House: 7x14 "Recession Proof" - Discussion and Spoilers
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Not sure on this one. Having the medical mystery more center-stage was a nice change, Wilson's role in the episode was a bit larger than it has been as of late and House, again, loses another patient which is a major plot point in the season's arc.
It'll be interesting to see where they go with this but Cuddy is very hard to read sometimes when she's being indifferent like she was to her drunken boyfriend saying he's willing to give up being a great doctor (word-renowned great) in order to be with her.
And she's all cold and "Go to sleep House."
And, ugh, hinting at a 'ship between Chase and 3M if only slightly? Please.
I'll give this one a Good but it has aspects that could lead this show in any number of directions.
It's funny because I have noticed House's distractions and late diagnoses but it was nice that in this one some random conversation with someone, like Wilson, didn't give him the solution.
Next week? My TiFaux cut off after the first second or two of the teaser but what I saw didn't look promising.
It'll be interesting to see where they go with this but Cuddy is very hard to read sometimes when she's being indifferent like she was to her drunken boyfriend saying he's willing to give up being a great doctor (word-renowned great) in order to be with her.
And she's all cold and "Go to sleep House."
And, ugh, hinting at a 'ship between Chase and 3M if only slightly? Please.
I'll give this one a Good but it has aspects that could lead this show in any number of directions.
It's funny because I have noticed House's distractions and late diagnoses but it was nice that in this one some random conversation with someone, like Wilson, didn't give him the solution.
Next week? My TiFaux cut off after the first second or two of the teaser but what I saw didn't look promising.
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I really don't think CPR works the way it was shown here, or in most TV/movies. My understanding is that it's a stopgap to be performed until the patient can be gotten onto life support, or given an adrenaline injection, or otherwise given treatment that would get the heart pumping again. Since the patient was already in a hospital bed, they should've been able to get him on life support long enough to administer the treatment that would cure him. So this outcome didn't seem to make sense.
As for the other ending, the problem with being a writer is that I'm too familiar with the tricks. They spent so much time leading us to think that House was going to break up with Cuddy that I knew it wouldn't be much of an ending if he said what we expected him to say. So I knew he was going to say something opposite to that in one way or another. But I was expecting him either to propose to Cuddy or to resign from the hospital.
And please, please tell me they aren't setting up a Masters-Chase romance. I don't want to see that. Hell, I don't want Chase on this show at all anymore. I'm not sure I ever cared for him.
Err, I think you left out a negative there. Did you mean it was nice that this time it wasn't some random conversation, but the actual differential diagnostic process that led to the answer?
As for the other ending, the problem with being a writer is that I'm too familiar with the tricks. They spent so much time leading us to think that House was going to break up with Cuddy that I knew it wouldn't be much of an ending if he said what we expected him to say. So I knew he was going to say something opposite to that in one way or another. But I was expecting him either to propose to Cuddy or to resign from the hospital.
And please, please tell me they aren't setting up a Masters-Chase romance. I don't want to see that. Hell, I don't want Chase on this show at all anymore. I'm not sure I ever cared for him.
Err, I think you left out a negative there. Did you mean it was nice that this time it wasn't some random conversation, but the actual differential diagnostic process that led to the answer?
Yeah, that's what I meant. Thanks.
I was expecting House to resign too, leading us into another hiatus period, or propose. Setting up a romance between Chase and 3M would just be idiotic and they damn-well better not go that route.
The friendship between "Bert and Ernie" was funny, I had suspected House had somehow poisoned their food setting off the food-poisoning but I guess that wasn't the case and man are they ever getting a lot of use out of that videogame footage from early last season!
Oh. And I WANT THIRTEEN BACK!
I figured that was what you meant. I agree. It was so nice to see the problem solved by problem-solving rather than by a randomly triggered epiphany.
I had a thought about my earlier point re: CPR: If the patient had a Do Not Resuscitate order in his living will, then they wouldn't have been able to put him on life support and would've had to let him go. But there was no mention of that being the case.
