49 Comments

1. Capn Eddie Ricketyback:

I guess I missed that first season Mr. Klavan is talking about. When I first saw it I tuned in based on Hugh Laurie, who I had greatly enjoyed as Wooster. I was so repelled by his character that I was unable to finish watching the episode. Then later on after some of my friends praised the show I tried again with the same result. I concluded that this was a case where my tastes just did not coincide with those who liked it so much.

Oct 2, 2009 - 2:44 pm 2. Dani:

I agree completely. It was absolutely awful, not to mention boring. The show is as much a character study as a medical drama. the writers have just short of killed the main character. house has serious psychological issues, which is the very reason the show is complelling, and healing them in a two hour special is the most lazy plot direction ever. also, house rapping on stage at the end made me gag.

Oct 2, 2009 - 3:15 pm 3. AKprole:

The season premiere marked the end of my House viewership, but not for the reasons given here. As a victim of a cheating spouse, I found the notion of House being “cured” through an adulterous relationship disgusting. Literally. Infifelity destroys people, it doesn’t heal them.

Oct 2, 2009 - 3:26 pm 4. Charlie (Colorado):

Hmmm. I’m one of those people whose depression has been successfully treated by psychopharmacology, and I’ve got to say I thought that was one of the more moving episodes. Look, I like House’s take-no-prisoners approach as much as anyone, and would be very surprised and disappointed if it goes completely away. On the other hand, House used his intelligence and his position to make a lot of people horribly unhappy, helped drive one of his residents to suicide and foolishly nearly got another patient killed while trying to force his doc to release him.

He was entitled to feel like maybe, just maybe, he was going a little over the line.

Truthfully, the writers were pretty well painted into a corner by the middle of last season; House was on his way to no longer being a lovable curmudgeon, but just being an asshole. Now they have the opportunity to show him becoming a lovable and functional curmudgeon. This doesn’t strike me as a bad thing dramatically.

Oct 2, 2009 - 3:52 pm 5. bobmac:

Perfect,Klavan,perfect.

Oct 2, 2009 - 4:01 pm 6. noemdfan:

Generally I love House and found it to be the best written show on TV since NBC’s Homocide: Life On The Street (at least the early years of the show). I was genuinely disturbed with the way last season ended: House sent to an Asylum for drug addiction. So when Andre Braugher was cast as the Doctor presiding over House’s recovery, I had hope. I saw the season’s first two hour episode. It was weak. I missed the episode on Monday (9/28), but am hopeful that the real Doctor Gregory House will return later this season. Otherwise, I’m done.

Oct 2, 2009 - 4:05 pm 7. Daniel Crandall:

I have never seen an episode of House, being as I do not receive any form of television service. I rely strictly on the good people at Netflix for my in home entertainment and never felt compelled to watch this series. So I will not add anything to that discussion.

However, I cannot believe that Mr. Klavan neglected to mention Jeeves & Wooster in the list of Hugh Laurie accomplishments prior to taking on House. Blackadder is great, mostly for the comedic stylings of one Rowan Atkinson, but I was sorely disappointed with A Bit of Hugh and Laurie. For my money, it is Jeeves just nosing out Blackadder with A Bit coming in at a distant third.

Oct 2, 2009 - 5:35 pm 8. pj newsjunkie:

Is it chronic pain or a drug addiction? For a show that likes medical mysteries it misses the boat on chronic pain. Pain doesn’t magically disappear because he went to a mental hospital. So what is he doing for the pain now. If he didn’t have pain and he’s a druggie then one trip to the looney bin is not going to help. They should show the real tension of chronic pain patients between controlling pain and getting high.

Oct 2, 2009 - 6:33 pm 9. K:

I stopped watching television programs some time ago due to the overall change in the underlying philosophical themes. Exhibit A would be Star Trek, which changed from the cornucopian optimistic SF of the 60s to the malthusian collectivism of the “New Generation”.

Based on your description of “house”, it would appear that, again, a story which celebrates the individual is mutated into a nanny state morality play. I would rather not even start watching the program if that is the outcome, because watching the culture die in front of my eyes is just too fricken depressing.

Oct 2, 2009 - 9:57 pm 10. Gaffe Prices:

Hickery-Dickery-PLOP!

