'Larger than Life': Re-visiting 'Wilson'
Jan. 18th, 2011 06:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
readingratIf the Season 6 episode 'Wilson' was about the sacrifices we're willing to make for the sake of friendship, then this episode was a mirror of it: how far are we prepared to change to save our relationships? This is the question the POTW, the Taubs (yes, both of them, IMO) and House have to answer, each in his own context. In addition, the value of heroism is examined.
The POTW and Team Dynamics
A man collapses suddenly and inexplicably after performing a heroic deed - a typical teaser. Typical also the diagnostic process: House is convinced that heroism, not being a trait that is of evolutionary benefit, must be a symptom. Masters, standing in for Cameron, believes the opposite. House wants to solve the case in his usual slipshod manner - no tests, just educated guesses, followed by treatments that refute the guess, followed by another guess. Masters wants to do it by the book. In the end House intuits the guy's ailment while Masters follows shortly with the same result. House gloats that he's two up.
I think we're meant to do the maths on this one, especially since Masters points out that she got her results only marginally later than House made his diagnosis. Doing it by the book brings the same results as doing it House's way, only with a much higher rate of success, for Masters's method works even when one doesn't have a genius like House around, whereas House's - doesn't. Moreover, Masters is right from the start: heroism isn't a symptom (or did I miss something at the end?) and the patient's problem is an infection. Is the myth that House's method is the best finally being debunked?
As if to counter fan grumbles that Masters is irritatingly good for a mere third-year student, she's shown as insecure and hesitant during medical procedures, to which she needs to be accompanied by an 'adult' doctor. Not that the writers could have known about burgeoning dissatisfaction at her medical perfection - the episode must have been scripted before the first Masters episode aired. I felt that the point was made none too subtly. It would have sufficed to have had the fellows note that one of them needs to accompany her to procedure without making a big deal of it and to have had Chase instruct her calmly as to what she needs to do. As it was, I was rather bruised by the anvil that hit me.
The more I see of the team, the more they strike me as a sadly spineless bunch, guys who take out their frustration about House on each other because none of them has the guts to challenge the alpha male. Perhaps Masters's presence is supposed to bring out the worst in them, to highlight just how much they have abandoned all common courtesy in their interactions. Chase making the kind of derogatory comment on Rachel Taub that is normally House's domain or Foreman challenging Taub's assumption that he was chosen for the poster because he looks more reliable are examples of what I've noticed lately. Chase being miffed at being erased from the poster is pitiful indeed; a physician of some standing and member of a renowned diagnostic team should be secure enough not to let the decisions of the marketing department regarding their advertising campaign (mere optics) influence his feelings of self-worth. Had he been on the poster he'd probably be unhappy too, wondering whether it was his good looks that got him there or his medical aura.
The scene itself, with House getting his team exactly where he wants them, namely at each other's throats, is classic, exactly the way I like House. (No, it isn't his fault if his team, after so many years, still have no strategy to protect themselves against his manipulations.) I love the outrage when he turns poster-Taub into Hitler.
The Moral Dilemma
The patient is predictable in his relapse. He chooses his music, his career, the fun he can have on the road (take your pick) over his family, thus confirming House's credo, 'People don't change.' No surprises there; Don Tucker did this one season earlier and I'm sure we've had other examples. Guess what, I'm all for prioritising family, so, no, I didn't like him. Funnily, the writers seem to be as conservative as I am; I don't think we were supposed to like him. And illogical though that may seem, it cheeses me off a bit. The guy didn't have a fighting chance to be liked, any more than Don Tucker did.
Taub is less decided. He doesn't want to stay the way he is, but he doubts his ability to change, so he opts to end his marriage. I can't say I care much one way or another, but his marriage crisis happily goes to show that tons of sex isn't everything, not even for the male of the species.
And House? House goes the full monty. He 'changes' so as to accommodate Cuddy's wishes. Only, he doesn't change; he's always been like this. This is the House who holds the eulogy at his father's funeral, the House who watches Wilson's liver being carved up from the OT gallery. He doesn't cave because Cuddy wants it, he grits his teeth and goes to the dinner because he recognises that she needs him there. As long as she only wanted it he was quite prepared to wriggle out of the affair (in the stupidest manner possible).