^^^ Plus they couldn't do CPR either.
Average episode and weakest of season, the main case wasn't that interesting though solving the case just as they ran out of time was a nice twist. Typical great humor as always but the ending just seem sooooooo random and I don't know how House made the leap that Cuddy makes him a bad doctor.
Hes made that asseration before about being happy and being a bad doctor but in the past that was because he was making mistakes in a row - this was a random death and his reaction felt OTT even for House.
Hes made that asseration before about being happy and being a bad doctor but in the past that was because he was making mistakes in a row - this was a random death and his reaction felt OTT even for House.
Missed 1/3rd of this episode due to the Comcast DVR randomly deciding to not record it. 
What I saw was pretty good but nothing exceptional.
What I saw was pretty good but nothing exceptional.
Because the mother who died earlier this season died because House was in too good of a mood, thanks to his relationship with Cuddy. In the past he would've gone into the room and delivered some speech to the woman, brow-beating her into submitting to his treatment to get better. In this episode he missed the -to him- obvious solution, again, because he was in too good of a mood.
Me too, but Amber is just so damn cute!!
I'd rather have unbelievably hot over cute.
But I don't even find Amber that "cute" in this series right now. She'd look better with a less dopey hair-style and a less naive personality.
House recognizes that he isn't himself any longer. Partly, it's the loss of the vicodin in his life, but mainly it's that there's now a different emotional ground he treading -- and unlike his norm, House is not treading the emotional ground alone. This is making House a different person.
It happens in relationships sometimes, where one partner loses an essential part of themselves as they become ever more emotionally entwined with another.
Cuddy is taking off some of House's edges. House is becoming someone different -- and not necessarily in a better way -- than the person he was when he entered the relationship with Cuddy.
This is why I expect that Cuddy will be the one to ultimately instigate the inevitable break-up; nu-House isn't old-House in some fundamental way that she needs/wants.
I really thought the episode with her mother's medical crisis would have forced Cuddy to realize that she was in way too deep.
I interpreted Cuddy's expression at the end this week as a recognition on her part that their days are numbered. I think she really did believe that House, in his drunken state, was going to break up with her, and when he didn't -- and instead proclaimed that he would rather be less than himself because of her -- she realized that she's going to have to be the strong one and pull the plug because if she doesn't he'll destroy the intrinsic House-ness of himself because of her.
I interpreted Cuddy's expression at the end this week as a recognition on her part that their days are numbered. I think she really did believe that House, in his drunken state, was going to break up with her, and when he didn't -- and instead proclaimed that he would rather be less than himself because of her -- she realized that she's going to have to be the strong one and pull the plug because if she doesn't he'll destroy the intrinsic House-ness of himself because of her.
House has a long way to go to be a responsible adult but he is still a great diagnostician. How could he possibly not be a better doctor than he was when a Vicodin addict? He actually does care more about other people than he did before his rehab, but he still cares more about himself than others most of the time. But if he is not as good a doctor when he's happy, it's only because of his immaturity and being distracted to more interesting things going on than a less interesting case. Cuddy shouldn't give up on him to make him unhappy and hence a "better doctor". That's too stupid for this show.
You know, thinking back to some of this show's earliest episodes up to anything before I'd say mid-Season 5 when things bogged down a bit with too much attention paid to Thirteen and her Huntington's arc I realized this show has slipped quite a bit.
By late Season 5 we got House committed to a psychiatric hospital which no small thing he spends a seemingly short amount of time there including, oddly enough, a stint in a part of the hospital where people who've no place in society are kept. Does a man who suffered hallucinations from Vicodin toxicity really belong in a mental ward with a patronizing doctor who treats her patients like children ("Good job, Alfie!") and people who're catatonic or so far unstable that they can't function? House was only suffering from hallucinations due to drugs. He wasn't a raving Manic like Alfie was, catatonic like the music-box chick was, utterly delusional like the Freedom Fighter guy was, or a possibly mentally handicapped shut-in like the body-slapping guy in the talent show was. It didn't fit and from that point on the show has slipped more and more from being a Medical-Mystery Drama to being pretty much just a drama. The medicine has been taking a bigger and bigger back seat as the last 2-2.5 seasons have gone on as it seems like the writers have been trying to soften and "normalize" House's character as much as they can due to -I suspect- Hugh Laurie's female fan base.