The House flew over the pooh-poohs nest

Hickery-Dickery-FLOP!!

Oct 2, 2009 - 10:56 pm 11. Pajamas Media » House in the Age of Obama:

[...] Read the rest of the story here. [...]

Oct 2, 2009 - 11:39 pm 12. Poor Citizen:

The show was/is realistic???

Well that just shows me that you are lucky to be in such great health. If/when you ever have the opportunity to either visit your local hospital or (the Lord forbid), be a patient in one. You will never, ever make that same assumption about any hollywood hospital show, ever again. Trust me. Most people never even see a doctor anymore, but they are easy to spot…the ones walking around like rock stars, smiling and signing charts..then its off and back to their resort/20 room mansion. Other than that. Good article, my wife is addicted (no pun intended) to that show as well.

Oct 3, 2009 - 12:17 am 13. Michael:

I too think that the first season or two were wonderfull. I think that they did make House nearly unwatchable after that due to the manupulative just plain nasty turn it took. This seasson opener went too far the other way. House will have to return to first season form or die a slow but deserved death.

Poor Citizen, I don’t know where you go to the hospital but your statement couldn’t be more different from my experience. At 50 I spent several weeks at the hospital on two different occasians. I was seen by a doctor and many times several doctors on a dailey basis. I just have ordinary vanilla health insurance so my rock star credentials are rather lacking.

Oct 3, 2009 - 1:32 am 14. amblynn:

I totally agree that the season opener was horrible, and if the writers can’t figure out a way to get the show back to what it was in the first seasons, they will lose a lot of viewers.

Although as much as I liked the show prior to this season, I did not like how they chose to portray the lead character. House is a chronic pain sufferer who pops pills whenever he feels like it, has his subordinates (not to mention his boss and doctor friends) write him scripts, steals perscriptions of patients who have died, and self-medicates without consulting with a doctor about his condition.

There are those of us who suffer from chronic pain, who have a very difficult time convincing doctors that the pain is severe enough for pain medication. Shows like House and Nurse Jackie (on Showtime) do nothing more than make doctors think that we are drug seeking addicts. I think the show could have, and should have found a better way to deal with that issue.

On the plus side, it is because of this show that my illness was finally diagnosed. I went through eight years of suffering with a multitude of painful and frustrating symptoms, I saw an episode that dealt with a fairly rare illness. All of the symptoms fit. I was able to get my doctor to perform a biopsy. If it had not been for that show, we may never have found out the underlying condition that was causing me so many problems.

Oct 3, 2009 - 1:52 am 15. formwiz:

Keep in mind that a lot of the gyrations in the first 2 episodes of the season are to explain how the current residents leave and the old group is reunited. Except for Anne Dudek’s excellent performance as Amber (picking Olivia Wilde over her was a huge mistake), the new group of residents offered no reason why the show should have been changed from its original format, except for some network genius deciding once again to nearly ruin a good show by “fixing” it.

Oct 3, 2009 - 2:41 am 16. Barbara:

I think house is awful and unwatchable and didnt see the season premiere but i agree with some of what charlie and poor citizen say – mr klavan you are a lucky man to be in good health but those people who suffer mental illness are as legitimately sick as people with heart disease & leukemia & diabetes and no one would question the reality of their sickness or the right to resort to whatever therapy makes them well – why do people who have compassion for people with an injury they can see have contempt for the mentally ill? a writer like yourself mr klavan should have more understanding and humanity – (but poor citizen your picture of docs is off – by law they have to see every hospital patient once every 24 hours and there are rules about what they have to put down in charts that make it a complicated process – and i dont know one who lives in a 20 room mansion – you must be thinking of personal injury lawyers!)

Oct 3, 2009 - 2:46 am 17. dicentra:

Did I see the same show? I’ve seen every episode of House since the premiere, and I found the season opener to be wonderful. (I’m a chick, so that might be part of it.)

This is why: House tried all his asshole tricks on the psych staff, but because they’ve had to deal with patients much worse than he, they were the first people he’s run into that couldn’t be manipulated or intimidated.

