetheless, as she and her ruthless ambitious ways immediately pinged one of my character archetype kinks, and Thirteen making the cut as "The Compassionate One" was entirely too predictable. However, I have hope: I don't think we would have gotten a) the hints about Amber having a backstory thing with drug addicts and/or drug addiction and b) her final scene after she got fired if the show didn't plan on bringing her back in some capacity. And Thirteen in her scenes with Amber held her own pretty well; she may have an unrevealed inner bitch waiting to come out.
After all, the show did surprise me in a positive way regarding the manipulation of expectations. When House found the model-like CIA doctor outside, taking him up on his offer to hire her, I groaned, as she was far less interesting than any of the newbies, but in the next episode, the show used her to make a point about House, and managed to do so without making her into an "airhead" caricature; you felt for her when he dismissed her in the end (without wanting her to stay). Which brings me to something I might write an extra post about, as it's a phenomenon I have seen in several shows: I'd call it the "post modern having our cake and eat it" syndrome. Back when I was watching the first season of Life on Mars, I occasionally had the vague and uneasy suspicion that the shows' creators basically wanted to make a 70s cop show (you know, ye olde times when women were birds and cops were rough) but were too clever and too aware not know they couldn't do so without a gimmick that gave a current day audience a way out of feeling guilty for this, hence Sam as the pov character who is aware, and points out, just how sexist, racist etc. the attitudes on display are. But the first season was so well written and so layered that I thought I was being unfair. Then came the second season, and the second season finale and the very premise of the spin-off, and, err. Well. This is not the time to get into my issues about Life on Mars. Anyway, House I think is doing something similar, in that on the one hand, you have House the character indulging in sexual allusions with most women he meets and racist remarks to get under the skin of his fellows (whether Foreman or Cole), BUT not only do we have other characters pointing this out but the show lets him do so in an ironic way, allowing the audience to see take it as part of House's universal sarcasm. (I.e. when House wants to get Foreman out of his post-near death experience zen and finally says "I'm not above using the N-word if you keep this up" in season 2, we know he's being sarcastic, so we don't have to regard House as an actual racist who calls someone "nigger".) When he tells Cameron right at the start of the show that he partly hired her for her looks and in season 4 hits on a beautiful doctor with one "work for me" joke too many she then takes seriously, the show also provides Wilson, more often than not the authorial voice stand-in, to say "you're incapable of having an actual relationship with a woman, so you hire beautiful young women and make them emotionally dependent on you"; that way, we're reassured we're not meant to approve of House's behaviour or look away from the implications but regard it as part of his dysfunction. I'm in two minds as to whether or not I regard this kind of writing as slippery or legitimate. But it's definitely having-your-cake-and-eat-it. After all, where is the female equivalent of Taub?
(This is not just House, of course, but tv shows, especially American tv shows, in general: female characters played by actresses who aren't at the very least pretty if not beautiful are rarer than diamonds on a beach.)
While we're talking sexism turned palpable by using postmodern ironic quotation marks, another example is House challenging his fellows (or rather candidates for fellowships) to bring him Cuddy's underwear; again, we get Wilson pointing out that this is creepy, and I could have told you from the start House would fire the one who actually did it, not as he promised let said "winner" choose among two other candidates to fire. It's entirely ic for House, his ongoing struggle with Cuddy and the way it was sexualized from the start on this show, but as I said, I'm conscious of being manipulated here.
Sidenote: when I try to think of a tv counterexample that uses sexism, racism etc. as character traits, not in an approving way but also does not use another character to reassure the audience they're not meant to approve, the only ones I can think of are Deadwood and Rome where they're also part of a specific historic setting. Hmmm.
House on the one hand is calmer this season in his every day interactions, but on the other more blatantly self-destructive when he does go for that, as with the electrolocuting himself thing, which builds on his previously displayed issues with the idea of an afterlife and the need for proof, of course, but is still another step downwards for him. (Otoh, it results in two excellent character scenes - when Cuddy says "you hired her", her unspoken "and I hired you" is very much in the room, and then we also have House telling Wilson "I love you".)
Something else I noticed which the Survivor arc brought out: he really enjoys teaching, though he'd never admit it. Not just bouncing his ideas off other people or display how he's the cleverest person in the room, but teaching. You could extrapolate that from his interactions with Foreman, Chase and Cameron, but here it's brought to the fore, and as I said, you can see him getting from playing the entire hiring process purely as a mindgame to being genuinenly interested in his potential fellows and teaching them things other than how to bend the rules.
Now: when is the strike ending...?
When I saw the credits hadn't changed, I figured it was a cunning ploy to keep us from knowing whom exactly House would hire as his new fellows; I hadn't expected the original ducklings to be still on the show, so that came as a surprise. Mind you, I wonder whether they'll remain after 2.09 because right now, Chase has basically twenty seconds cameos, and Cameron has had some genuine scenes but as those revolved along the potential newbies and how House interacts with them, the dramatic reasons for them are gone. Foreman, on the other hand, does have a reason to be still around, not just from the Watsonian pov - i.e. that Cuddy was the only one willing to hire him - but from the Doylist: he still defines himself through House, whether in opposition or in parallel to him, which means he has still a narrative journey to make. Whereas Chase, despite minimal screentime, confirms the impression from last season that he outgrew this; look at the way he calmly told House that he was available for medical reasons but not if House just needed to vent.