So instead of the misanthropic, jack-ass, brilliant doctor who uses and abuses Vicodin to he own pleasing we've now got this softened man who while still a bit of a jerk he's also the kind of man the House of Season 1 would leave crying in the corner losing his religion.
I understand the need of shows like this to have an "arc" for a character and for a person to change as their life changes over the course of six-to-seven years is realistic but all indications from Wilson, House and Stacy is that House was always a jackass! When we see a flashback of House suffering from the trauma his leg suffered, Stacy asks House what he would do if one of his patients refused amputation of a leg out of vanity rather than medical necessity. House says, "It's their choice."
Stacy gives House a "whatever" look and says, "No you'd brow-beat them until they saw it your way, you'd tell them it's just a damn leg."
We see this situation happen at least three in the first season, and probably more in the series, where House's patient is refusing Houses latest, and ultimately correct, treatment so House finally meets face-to-face with the patient. In the pilot episode this happens and House tells a woman that she can't die with dignity no matter what she does, in another episode House tells a patient refusing treatment that she (a nun) has a better chance betting on him than God as his record of saving people is better and in another episode House tells a dying pregnant woman that's she's pretty much an idiot for sacrificing her own life, and possibly her child's, since she's unwilling to undergo a C-Section so she can get life-saving treatment and the premie-baby will have a greater chance of survival rather than it staying within her while she suffers from cancer and dealys the treatment she needs since she's late-stage.
But now House is soft and weak as he points out in this episode and there's plenty of times in the past when House has realized not being in pain and misery makes him a "worse" Doctor. Notably when he was briefly pain-free following a radical treatment on his leg, when he was using a heroin-based drug that made him pain-free (but at great risk to his own life), and even one or two other times when he was happy. House WANTS to be the best doctor ever and this turn of events contradicts all of that.
It doesn't add up and it doesn't make sense. All of the medicine, all of House's bizarre ways of practicing medicine, refusal to see patients, clinic patients, all of that right now seems all-but gone and too much of the show is now focusing on Huddy.
I've no problem with the two of them together the show is just focusing way too much on it and it's as bad as in Season 5 when the show heavily focused on Thirteen and her Huntington's. Bush the Huddy into the background and either make them happy or break them up and keep House as the brilliant people-hating person he's supposed to be, I want to see more of those interactions with House and his patients where he smacks them in the face with their own self-sacrifice, nobility or refusal to tell the truth. Watch the first couple seasons and tell me this show hasn't slipped GREATLY the last two-three years.
I still highly enjoy this show but it's beginning to frustrate me greatly when I think of how great it once was. Season 4 was probably the last best-season this series will have with House's Head/Wilson's Heart being the last great episodes it'll have unless they really pull something great off and stop with this teenage-like romance bullshit. House and Cuddy are 45-year-old adults and shouldn't be having this much turbulence in their relationship at least not this often.
Stop making every episode's crisis about House/Cuddy's relationship! Get back to the medicine!
By late Season 5 we got House committed to a psychiatric hospital which no small thing he spends a seemingly short amount of time there including, oddly enough, a stint in a part of the hospital where people who've no place in society are kept. Does a man who suffered hallucinations from Vicodin toxicity really belong in a mental ward with a patronizing doctor who treats her patients like children ("Good job, Alfie!") and people who're catatonic or so far unstable that they can't function? House was only suffering from hallucinations due to drugs. He wasn't a raving Manic like Alfie was, catatonic like the music-box chick was, utterly delusional like the Freedom Fighter guy was, or a possibly mentally handicapped shut-in like the body-slapping guy in the talent show was. It didn't fit and from that point on the show has slipped more and more from being a Medical-Mystery Drama to being pretty much just a drama. The medicine has been taking a bigger and bigger back seat as the last 2-2.5 seasons have gone on as it seems like the writers have been trying to soften and "normalize" House's character as much as they can due to -I suspect- Hugh Laurie's female fan base.