Andrew, you failed to mention the real reason that House finally decided to cooperate: he nearly killed the delusional guy. Believing he was helping the kid, he took him out flying, and all seemed to go well until the kid’s delusions took hold and he jumped off the parking terrace.

Again for the first time, House’s Rx was exactly WRONG, and the kid is badly injured, then goes catatonic.

That plus the scare he got from the hallucinations, and House is about as broken as House can be allowed to get. He realizes that he’s not God, that he’s been an arrogant jerk, and that Braugher actually can help him.

House didn’t exactly “blend in” with the inmates, but he did learn to stop sneering at them and to appreciate their virtues despite their insanity. Up until then, the other patients were just annoyances to him, pawns to play against The Man, not really human. Just as House’s medical patients were not exactly human to him, either.

The part I really hated was the German slut. She carelessly toyed with House, leading him on and taking advantage of his vulnerability, not to mention cheating on her husband, who is conveniently not the love of her life.

I wouldn’t say that the affair “cured” him. What happened was that he opened himself up to another person (and was burned badly), but it did plow open a new furrow in his soul.

Nevertheless, it was your typical TV relationship: it occured as a plot point but also had to end as a plot point, so the relationship never plausibly had the weight or significance it needed to effect the character’s anagnorisis.

I wouldn’t worry about House becoming lobotomized. They’ve “fixed” him before, such as when they rebooted his brain with Ketamine, and the pain went away temporarily. However, Rule 1 with House is that “House will never be happy for long,” or else the whole series ends. Hugh Laurie long ago mused that TV characters can never truly grow or change the way movie characters can. The House we all know and love will be back, but not until after he struggles with his new-found “nice” side for awhile.

I did enjoy the card game that was a direct homage to Cuckoo’s Nest, though. Nice touch.

helped drive one of his residents to suicide

Hardly. Kutner’s suicide was a total and complete cheat: Kutner never suffered under House’s withering criticism, never stressed out, never behaved like anything but the normal, well-adjusted guy that he was. Kal Penn joined Team Obama, so they killed off his character to give House an unsolvable riddle.

That episode drives me crazy because it defies all the internal logic of the show and especially of Kutner’s character.

Oct 3, 2009 - 2:46 am 18. dicentra:

Is it chronic pain or a drug addiction?

Both.

Pain doesn’t magically disappear because he went to a mental hospital.

It didn’t.

So what is he doing for the pain now?

OTC meds at first, then distraction through cooking, then finally distraction from solving cases.

They should show the real tension of chronic pain patients between controlling pain and getting high.

You obviously haven’t seen the show; they deal with this all the time. House is constantly trying new and dangerous (and illegal) things to stop the pain. He’d tried going off Vicodin before but he eventually had to go back on. He frequently jeopardizes his job and his ability to do his job by screwing with his meds (either taking too much or not enough).

Oct 3, 2009 - 2:53 am 19. American Ivy:

Eh, House lost me when he lost his original team.

Poor Citizen, I have three members of my family in health care; one nurse, one doctor, and one med student. I don’t know what you have against doctors, but at real hospitals, if you don’t see them that often, it means that they are putting their everything into treating as many patients as possible. Due to both government interference and the ambulance chasers, many brilliant college students are deciding the risks and costs involved with being a doctor are too high too balance out the sense of helping your fellow man. So the doctors we do have are forced to step into high gear every time they enter the hospital.

And 20 room mansion? Really? Do you have any clue just how expensive med school really is? And “acting like rockstars”? Show me a doctor who isn’t involved, diligent, overworked, and still going, and I’ll show you a doctor on a rare day off. Actually, no. Because even on days off doctors still worry about their patients.

Oct 3, 2009 - 5:05 am 20. Kit:

A longtime Laurie fan, I gave up on House after his first adultery with Sela Ward; though it could have been painted as moral (not taking her from a spouse who needed her) it still stunk that he pursued her until he got her—perhaps keeping in character, but it still stunk.

I guess his rotten, House-ish behavior after that should have been applauded for staying “in character”—much like real life where talented jerks rarely seen the light and reform—they stay jerks, unlike on the big and small screen, where they tend to find redemption.

