House: 7x11 "Family Practice" - Discussion and Spoilers
- Thread starter Trekker4747
- Start date
Best episode of the season and up there in the House hall of fame. The exchanges between House and Cuddy + House and Masters especially the I will fire you because I set you up scene were brilliant. Masters character is wonderfully written but as a character I hate her, in a good way because the writing makes you take that side, her butterfly view on life will get people killed more than saved. I thought it would of been a perfect send off episode for Masters but looks like she sticks around until the spring at least when 13 is likely to return.
Excellent and Candice was brilliant again as Cuddy's mum.
Excellent and Candice was brilliant again as Cuddy's mum.
I'm not willing to go Excellent but I do think it was a very good episode. I just really don't like Masters and the production values (namely the lighting) in this episode didn't work for me. And while we've seen House perform some radical, law-breaking and ethic violating stuff before what he does here seemed to stretch that beyond its limit.
This episode also seemed like a really good place for 3M to realize either she's in the wrong job or in the wrong career path and to leave opening the door up for Thirteen to come back. Really given everything that House did to her in this episode and said to her it's surprising she event WANTS her job with him anymore.
This episode also seemed like a really good place for 3M to realize either she's in the wrong job or in the wrong career path and to leave opening the door up for Thirteen to come back. Really given everything that House did to her in this episode and said to her it's surprising she event WANTS her job with him anymore.
Masters strikes me as someone who has a history of emotional abuse.
Which makes last night's episode extremely disturbing; I can't imagine that House wouldn't recognize the signs, which makes House's emotional blackmail of Masters (the scene in Cuddy's office, the scene at the locker) downright cruel.
I loved the interplay between Cuddy and her mom. I really cannot stand Tamblyn's character and long for the day when 13 comes back. And the whole 'switching up of meds' got ridiculous. This one was too far fetched for me to characterize it as anything but average (albiet, ridiculous). So far, i am truly disappointed in this season. I can see this as being the last one.
I love Tamblyn's character, but I really can't see how House can act as evil as he does and not repel viewers by the truckload. Threatening Masters' job and future was beyond the pale. But I like that she called his bluff.
The meds-switching caper was needless (not to mention unethical and illegal). There must be a mechanism in place for the dean of frickin medicine to override one doctor's orders for another's when the patient's life is so clearly in peril.
The meds-switching caper was needless (not to mention unethical and illegal). There must be a mechanism in place for the dean of frickin medicine to override one doctor's orders for another's when the patient's life is so clearly in peril.
I'm surprised by all the talk above about wanting Masters to leave. What struck me about this episode was how important Masters has become. It was striking when House told her at the end that he needed her to keep him from doing something that would get Cuddy in trouble. Essentially, he needs her as his conscience. And Amber Tamblyn did some really fine acting here when House blackmailed her. I know she's only meant to fill in until Olivia Wilde returns, but I'm hoping that they'll find a way to keep both women around.
David Shore has already written the episode where Masters leaves, though we will get an episode with Masters and Thirteen together.
I don't dislike Masters, but I think that leaving would be best for the character. House is going to push her off the edge, and last night's emotional blackmail (and yes, even telling her to stay was emotional blackmail) cannot be a good thing for anyone.
I don't dislike Masters, but I think that leaving would be best for the character. House is going to push her off the edge, and last night's emotional blackmail (and yes, even telling her to stay was emotional blackmail) cannot be a good thing for anyone.
He saves lives and even if it risks his own job and at times life. Masters does things to make her feel better about herself even when it could lead to a patient death.
I only felt Masters should of left because I find it hard to believe her character would of wanted to stay after his blackmail.
Oh, granted, certainly. It would definitely be best for her personally, psychologically, to get out of that environment. But it would be best for House if she stayed, and he's even recognized that. She's become the conscience that the team sorely lacks, and her idealism has proved to be a good balance for his amorality. She's a strong addition to the show, and a refreshing change of pace in a team that's pretty much become a bunch of Houses, all equally cynical, devious, and manipulative. So it's a shame that she won't be sticking around.
Thirteen, yeah, I wish her character added more to the team dynamic and the story beyond her Huntingtons side-plot and Masters at least offers something of a counter-balance to House's ways but I don't think it's working out quite as well as it could or should. And this isn't even to ding Tamblyn as an actor it's just the character isn't working for me. She comes across to me as someone who is ignorant to the real-world and what is going on around her (and that may be due to her background) and it's not working for me. She's too goody-two-shoes, too naive and too just... I dunno. It's hard to believe she's some genius prodigy who survived medical school without getting eaten alive by professors and other students.
The character doesn't work for me mostly because of how she's being written and directed. Hell, she'd probably look like a bit less of a twit if she wasn't always wearing absurd clothes (her wardrobe most of the time just makes her look like a silly little girl playing dress-up and not knowing how to do it right.)
Thirteen may not offer as much potential as a character but at least she's hot. Tamblyn/3M had a lot of potential but the writers didn't capitalize on it soon enough and just made her a naive girl overwhelmed by House's real-world demeanor.
Whatever.
They should have stuck with the in-and-out stand-ins as that offered a whole lot more fun than what we're getting with 3M. But the sooner Thriteen comes back the better.
Re: the continuing Taub subplot
I used to think that Taub was an interesting character but now I'm sick of him and his crap. It was better when he didn't care about what an ass he is. Now that he's feeling sorry for himself he's gotten a lot more irritating.
And am I the only one that misses the House-Kutner-Taub-Thirteen dynamic?
I used to think that Taub was an interesting character but now I'm sick of him and his crap. It was better when he didn't care about what an ass he is. Now that he's feeling sorry for himself he's gotten a lot more irritating.
And am I the only one that misses the House-Kutner-Taub-Thirteen dynamic?
As much as I loved the Season 4 House Survivor Fellow Faceoff I really miss the House-Cameron-Chase-Foreman team. It seems like ever since House got the new team the medicine has taken a bit of a slide (mostly, I feel, due to the new fellow's sort vague specialties and the use of them.)
And I've honestly never really liked Taub because I'm not sure what a plastic surgeon brings to the DDx.
And I've honestly never really liked Taub because I'm not sure what a plastic surgeon brings to the DDx.
No. But add CTB, and it would be perfect.
But that's what works about her as a character: she's not naive. She's not being written as a fool who's constantly being proven wrong by House. On the contrary, she's repeatedly shown that her more idealistic and honest approach gets results despite House's assumption that it can't work. Yes, she's innocent, but there is wisdom in her innocence and she proves him wrong as much as the reverse. She's not an overwhelmed child, she's an effective foil and counterbalance to House, one he's even learning to respect in his own way. And that's wonderful. It's refreshing after six years of House being always right. Her presence adds something new and effective to the show's dynamic.
I've never even noticed that. I don't know much about fashion.
I gotta agree with you. She serves no purpose. At least Masters has ethics, which none of the others has. It sets her apart from the others, because she has strength of character to stand by her values no matter how she's threatened. By contrast, it points out how the others lose sight of integrity around House (although Taub already had few scruples around women, he seems to be redeeming himself a little this episode). This episode was a good study of how each of them approach ethical situations. Even Cuddy compromised her ethics when it involved her mother.
.