Guest-Clacking for us today is Kay D. Ziegler, a writer and teacher in her mid-20s who loves music, photography, animals, television, movies, and literature.
Most of the time, House doesn’t surprise me. I’ve seen every episode, even though I didn’t start with the first season. I never miss an episode (be it new or old).
Why doesn’t it surprise me? It’s because of the formula, which works. However, when they say fifteen minutes into the show that patient A suffers from scabies due to bedbugs, I know they’re wrong. If they have the correct diagnosis in the first half hour, it would make for a dull sixty minutes. Besides, with the missteps, the viewers get to see their beloved characters grow and learn.
There have been a few times when I was shocked by what I saw. Gregory House driving his car into Cuddy’s home didn’t shock me, nor did the fact that he ran afterwards. Him getting married didn’t surprise me either. Even Kutner’s suicide didn’t shock me, but that was because I knew the actor was leaving to work for the White House. I suppose I should’ve been stunned by those moments, but I wasn’t.
Even this season hasn’t surprised me. I’ve enjoyed the series. Park has added to the team, although they could’ve incorporated her anger issues more than they have. I found myself rooting for Chase and the nun. I was starting to like House with Dominika. I think he loved her. I believe she loved him. Personally, I think Dominika would’ve stayed if House had been honest. I had hoped Lydia would’ve returned. I wanted there to be a relationship between her and House – there was definitely sparks between them.
Now, when did I get surprised? I was shocked when he got shot. That one creeped me out. Not being able to tell what was real and what wasn’t was disconcerting, especially when House cut through the patient. House hallucinating Amber and Kutner after he attempted to get rid of Amber’s presence was also surprising. Everything seemed perfectly fine and then they were back. The mental break Gregory House had was palpable.
Then, came the end of “Body and Soul.” I loved how it pushed Wilson into the forefront of the story. Sitting there, watching, I was expecting the ‘Next week on House…’ preview, but instead watched as Wilson told House about his cancer. Like House, it didn’t register at first and then, after doing a double-take, my mouth opened – I was speechless. I couldn’t believe the bombshell they just dropped on the whole show. The three words he said changed the whole landscape of the show. The writers took a path that they can’t turn back on. It’s guided the rest of the storylines. And it has finally made me wonder, ‘What next? How’s it going to end? And why haven’t the episodes this season been this good?’ I must give kudos to the House family for handling the topic so wonderfully and for bringing back the ingenious mystery that the show’s been missing.
Clacked by Guest Clacker
on May 16, 2012 @ 14:00 EST5EDT
Um, “palpable,” maybe, but not “palatable.” At least, I hope not.
Tough show to analyze. So many of us love it for the formula but then love it even more when it surprises us by straying. Although that just could be the basis for most long-running hits.
The formula was okay as long as it provided a structure for the show. But I think Shore really boxed himself in when he never let House grow even after all his epiphanies. House has the flattest learning curve in history. And any character on the show who did have a growth arc, like Cameron or Chase in the first seasons, was booted to the sidelines.
So what we were left with was the formula and House always the same, with the occasional shock when there was an out-of-the-box episode like Three Stories or when he got shot or Amber’s death.
I would have liked to see House grow up and have an honest relationshp with Domenika. I would have liked to see Wilson finally find what he was looking for instead of always having to only be tied to House. To have Cuddy deal with Thirteen’s illness in a professional manner, to see Chase and Cameron realize how dysfunctional their relationship was and end it without Cameron getting the boot, to have House finally treat his fellows with decency instead of abusing and manipulating them so he could come out on top. But it never happened. Even to the end, House remained childish and self-absorbed, his own worst enemy as he stuffed the tickets in the toilet.
The highest ratings and audience were in season 3. After that, it was slowly downhill as the show got more and more repetitive and relied on the next big shock to retain the audience’s interest.
The fact that House is a worse person now than he was the first season – and has been for quite awhile – took the show off my must-see list a few years ago. Shore, of course, has a built-in excuse. He’s simply living up to the show’s credo, as enunciated by House a zillion and one times: “No one changes.”
Fortunately for the world, I think people can and do change all the time. When we see it in ourselves or others we call it “growth.”