I guess I decided that, as entertaining as House could be, I come in contact with enough unredemptive jerks in my life to choose to spend my leisure hours with one, and an increasingly uncharming one to boot.

Laurie jumping into the Hollywood scene with his Bush-bashing affirmed my decision.

Oct 3, 2009 - 6:22 am 21. Charlie (Colorado):

PJ newsjunkie (THAT’s what we PJM writer like to hear!):So what is he doing for the pain now.

Non-narcotic pain meds and dealing with it. This suggests the pain thing was a denial mechanism to let him keep taking the Vicodin.

dicentra:

I’m a chick, so that might be part of it.

Could be: I agreed with you, and I’m half-woman. (On my mother’s side.)

Hardly. Kutner’s suicide was a total and complete cheat: Kutner never suffered under House’s withering criticism, never stressed out, never behaved like anything but the normal, well-adjusted guy that he was. Kal Penn joined Team Obama, so they killed off his character to give House an unsolvable riddle.

I agree that it was a cheat, but (as a sometimes fiction writer and screenwriter) that’s also the way fiction works: once you’ve done something, you’re committed to it. Once they wrote in the suicide, and House’s reaction to it — along with his Dad’s death, and his confirmation that Dad wasn’t his biological father, and so on — they had to figure out where the character went from there.

Oct 3, 2009 - 7:01 am 22. AmericanBeauty:

I have so enjoyed watching the show that I tried to ignore what I didn’t like and found unbelievable in the season opener. A narcissist, which it what I assumed House to be, would never have submitted to a psych doctor, let alone, one of average intelligence AND female, such as the one in the show. And it was wholly unbelievable that House would develop sympathy and comradeship for the dear doctor whose father was in such bad health after showing such weakness as to cry about his fathers condition. I pushed all that aside in order to be able to finish the show but when he gave up and took his meds like “a good little boy” it was more than I could bare. I hope they make penance for these mistakes throughout the rest of the season.

Oct 3, 2009 - 7:06 am 23. Julia:

The doctor after whom Sherlock Holmes was modeled is Dr. JOSEPH Bell.
You should try using a search engine sometime. It’s quick, easy, and very useful. I recommend Google.

Oct 3, 2009 - 7:34 am 24. Linda:

GOD people its only a TV show, get a life!

I watch cause Laurie is brilliant as an actor, playing any instrument, just staring into the TV with those lovely blue eyes, I watch cause I find it entertaining, which I dont find in most other shows.

IF YOU DONT LIKE IT, DONT WATCH, THIS IS AMERICA!!!!! I am sure the rest of us millions who do watch and enjoy wont miss you all too much! Especially Laurie!

Oct 3, 2009 - 8:15 am 25. Bender:

Is it really possible that you DO NOT KNOW WHAT THE SHOW IS REALLY ABOUT??

Sure, superficially House is about a medical Sherlock Holmes, like The Sopranos was superficially about “this thing of ours.”

But just as the story of Tony Soprano was of a man seeking psychological/spiritual healing, so too is the story of Gregory House a story of an existential search for the meaning of life — the fact that God and faith repeatedly come up in the series is not an accident.

(And please tell me you are not one of those who thinks that the main theme of Rocky is boxing.)

Oct 3, 2009 - 8:24 am 26. Cindy Sue Causey:

Oh, GOOD.. I thought it was just me finding his character going an odd route that was no longer the House I’d come to adore.. Hopefully what you describe is just a set up for better things to come.. If not but we complain loud enough, it still could be..

PS and totally OT.. “Capn Eddie Ricketyback”.. Cute. Dreamed about the Ricketyback Causeway just last night.. :MEMMM-reees:

Oct 3, 2009 - 8:51 am 27. Mark D E:

I didn’t see the show, and only saw a few episodes, I kind liked his quirkyness, but never watched it enough to see him as many here do, I just don’t know the character that well,.. that said,.

I have serious spinal injuries, advanced osteoarthritis, ruptured discs, nerve damage to my legs, hips. I know chronic pain, and long term pain med use, vicodin, then percocets, morphine, and now methadone. I’ve never had anything like hallucinations, never had much worse than headaches, or what I call vicodin hangovers, only in the early years did I get something like a buzz, now,. the result of regular use is sleepiness, nausea, headaches, and a general fuzziness. The pain is tolerable if I follow the regular timetable, but miss a time by a few hours,. and I’m pretty miserable for a while.