The hero theme is intertwined with the sacrifice theme:
The Comic Element
Now we know why Cuddy is such a screw-up. Blame her mom.
I was amused, especially at the beginning, but personally, I think they overdid what would otherwise have been a good thing. Even assuming that Cuddy senior is deliberately provoking House at the dinner, she seems over the top. It is possible to write absolutely hilarious scenes without bowing to every cliché in the book - see 'Birthmarks', the scene where ... oh, practically any House/Wilson scene. It was a lot better than the House/Rachel episode, if only because House cuts a considerably better figure. None of what happens is his fault, his behaviour at the dinner is impeccable, and finally he puts an end to an untenable situation in his own inimitable manner. What I enjoyed most in this comic overkill was Wilson messing with Cuddy and House by initially egging Cuddy's mom on. That is wonderfully subversive and I would have liked to see more of that Wilson.
The Greater Scheme of Things
As mentioned at the outset, I see parallels to the episode 'Wilson'. Placed more or less in the same slot within the season, both episodes have House moving well outside his comfort zone to do something for the person he's focused on at the moment. In the case of 'Wilson' his sacrifice is the calm in the centre of the hurricane that is their relationship that season. Wilson is pretty critical of House until this point, not hesitating to rub in that he's the one who is bearing the brunt of their friendship. True, House is no easy guest, but making a man with a gimp leg (and no opiate pain killers) sleep on the couch seems borderline brutal. There's a golden age for a few episodes after 'Wilson' before Wilson decides to re-arrange his priorities to accommodate Sam. This comes to a climax when he kicks House out of the condo, driving House, the injured one in their relationship, to the verge of a collapse.
I see much the same plot heading our way this season. If Huddy were an multiple-episode arc like Stacy or Tritter, we'd be nearing the end, but from the looks of it we're headed for a rehash of Season 6 with Cuddy in Wilson's role. We're in the calm phase (after the bitchy phase) with Cuddy and House in unexpected harmony over her mother, House chipping in to bear Cuddy's burden and Cuddy accepting House's way of dealing with the situation. Let's see what spanner they'll throw in the works this time.
Yeahs and Yucks
I liked:
I disliked:
As one can see, this was not an episode that excited any major emotion in me, but that's fine. I'd like a patient who excites me the way some of the earlier patients did, but I guess there's a limit to cases that can wrench me out of my stupor and have me applauding.
The POTW and Team Dynamics
A man collapses suddenly and inexplicably after performing a heroic deed - a typical teaser. Typical also the diagnostic process: House is convinced that heroism, not being a trait that is of evolutionary benefit, must be a symptom. Masters, standing in for Cameron, believes the opposite. House wants to solve the case in his usual slipshod manner - no tests, just educated guesses, followed by treatments that refute the guess, followed by another guess. Masters wants to do it by the book. In the end House intuits the guy's ailment while Masters follows shortly with the same result. House gloats that he's two up.
I think we're meant to do the maths on this one, especially since Masters points out that she got her results only marginally later than House made his diagnosis. Doing it by the book brings the same results as doing it House's way, only with a much higher rate of success, for Masters's method works even when one doesn't have a genius like House around, whereas House's - doesn't. Moreover, Masters is right from the start: heroism isn't a symptom (or did I miss something at the end?) and the patient's problem is an infection. Is the myth that House's method is the best finally being debunked?
As if to counter fan grumbles that Masters is irritatingly good for a mere third-year student, she's shown as insecure and hesitant during medical procedures, to which she needs to be accompanied by an 'adult' doctor. Not that the writers could have known about burgeoning dissatisfaction at her medical perfection - the episode must have been scripted before the first Masters episode aired. I felt that the point was made none too subtly. It would have sufficed to have had the fellows note that one of them needs to accompany her to procedure without making a big deal of it and to have had Chase instruct her calmly as to what she needs to do. As it was, I was rather bruised by the anvil that hit me.