The House: Survivor arc, in lack of a better term, really worked for me, as we got to know the newbies, and the writers took the trouble to make many of them into real people, not just, pardon the pun, numbers. I mean, it was obvious that Henry wouldn't make it as soon as it was revealed he didn't have a proper medical degree (no way Cuddy would let House hire him under those conditions), but he still remained around for two or three more episodes, and was so endearing I hoped he'd become House's Alfred. As long as he stayed in some capacity. It was also fascinating to see that House went from doing his usual indifference and insult stick at the start with them to being downright regretful and civil during the final selection ceremony.
As for the "winners": I was hoping Taub the plastic surgeon would make it, because he didn't have a precedent either on this show nor in what admittedly few other doctor shows I recall watching; he's not a youngling but House's age, he's small and avarage-looking, not American tv style handsome, and as opposed to 99% of the plastic surgeons tv and movies grace us with, he's not a satire or caricature. So I was delighted when he made the cut. Kutner, I have benign indifference towards so far; he's an enthusiastic puppy, which is fun to see, but I hope we get to find out more about him than just "the enthusiastic one". Amber/Cutthroat Bitch NOT making the final selection I had expected because I know tv, but it made me sad nonetheless, as she and her ruthless ambitious ways immediately pinged one of my character archetype kinks, and Thirteen making the cut as "The Compassionate One" was entirely too predictable. However, I have hope: I don't think we would have gotten a) the hints about Amber having a backstory thing with drug addicts and/or drug addiction and b) her final scene after she got fired if the show didn't plan on bringing her back in some capacity. And Thirteen in her scenes with Amber held her own pretty well; she may have an unrevealed inner bitch waiting to come out.
After all, the show did surprise me in a positive way regarding the manipulation of expectations. When House found the model-like CIA doctor outside, taking him up on his offer to hire her, I groaned, as she was far less interesting than any of the newbies, but in the next episode, the show used her to make a point about House, and managed to do so without making her into an "airhead" caricature; you felt for her when he dismissed her in the end (without wanting her to stay). Which brings me to something I might write an extra post about, as it's a phenomenon I have seen in several shows: I'd call it the "post modern having our cake and eat it" syndrome. Back when I was watching the first season of Life on Mars, I occasionally had the vague and uneasy suspicion that the shows' creators basically wanted to make a 70s cop show (you know, ye olde times when women were birds and cops were rough) but were too clever and too aware not know they couldn't do so without a gimmick that gave a current day audience a way out of feeling guilty for this, hence Sam as the pov character who is aware, and points out, just how sexist, racist etc. the attitudes on display are. But the first season was so well written and so layered that I thought I was being unfair. Then came the second season, and the second season finale and the very premise of the spin-off, and, err. Well. This is not the time to get into my issues about Life on Mars. Anyway, House I think is doing something similar, in that on the one hand, you have House the character indulging in sexual allusions with most women he meets and racist remarks to get under the skin of his fellows (whether Foreman or Cole), BUT not only do we have other characters pointing this out but the show lets him do so in an ironic way, allowing the audience to see take it as part of House's universal sarcasm. (I.e. when House wants to get Foreman out of his post-near death experience zen and finally says "I'm not above using the N-word if you keep this up" in season 2, we know he's being sarcastic, so we don't have to regard House as an actual racist who calls someone "nigger".) When he tells Cameron right at the start of the show that he partly hired her for her looks and in season 4 hits on a beautiful doctor with one "work for me" joke too many she then takes seriously, the show also provides Wilson, more often than not the authorial voice stand-in, to say "you're incapable of having an actual relationship with a woman, so you hire beautiful young women and make them emotionally dependent on you"; that way, we're reassured we're not meant to approve of House's behaviour or look away from the implications but regard it as part of his dysfunction. I'm in two minds as to whether or not I regard this kind of writing as slippery or legitimate. But it's definitely having-your-cake-and-eat-it. After all, where is the female equivalent of Taub?
(This is not just House, of course, but tv shows, especially American tv shows, in general: female characters played by actresses who aren't at the very least pretty if not beautiful are rarer than diamonds on a beach.)
While we're talking sexism turned palpable by using postmodern ironic quotation marks, another example is House challenging his fellows (or rather candidates for fellowships) to bring him Cuddy's underwear; again, we get Wilson pointing out that this is creepy, and I could have told you from the start House would fire the one who actually did it, not as he promised let said "winner" choose among two other candidates to fire. It's entirely ic for House, his ongoing struggle with Cuddy and the way it was sexualized from the start on this show, but as I said, I'm conscious of being manipulated here.
Sidenote: when I try to think of a tv counterexample that uses sexism, racism etc. as character traits, not in an approving way but also does not use another character to reassure the audience they're not meant to approve, the only ones I can think of are Deadwood and Rome where they're also part of a specific historic setting. Hmmm.
House on the one hand is calmer this season in his every day interactions, but on the other more blatantly self-destructive when he does go for that, as with the electrolocuting himself thing, which builds on his previously displayed issues with the idea of an afterlife and the need for proof, of course, but is still another step downwards for him. (Otoh, it results in two excellent character scenes - when Cuddy says "you hired her", her unspoken "and I hired you" is very much in the room, and then we also have House telling Wilson "I love you".)
Something else I noticed which the Survivor arc brought out: he really enjoys teaching, though he'd never admit it. Not just bouncing his ideas off other people or display how he's the cleverest person in the room, but teaching. You could extrapolate that from his interactions with Foreman, Chase and Cameron, but here it's brought to the fore, and as I said, you can see him getting from playing the entire hiring process purely as a mindgame to being genuinenly interested in his potential fellows and teaching them things other than how to bend the rules.
Now: when is the strike ending...?