So,. what do chronic pain patients do to cope?

I’m on my own having no local groups to get support from, just family. I’m no addict,. in fact I’ve been off the pain meds for extended periods while the government run workers comp piddled about paying for them. No withdrawals, just pain in God awful batches. I never whined o begged the er for meds, just waited till they were approved, nothe reason for me to hate the Obama plan, compassion from a gov. plan?

please, been there, seen it’s lack,..

I am curious now about the show, but like the other commenters who asked, I’d like a show about deling with lifelong agony, and how, how do you work it so you can get a better grip on the pain, be less crabby to loved ones, less human in the instinct to lash out when it hurts,.

it hurts, it hurts, it hurts,…

I’m,. realistic, I know the pain will never go away, I’d just like to see how do you bury the hurt so as not to be a snarling growling bear to those who care about you. The fear isn’t so much the pain, as the fear, in a weak moment I’ll say something mean enough to make my kids hate me, hurt my wife’s feelings too much,.. the instinct is to lash out, the ability to control it, is exhausting sometimes,..

House would be snarly, surly, bad tempered, every chronic pain patient is at least sometimes, that’s just how it is. I can understand his being grouchy, but it’s likely pain enduced more than a regular charactor flaw. It wouldn’t change unless they fixed his leg,.. Can’t remember what was the issue with it. His anger issues, his snarliness are certainly pain related so did they change his pain meds?

change his leg’s condition?

or is it some magical script solution with the details unmentioned beyond, and he got nice happily ever after?

Oct 3, 2009 - 9:07 am 28. Mark D E:

sorry about missed letters and typo’s, as I said, I can be fuzzy and it’s hard to focus through the meds sometimes. Plus, I kinda messed up the keyboard by falling asleep from the meds, and wake up with either my face mashed into it, or having dropped something on it. Keys stick a bit.

I stopped smoking while using the laptop, because I kept dropping a lit cigarette on the keyboard,.. scared me alot, and melted it in about 6 or 7 places. I only smoke with someone in the room with me now.

I hate what the meds do to me, can’t imagine someone finding this entertaining.

But I’ve had nights where I can tell you it was so bad, I could swear I know the color of Satan’s waiting room, and have few illusions left about what a human can stand. So to stop taking them is an even worse alternative. I’d like to know,. what a guy like House would say about the pain, about how he copes.

I expect he took way over the regular dose to become an addict. I did get buzzed in the first few years from the meds, in the prescribed dose, but never now in the 5th year of taking them, neve get anything like a high, just relief. Like being able to breath after having your chest compressed, unable to take a deep breath. Like taking off you boots after a 20K forced march, the relief is itself, a kind of pleasure. Just the lack of deep in the core of my being pain, that is what we seek when the pain is intense and never can go away for long. Not a high, just the abscense of pain, or nearly all the pain.

Oct 3, 2009 - 9:28 am 29. Pookie Beaverslosh:

Laurie will always be the Queen of the Adriatic to me

Oct 3, 2009 - 9:59 am 30. marymcl:

Julia @23:

Andrew Klavan wrote -

“Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was said to have based his great fictional detective Sherlock Holmes on one of his medical professors, Dr. Joseph Bell…”

To which you responded -

“The doctor after whom Sherlock Holmes was modeled is Dr. JOSEPH Bell.
You should try using a search engine sometime. It’s quick, easy, and very useful. I recommend Google.”

Thanks so much for setting us all straight about that. And I recommend you direct your sarcasm towards whomever or whatever it is in your life that’s actually ticking you off instead of trolling the internet for hairsplitting cheapshots. Your aim isn’t what you seem to think it is.

Oct 3, 2009 - 10:16 am 31. Delia:

I don’t watch much television except for ‘the news’ and a movie or two from my expanding DVD collection and of course ‘Football’ and ‘Seinfeld’ which are my husband’s ‘thang’.

Sadly, I feel behind in the times when I’m clueless about certain ’shows’ on the telly.

Lay-Hoo-Zay-Her!

