Chicken pox at the best
Nov. 16th, 2010 10:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
readingratI wondered whether I should bother to post my tuppence worth on 'A Pox on our House', but if I don't, I might regret
interrupting my series of reviews; after all, I can always delete it. The episode left me indifferent, neither hot nor cold in
any way. In itself it wasn't too bad, but it was too 'ecological' : a recycled hotchpotch of elements that observant viewers
will recognize from previous episodes. For viewers who aren't part of the hardcore fanbase, however, it may have been
a satisfying experience. And then there were elements that simply irritated me.
Recyled plot elements
Quarantine for the patient and a doctor who is caught in the quarantine area with him - 'Euphoria' says 'hi' from Season whatever. It's basically the same situation, a race against time to save the doctor concerned with the patient dying to hammer in the message that aforementioned doctor's situation is dire indeed. And, of course, we have the obligatory conflict with the external authorities who are wrong while House is right.
A lockdown and an outsider who is trapped in the hospital with her love interest - now that one was so close to the present season that repeating that plot element is pretty impertinent. Seriously, how often do hospitals have lockdowns?
Recycled character elements
What happened to Sam of the gokart race and of the typewriter tape decyphering? The funny, kick-ass, bitchy gal who chews on nails for breakfast? She gave way to perimenopausal sentimental insecure hormone-swamped booooring future former Mrs. Wilson 4. And where have we seen that before? Right, Cuddy in Season 3, 'Finding Judas'. Sam practically quotes Cuddy when she says that she likes children, but does everything wrong around them. I can't exactly put my finger on the problem but I find these female clichées a tad sexist. It's a bit like that clichée showing certain middle-aged men as incapable of treating toddlers in a normal adequate manner. Kinda: Men over forty avoid kids and behave like goons around them, women of that age crave kids and behave like goons around them ....
Then there's the House-Cuddy thing. Reminds me a bit of the House-Wilson thing at the end of Season 4. House does everything for Cuddy, who then proceeds to get pissed at something that is admittedly upsetting at the time it happens, but totally reasonable from anyone's point of view. Instead of snapping out of it, she continues to be in a huff, not even seeing the light when House's life is in danger. It's as unreasonable as Wilson's behaviour after House's DBR (also life in danger) and Amber's death and the intention is probably much the same: we're to feel sorry for House, whose friends are all major jerks who don't deserve him in their lives.
Character murder
That Cuddy's character is being murdered doesn't surprise me - I pretty much saw this coming at the beginning of the season. House and Cuddy are not to survive the season and it is not to be on House (see House-Wilson after Amber's death), so it needs to be squarely and solidly Cuddy's fault. On the positive side, at least they're not making the break- up about babysitting (I was beginning to wonder during the babysitting episode ....). Furthermore, for casual viewers there's no reason not to believe that House lying to Cuddy would upset her the way it's doing at the moment. For me, who liked Cuddy the first seasons precisely because House lying to her never bothered her in the least, all this is not satisfying. (This is the woman who perjured herself for House in the belief that he was taking rehab seriously, whose reaction to seeing him on vicodin again was one disappointed line and then it was back to business as usual.) One could argue that as his girl-friend she's more sensitive to being treated the way girl-friends usually get treated by 'normal' boy- friends, but that doesn't convince me because she never objected to not being treated the way any 'normal' employee treats their boss. Anyway, whatever has to be, has to be. Unlike Wilson, however, Cuddy won't be able to bounce back into House's life in any other form. House and Cuddy never were friends, so if they split up, that's pretty much it for Cuddy in the series. Either they write her out in the terrible way they wrote Cameron out (I can't bear even listening to the drivel she was made to spout during 'Lockdown' - what a way to treat a character who was a pillar of the show the first two seasons!) or they'll have to relegate her to the sidelines.
What's bothering me more is what is being done to Wilson. His previous relationship advice was bad enough, but can be considered as half-ways in character if one accepts the premise that despite his overall intelligence he's pretty moronic about relationships. In 'Office Politics' he finally manages to summarize the problem correctly, and moron that I am, I believed that he's espousing the 'right' solution. Now it turns out that not only is Wilson in favour of House acting in a way that is totally against House's beliefs, but also that Wilson considers it a bad idea for House to deal openly with Cuddy. The former premise is hard on anyone who still believes that Wilson is not a machiavellian psychotic who is out to get House slowly but surely back into the loony bin, the latter is somehow out of character. Actually it sounds like the sort of thing House might suggest. Here's my rewrite of the House-Wilson scene in House's office:
Wilson: House, if Cuddy suspects something you should come out in the open. If you're frank about it and confess, she might just forgive you.
