Euthanasia. We all do it (on House).
This week’s House is the first episode of the series I’ve enjoyed in a long time. And not just because it hasn’t aired in three weeks because of baseball. “Known Unknowns” was reminiscent of House at its finest, early in the series. Unlike some episodes that seem like filler, this episode moved the characters forward instead of keeping them spinning in the perpetuity of their Princeton Hospital hamster wheel.
There were a lot of beautiful small moments to appreciate: Cameron sitting at House’s desk opening his mail; the jokes about Cuddy’s breasts being like Selma and Patty from the Simpsons.
“Why would you name them after somebody’s aunts?”
“Well, they’re always smoking.” Read the rest of this entry »
Cameron killed Darth Vader on House
[Spoiler alert] My esteemed colleague Deb McDuffee buys that Chase really killed Dibala, (the mass murdering f*ck played by the always-marvelous James Earl Jones) on House this week. Oh no no no. It was Cameron. And this is how they are going to get rid of Jennifer Morrison.
It makes perfect sense: Cameron was told (by Dibala) to make a choice, that she doesn’t have the courage of her convictions, so she decided that he was going to die.
But even if I didn’t know that Morrison was leaving the show, I would think it was Cameron rather than Chase. She has killed before.
House’s sixth season is now cooking with gas
This is why I liked it: Well written! The veritable opposite of last week! Fine. The performances last week were brilliant. But tonight’s episode redeemed a lot of what seemed to be an over-simplification last week. Thank God House is still in therapy [with the great Andre Braugher!].
I have been worried about how the writers would handle the New-and-Improved Gregory House. I am pleased to report that they are handling it with grace and subtlety. House is still acerbic and funny (making balls jokes to Wilson as they attend cooking class), yet smart: figuring out that vinegar would slow the cooking of the outside of the balls while allowing them to cook thoroughly inside.
House – Right brains, left hands and hallucinations
What the heck’s wrong with House? We thought we took a trip to hallucination land when he was hanging out with Amber, but he really lost his marbles this week. I’m not sure if this finale blew me away, left me confused or just made me love Carl Reiner more than ever (huge Dick Van Dyke fan here….).
What was successful for me was the way they juxtaposed the patient with the alien hand syndrome with House’s malady. It was all about the right brain, the side that controls our reality, who we are for real. After this episode, we are left with the question, “Who is House really?”
Relativity – CliqueClack Flashback
Relativity is a little TV series that aired for just one season in 1996-1997. But I glommed onto it, and the show earned an Emmy nod, as well as two other industry awards. If they had just given it another season, the show might have endured for years.
For starters, it was helmed by Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz, longtime producing partners who also helmed thirtysomething, My So-Called Life, and Once and Again, not to mention the more recent Quarterlife. Did people just get tired of relationship shows? I don’t know, but I wish Relativity had stuck around longer, because I really liked it.
House – Death by paper cut
For a show whose protagonist vehemently claims to be an atheist, House certainly deals with a lot of religious themes and striking coincidences. One of the strong commonalities of the best and most interesting House cases is that the underlying causes are always weird, inconceivable ailments that can only be caused (and discerned) by putting together the most bizarre circumstances.
In Season 2, “Clueless,” a woman is poisoning her husband with gold that she is hiding in a… very intimate place. If House hadn’t spent time living in Egypt and known about a chemical that turns purple when mixed with gold, he wouldn’t have been able to solve the case. In “Insensitive,” in Season 3, he figures out from a Vitamin B deficiency that a patient who can’t feel pain has a tapeworm. So, the case of Lee having a paper cut that got infected with rat urine should have been right up there among the most elegant of diagnoses. So, why do I feel disappointed?
House spoilers abound – if you don’t like spoilers or virgin vampires, skip this
I am not going to post any spoilers in the first paragraph of this post, just in case your eye strays. You’ll have to read the full entry if you want the goods. And if you do read the entire post? Please don’t complain that there are spoilers because THERE ARE SPOILERS ABOUT HOUSE IN THE REMAINDER OF THIS POST!
I can totally understand not wanting to know anything about what happens. Believe me. I am more curious, however, than I am cautious. I know what happens on the last episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and I haven’t seen beyond season shree of the show. Some of us are completely illogical that way. I don’t fully understand it either. But I’ve prattled on enough now. You’ve been warned. Read on for the spoilers. Read the rest of this entry »
Most Commented (Past Week)