So instead of the misanthropic, jack-ass, brilliant doctor who uses and abuses Vicodin to he own pleasing we've now got this softened man who while still a bit of a jerk he's also the kind of man the House of Season 1 would leave crying in the corner losing his religion.
I understand the need of shows like this to have an "arc" for a character and for a person to change as their life changes over the course of six-to-seven years is realistic but all indications from Wilson, House and Stacy is that House was always a jackass! When we see a flashback of House suffering from the trauma his leg suffered, Stacy asks House what he would do if one of his patients refused amputation of a leg out of vanity rather than medical necessity. House says, "It's their choice."
Stacy gives House a "whatever" look and says, "No you'd brow-beat them until they saw it your way, you'd tell them it's just a damn leg."
We see this situation happen at least three in the first season, and probably more in the series, where House's patient is refusing Houses latest, and ultimately correct, treatment so House finally meets face-to-face with the patient. In the pilot episode this happens and House tells a woman that she can't die with dignity no matter what she does, in another episode House tells a patient refusing treatment that she (a nun) has a better chance betting on him than God as his record of saving people is better and in another episode House tells a dying pregnant woman that's she's pretty much an idiot for sacrificing her own life, and possibly her child's, since she's unwilling to undergo a C-Section so she can get life-saving treatment and the premie-baby will have a greater chance of survival rather than it staying within her while she suffers from cancer and dealys the treatment she needs since she's late-stage.
But now House is soft and weak as he points out in this episode and there's plenty of times in the past when House has realized not being in pain and misery makes him a "worse" Doctor. Notably when he was briefly pain-free following a radical treatment on his leg, when he was using a heroin-based drug that made him pain-free (but at great risk to his own life), and even one or two other times when he was happy. House WANTS to be the best doctor ever and this turn of events contradicts all of that.
It doesn't add up and it doesn't make sense. All of the medicine, all of House's bizarre ways of practicing medicine, refusal to see patients, clinic patients, all of that right now seems all-but gone and too much of the show is now focusing on Huddy.
I've no problem with the two of them together the show is just focusing way too much on it and it's as bad as in Season 5 when the show heavily focused on Thirteen and her Huntington's. Bush the Huddy into the background and either make them happy or break them up and keep House as the brilliant people-hating person he's supposed to be, I want to see more of those interactions with House and his patients where he smacks them in the face with their own self-sacrifice, nobility or refusal to tell the truth. Watch the first couple seasons and tell me this show hasn't slipped GREATLY the last two-three years.
I still highly enjoy this show but it's beginning to frustrate me greatly when I think of how great it once was. Season 4 was probably the last best-season this series will have with House's Head/Wilson's Heart being the last great episodes it'll have unless they really pull something great off and stop with this teenage-like romance bullshit. House and Cuddy are 45-year-old adults and shouldn't be having this much turbulence in their relationship at least not this often.
Stop making every episode's crisis about House/Cuddy's relationship! Get back to the medicine!
I would assume they've been allowing House to change because otherwise he would've become a formulaic character just going through the motions. They'd taken the "House is an unrepentant jerk" thing as far as they could and it had grown tired. Characters that never grow aren't interesting. Having House begin a slow climb toward self-improvement is the best thing they could've done with his character.
And frankly, the medicine has been the weak link in this show for a long, long time. The "make a pat diagnosis, begin treatment, watch the patient develop a shocking new symptom at the act break, realize your diagnosis was wrong, repeat 4-5 times until some random comment triggers an epiphany in House" routine had become quite tedious and formulaic. So I don't mind if they downplay it -- though it's better when they find ways to do a different kind of medical story, like last season's finale.