House: Right, and that worked so well in your marriages that your wives divorced you every time you were honest about your affairs.
Wilson: You didn't have an affair. You saved a patient. This wasn't about you and Cuddy. Go to her, make it clear that you didn't mean to hurt her, and ...
House: ... and if she doesn't know yet then I'll be throwing myself straight to the lions for no reason. Either she knows, then I'll find out soon enough, or she doesn't, in which case I'm doing neither of us a favour by rubbing her nose in it.
Sounds more likely, doesn't it? So why are the writers making Wilson give the type of advice that would make even Taub cringe in disbelief? I don't get it. As for Wilson and Sam, how am I supposed to get a handle on that if Sam's character goes through major upheavals from episode to episode? We've had bloodsucking vamp, fun girl and now hormonal supportive girl-friend, all within the three episodes in which she featured sufficiently to be noticed. I'm confused.
Credulity-stretching plot elements
There was the stuff with the Dutch internet porn what-do-you-call-'em. House, who had a Dutch grandmother, speaks oodles of languages and can teach himself even abstruse ones like Hindi, doesn't know enough Dutch (or German - with a working knowledge of German one can usually get the gist of Dutch texts) to decipher a Dutch text. Now the persons I think (and thought) of immediately when doctors in a hospital need someone who works at night and might be of help translating texts with potentially medical content are other doctors; every hospital in the world must have doctors on night shift. But no, our doctors, though working day and night to save their patients' lives, do not feel that their Dutch counterparts might be doing the same. So they decide to entrust the translation of a text whose medical content is crucial to their patient's life to someone whose reasons for embracing her present profession probably are not connected to any special skills in medicine or in languages, someone who is in no way qualified for the task she is being set. So, yes, I was honestly surprised, but not necessarily in a good way. If this had been some silly bet between House and Wilson or if the information being gleaned had been of little relevance it would have been funny. As it was, I sat there wondering whether House was deliberately playing with the patient's life, especially with Foreman in the background going, "We've got translators for this."
I still like Masters, but this time her moral involvement seemed laboured. The scene I liked best in the entire episode, however, is the one where House believes she's taking a morally high stand on honesty again when actually she's trying to find something to say to fill an awkward pause and promptly puts her foot in it. Others probably found that scene silly, but it touched a small, sensitive spot in my personal make-up.
We see that my objections are mostly minor niggles, minor disappointments, no major grouches. But being a seasoned viewer, there was also nothing in this episode that had me cheering, nothing especially noteworthy, nothing that'll put this episode in the 'must see again' category.
Recyled plot elements
Quarantine for the patient and a doctor who is caught in the quarantine area with him - 'Euphoria' says 'hi' from Season whatever. It's basically the same situation, a race against time to save the doctor concerned with the patient dying to hammer in the message that aforementioned doctor's situation is dire indeed. And, of course, we have the obligatory conflict with the external authorities who are wrong while House is right.
A lockdown and an outsider who is trapped in the hospital with her love interest - now that one was so close to the present season that repeating that plot element is pretty impertinent. Seriously, how often do hospitals have lockdowns?
Recycled character elements
What happened to Sam of the gokart race and of the typewriter tape decyphering? The funny, kick-ass, bitchy gal who chews on nails for breakfast? She gave way to perimenopausal sentimental insecure hormone-swamped booooring future former Mrs. Wilson 4. And where have we seen that before? Right, Cuddy in Season 3, 'Finding Judas'. Sam practically quotes Cuddy when she says that she likes children, but does everything wrong around them. I can't exactly put my finger on the problem but I find these female clichées a tad sexist. It's a bit like that clichée showing certain middle-aged men as incapable of treating toddlers in a normal adequate manner. Kinda: Men over forty avoid kids and behave like goons around them, women of that age crave kids and behave like goons around them ....
Then there's the House-Cuddy thing. Reminds me a bit of the House-Wilson thing at the end of Season 4. House does everything for Cuddy, who then proceeds to get pissed at something that is admittedly upsetting at the time it happens, but totally reasonable from anyone's point of view. Instead of snapping out of it, she continues to be in a huff, not even seeing the light when House's life is in danger. It's as unreasonable as Wilson's behaviour after House's DBR (also life in danger) and Amber's death and the intention is probably much the same: we're to feel sorry for House, whose friends are all major jerks who don't deserve him in their lives.