*sniff*

Oct 3, 2009 - 10:29 am 32. Cate:

You’re wrong. The show is still brilliant, the character development is genius, as is Hugh Laurie. I can’t stand people who want everything to remain the same. If there’s no development, there’s the same show over and over. The premiere ranks in my top five favorite House episodes. What would you have House do… the same thing for FIVE years? Then people like you would write articles saying “Just jump off the roof already” Some people are NEVER happy.

Oct 3, 2009 - 11:47 am 33. gus3:

@marymcl:

Does it occur to you that you might be reading the article after Mr. Klavan corrected it?

Oct 3, 2009 - 12:26 pm 34. Tweets that mention Klavan On The Culture » House In The Age Of Obama -- Topsy.com:

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Sherlock Holmes News and U.V. Blue. U.V. Blue said: Klavan On The Culture » House In The Age Of Obama http://tinyurl.com/yzy8js5 [...]

Oct 3, 2009 - 12:31 pm 35. gus3:

The last two episodes of last season resonated with me. My best friend of 15 years, Dan, had a schizophreniform condition brought to the fore when a jealous co-worker slipped him a heroin-laced drink at a Christmas party. For almost two weeks, he had hallucinations, wild mood swings, and totally nonsense conversations, until someone finally got a clue and took him to a mental hospital.

After making some progress in the hospital, he was allowed to take care of his own personal grooming and hygiene. This included brushing his own teeth; the staff trusted him not to attempt untoward acts with the toothbrush. Anyway, one day as he was rinsing the toothpaste from his mouth, he bent over to spit out the water. When he stood up, he saw Satan himself in the mirror.

As Dan stood there paralyzed with terror, a beautiful, shining man appeared in his right peripheral vision and said, “Dan, I am not God, I am not an angel; I am the part of your mind which is still working correctly. Close your eyes and turn around, and it will go away.” It took all of his will-power, but he managed to close his eyes and turn around. When he opened his eyes, everything was back to normal.

Dan died six years ago. He took his own life during a schizophrenic rage.

Within two minutes of seeing House’s “Amber,” I knew it was a schizophrenic manifestation of his outrageous drug use and mental stability issues.

But I wasn’t ready for “Amber” to tell House, “I’m the rational you.” It was almost like the show’s writers had fictionalized Dan’s mind. It took a lot of effort to keep myself from breaking down.

Oct 3, 2009 - 12:35 pm 36. marymcl:

@32 gus3
No it hadn’t. My mistake, and thanks for pointing it out.

And my apologies to Julia – I’ll take my own advice

Oct 3, 2009 - 1:00 pm 37. gus3:

@36 marymcl:

In fairness, I’ll point out that a Google cache’d reference to this article showed the correct name, and the timestamp on it was some hours before you made your comment @10:16am.

So, I don’t know if Mr. Klavan (and you) got it right, or if Mr. Klavan was still wrong as of 10/03/2009 07:34 PDT and Julia was correct.

These things happen on teh Intarwebs.

Oct 3, 2009 - 6:03 pm 38. Rick Greenville,SC:

To all of you Hugh Laurie fans: Check out the “Jeeves and Wooster” series thet Hugh did with Stephen Frye. Good stuff!! They also did a cameo appearance on “The Young Ones” another zany BBC series. . . Anyone out there Know these shows?

Oct 3, 2009 - 6:42 pm 39. Marc Malone:

House was my favorite show for years. I liked the medical puzzles. I liked the byplay and repartee. I liked his outrageous quips. I cared not so much for the outrageous behavior, but it goes with the character.

For some reason, I didn’t tune in this year. Perhaps I sensed what was coming. Perhaps, I just didn’t like the lesser new interns (except Amber!). They too often seemed lost; out of their depth; too subservient. The first crew were truly gifted in their own right, with their own lesser, realistic quirks. When these sharp people got outshone by House’ brilliance, the awe conveyed to the audience. House just dwarfed the new interns.

#35 Gus3 – So’s you know, most of the medical cases are based on real cases. They do extensive research to find the most amazing cases. Actual doctors are quoted as saying they learn things from the show. What you experienced was not a unique event.