The more I see of the team, the more they strike me as a sadly spineless bunch, guys who take out their frustration about House on each other because none of them has the guts to challenge the alpha male. Perhaps Masters's presence is supposed to bring out the worst in them, to highlight just how much they have abandoned all common courtesy in their interactions. Chase making the kind of derogatory comment on Rachel Taub that is normally House's domain or Foreman challenging Taub's assumption that he was chosen for the poster because he looks more reliable are examples of what I've noticed lately. Chase being miffed at being erased from the poster is pitiful indeed; a physician of some standing and member of a renowned diagnostic team should be secure enough not to let the decisions of the marketing department regarding their advertising campaign (mere optics) influence his feelings of self-worth. Had he been on the poster he'd probably be unhappy too, wondering whether it was his good looks that got him there or his medical aura.
The scene itself, with House getting his team exactly where he wants them, namely at each other's throats, is classic, exactly the way I like House. (No, it isn't his fault if his team, after so many years, still have no strategy to protect themselves against his manipulations.) I love the outrage when he turns poster-Taub into Hitler.
The Moral Dilemma
The patient is predictable in his relapse. He chooses his music, his career, the fun he can have on the road (take your pick) over his family, thus confirming House's credo, 'People don't change.' No surprises there; Don Tucker did this one season earlier and I'm sure we've had other examples. Guess what, I'm all for prioritising family, so, no, I didn't like him. Funnily, the writers seem to be as conservative as I am; I don't think we were supposed to like him. And illogical though that may seem, it cheeses me off a bit. The guy didn't have a fighting chance to be liked, any more than Don Tucker did.
Taub is less decided. He doesn't want to stay the way he is, but he doubts his ability to change, so he opts to end his marriage. I can't say I care much one way or another, but his marriage crisis happily goes to show that tons of sex isn't everything, not even for the male of the species.
And House? House goes the full monty. He 'changes' so as to accommodate Cuddy's wishes. Only, he doesn't change; he's always been like this. This is the House who holds the eulogy at his father's funeral, the House who watches Wilson's liver being carved up from the OT gallery. He doesn't cave because Cuddy wants it, he grits his teeth and goes to the dinner because he recognises that she needs him there. As long as she only wanted it he was quite prepared to wriggle out of the affair (in the stupidest manner possible).
The hero theme is intertwined with the sacrifice theme:
- The POTW's wife doesn't want a hero. That was one of the oddest moments ever, when she berated him for saving another person because it might have traumatised their daughter. Was he supposed to go through the pros and cons of all possible courses of action while the train ran into the station? Okay, disagreements have a habit of being about something completely different than the superficial message being sent, but for a tiny moment I felt a hint of sympathy for the guy.
- Rachel Taub wants only the hero, not the real thing. It isn't Taub she loves, but the image he projects. I started having a bad feeling about Rachel Taub when her main objection to Taub working for House turned out to be the drop in social and financial status. That feeling got worse when Taub got sex in return for pretending to have socked House on the jaw. (Frankly, I'd be ashamed, not turned on, if my partner hit his boss.) All sympathy for her disappeared completely when seeing Taub as PPTH's poster boy turned her into a nymphomaniac. That's what Taub should be bothered about, not about what she's sharing with whom on the internet. It's depressing that a relationship of more than twenty years is based not on what its members are, but on what they project.
- House sees himself as an unacknowledged hero, but he is the only one who manages to combine outward (medical) heroism with the heroism that is necessary to function within a family. He 'braves' Cuddy's mother, a greater act of self-sacrifice than posing for the hospital or saving a life on an impulse, as the POTW did, or on a sudden insight (chicken pox).
The Comic Element
Now we know why Cuddy is such a screw-up. Blame her mom.