Character murder
That Cuddy's character is being murdered doesn't surprise me - I pretty much saw this coming at the beginning of the season. House and Cuddy are not to survive the season and it is not to be on House (see House-Wilson after Amber's death), so it needs to be squarely and solidly Cuddy's fault. On the positive side, at least they're not making the break- up about babysitting (I was beginning to wonder during the babysitting episode ....). Furthermore, for casual viewers there's no reason not to believe that House lying to Cuddy would upset her the way it's doing at the moment. For me, who liked Cuddy the first seasons precisely because House lying to her never bothered her in the least, all this is not satisfying. (This is the woman who perjured herself for House in the belief that he was taking rehab seriously, whose reaction to seeing him on vicodin again was one disappointed line and then it was back to business as usual.) One could argue that as his girl-friend she's more sensitive to being treated the way girl-friends usually get treated by 'normal' boy- friends, but that doesn't convince me because she never objected to not being treated the way any 'normal' employee treats their boss. Anyway, whatever has to be, has to be. Unlike Wilson, however, Cuddy won't be able to bounce back into House's life in any other form. House and Cuddy never were friends, so if they split up, that's pretty much it for Cuddy in the series. Either they write her out in the terrible way they wrote Cameron out (I can't bear even listening to the drivel she was made to spout during 'Lockdown' - what a way to treat a character who was a pillar of the show the first two seasons!) or they'll have to relegate her to the sidelines.
What's bothering me more is what is being done to Wilson. His previous relationship advice was bad enough, but can be considered as half-ways in character if one accepts the premise that despite his overall intelligence he's pretty moronic about relationships. In 'Office Politics' he finally manages to summarize the problem correctly, and moron that I am, I believed that he's espousing the 'right' solution. Now it turns out that not only is Wilson in favour of House acting in a way that is totally against House's beliefs, but also that Wilson considers it a bad idea for House to deal openly with Cuddy. The former premise is hard on anyone who still believes that Wilson is not a machiavellian psychotic who is out to get House slowly but surely back into the loony bin, the latter is somehow out of character. Actually it sounds like the sort of thing House might suggest. Here's my rewrite of the House-Wilson scene in House's office:
Wilson: House, if Cuddy suspects something you should come out in the open. If you're frank about it and confess, she might just forgive you.
House: Right, and that worked so well in your marriages that your wives divorced you every time you were honest about your affairs.
Wilson: You didn't have an affair. You saved a patient. This wasn't about you and Cuddy. Go to her, make it clear that you didn't mean to hurt her, and ...
House: ... and if she doesn't know yet then I'll be throwing myself straight to the lions for no reason. Either she knows, then I'll find out soon enough, or she doesn't, in which case I'm doing neither of us a favour by rubbing her nose in it.
Sounds more likely, doesn't it? So why are the writers making Wilson give the type of advice that would make even Taub cringe in disbelief? I don't get it. As for Wilson and Sam, how am I supposed to get a handle on that if Sam's character goes through major upheavals from episode to episode? We've had bloodsucking vamp, fun girl and now hormonal supportive girl-friend, all within the three episodes in which she featured sufficiently to be noticed. I'm confused.
Credulity-stretching plot elements
There was the stuff with the Dutch internet porn what-do-you-call-'em. House, who had a Dutch grandmother, speaks oodles of languages and can teach himself even abstruse ones like Hindi, doesn't know enough Dutch (or German - with a working knowledge of German one can usually get the gist of Dutch texts) to decipher a Dutch text. Now the persons I think (and thought) of immediately when doctors in a hospital need someone who works at night and might be of help translating texts with potentially medical content are other doctors; every hospital in the world must have doctors on night shift. But no, our doctors, though working day and night to save their patients' lives, do not feel that their Dutch counterparts might be doing the same. So they decide to entrust the translation of a text whose medical content is crucial to their patient's life to someone whose reasons for embracing her present profession probably are not connected to any special skills in medicine or in languages, someone who is in no way qualified for the task she is being set. So, yes, I was honestly surprised, but not necessarily in a good way. If this had been some silly bet between House and Wilson or if the information being gleaned had been of little relevance it would have been funny. As it was, I sat there wondering whether House was deliberately playing with the patient's life, especially with Foreman in the background going, "We've got translators for this."
I still like Masters, but this time her moral involvement seemed laboured. The scene I liked best in the entire episode, however, is the one where House believes she's taking a morally high stand on honesty again when actually she's trying to find something to say to fill an awkward pause and promptly puts her foot in it. Others probably found that scene silly, but it touched a small, sensitive spot in my personal make-up.
We see that my objections are mostly minor niggles, minor disappointments, no major grouches. But being a seasoned viewer, there was also nothing in this episode that had me cheering, nothing especially noteworthy, nothing that'll put this episode in the 'must see again' category.