I was amused, especially at the beginning, but personally, I think they overdid what would otherwise have been a good thing. Even assuming that Cuddy senior is deliberately provoking House at the dinner, she seems over the top. It is possible to write absolutely hilarious scenes without bowing to every cliché in the book - see 'Birthmarks', the scene where ... oh, practically any House/Wilson scene. It was a lot better than the House/Rachel episode, if only because House cuts a considerably better figure. None of what happens is his fault, his behaviour at the dinner is impeccable, and finally he puts an end to an untenable situation in his own inimitable manner. What I enjoyed most in this comic overkill was Wilson messing with Cuddy and House by initially egging Cuddy's mom on. That is wonderfully subversive and I would have liked to see more of that Wilson.
The Greater Scheme of Things
As mentioned at the outset, I see parallels to the episode 'Wilson'. Placed more or less in the same slot within the season, both episodes have House moving well outside his comfort zone to do something for the person he's focused on at the moment. In the case of 'Wilson' his sacrifice is the calm in the centre of the hurricane that is their relationship that season. Wilson is pretty critical of House until this point, not hesitating to rub in that he's the one who is bearing the brunt of their friendship. True, House is no easy guest, but making a man with a gimp leg (and no opiate pain killers) sleep on the couch seems borderline brutal. There's a golden age for a few episodes after 'Wilson' before Wilson decides to re-arrange his priorities to accommodate Sam. This comes to a climax when he kicks House out of the condo, driving House, the injured one in their relationship, to the verge of a collapse.
I see much the same plot heading our way this season. If Huddy were an multiple-episode arc like Stacy or Tritter, we'd be nearing the end, but from the looks of it we're headed for a rehash of Season 6 with Cuddy in Wilson's role. We're in the calm phase (after the bitchy phase) with Cuddy and House in unexpected harmony over her mother, House chipping in to bear Cuddy's burden and Cuddy accepting House's way of dealing with the situation. Let's see what spanner they'll throw in the works this time.
Yeahs and Yucks
I liked:
- Having a break from the Huddy angst-fest of previous episodes.
- House messing with Cuddy and Wilson over his evening plans.
- Cuddy manipulating House into the dinner by inviting Wilson. Classical Cuddy after a long drought.
- House drugging Wilson (what's not to like, even if it's getting predictable?)
- Someone (Cuddy's mom) giving House credit for really trying.
- Cuddy not looking permanently stressed. During Season 6 I thought, "Goodness, having a bf doesn't seem to become her!" Well, she's been looking even more stressed through most of Season 7, which made one wonder why she bothers with boyfriends at all.
- Cuddy saying they'd average their misery - that had me snorting. So far, they've been adding it up, not averaging it, and if House hadn't got out his kryptonite and incapacitated Supermom they probably would have multiplied it.
- House 'complimenting' Cuddy, (I paraphrase:) 'You could have turned out worse,' and his birthday gift. The man thinks practical.
- House chilling at the end. He deserved it.
I disliked:
- Whiny Wilson. It's boring (I can see why House would want to avoid that at all costs) and it didn't convince me in the least. He didn't strike me as particularly whiny after the break-up with Juliet, so why now?
- Too much Taub. Time was when team subplots took up one or two episodes at the most.
- The predictability with which the patient returns to his wicked ways once he's out of danger.
- Masters taking over Cameron's role as advocate of the good in mankind. Cameron was better at it - she had the conviction of narrowmindedness, Masters only has the innocence of youth. That doesn't seem any sort of match for House's cynicism.
- Masters's sudden practical incompetence in the face of an actual medical procedure.
- Chase. I was irritated by him from the start to the end.
- What happened to 'You don't get to lie to me, ever!'? Storm in a tea cup? A phase, like puberty, that Cuddy has to go through before she learns to accept that House lies about everything from patients to his plans for the evening?
- Writers, could you read the other writers' scripts please? Cuddy's mom, who a few weeks ago lived close enough to do stand-in babysitting when she didn't have cooking classes, suddenly lives far away enough to want to catch a train and to plan on staying several days.
As one can see, this was not an episode that excited any major emotion in me, but that's fine. I'd like a patient who excites me the way some of the earlier patients did, but I guess there's a limit to cases that can wrench me out of my stupor and have me applauding.