Oct 3, 2009 - 11:33 pm 40. bbbeard:

I love to watch House, though I came late to the party. (I only discovered the show while surfing reruns on USA network sometime in the last six months.)

For me it’s a little personal, I guess. I experience a lot of the ’smartest guy in the room’ dilemma and I evidence a bit of the obsessive personality and intellectual bullying. And my leg hurts (diabetic neuropathy and four knee surgeries). Fortunately I never seem to have had the addiction gene to go along with the obsessiveness so alcohol, tobacco, and pills have never been my thing.

The thing I enjoyed about the season premiere was the opening up of additional dimensions in House’s character. He is often portrayed as brilliant but sub-dimensional, lacking in ordinary human compassion. So he finally showed some compassion, some guilt. But I understand the writers are walking a fine line because they understand that House, the series, won’t last if House, the man, is effectively neutered.

To tell the truth I didn’t mind the homage to Cuckoo’s Nest — that story is so dominantly a part of our collective mental picture of asylums that one has either to face it squarely or excise it completely. Not to say that Cuckoo’s Nest is a good or correct picture of mental illness — quite the opposite: Kesey’s book is of a piece with the deinstitutionalization movement that has contributed so devastatingly to the rise in homelessness over the last thirty years.

In any case, I look forward to the developments this season… I suspect that House will not live happily ever after….

BBB

Oct 3, 2009 - 11:45 pm 41. gus3:

@40 bbbeard:

“Not to say that Cuckoo’s Nest is a good or correct picture of mental illness”

But it is a good picture of the treatment in the state-run institutions, at least in my state. If patients actually got better, these government employees would be out of their jobs, and we can’t have that, right?

Oct 4, 2009 - 9:08 am 42. bbbeard:

gus3:

“If patients actually got better, these government employees would be out of their jobs, and we can’t have that, right?”

I think you’re crazy! Ummm… sorry, never mind.

But you may be on to something. Gosh, if we were ever successful in eliminating poverty, then all those government bureaucrats spending trillions on the war on poverty would be out of a job. If we ever really landed a man on the moon, there would be no reason to go back, and all those NASA guys would be out of a job. (Okay, bad example.) If the auto mechanic ever really fixed your car, he’d be out of a job. If students ever learned anything, then teachers would be out of a job. If restauranteurs ever really satisfied your hunger, they would be out of a job….

Do people really think that way?

BBB

Oct 4, 2009 - 1:19 pm 43. BD57:

Mr. Klavan:

Sorry, have to disagree with you there. IMO, you’re reviewing the movie at the end of the opening credits.

Greg House is both brilliant and completely “screwed up.” He didn’t think being “screwed up” mattered and resented everyone around him – Cuddy, Wilson, Cameron – who told him it did.

His time in the hospital hasn’t made him better. Far from it – all that’s happened to House is he hit bottom (AWOL Buddy jumping) and decided he wanted to get better. The story line set up for the season – beyond the weekly medical mystery – is his day by day struggle to define what is “better” for him and then walking it out.

Whatever it is, I’ll be shocked if it winds up being House becomes a conventional, toe the line multi-culturalist.

Oct 4, 2009 - 5:17 pm 44. biblio44:

“The character was everything television characters almost never are: politically incorrect, nasty, biting, brutally honest and realistic – and generally in the right! …. despite the fact the plot was the same every week – the show continued to be entertaining because the writing was snappy and Laurie was great.”

House is “politically incorrect, nasty, biting,” etc. BECAUSE OF THE WRITING (do you think he improvises his lines?). The writing is actually quite good. What’s the same every week – or what WAS the same – was the formula. My woman friend and I would watch it, and one of us was bound to shout “Seizure!” as the on-screen patient writhed and twisted, whatever the malady. Later in the show, as it got closer to the end … 10 minutes … 8 minutes … we’d compete as to who would be the first to shout “Epiphany!” as House’s eyes lit up and (almost) a cartoon lightbulb flashed on above his head.

Oct 4, 2009 - 5:45 pm 45. Kevin S:

biblio

And your criticism is what? If it was so cartoonish why did you continue to watch? My own criticism is that I found House interesting for the first couple of years , and then it just became boring…as it became more liberal in outlook.
Very similar to what happened with Homicide from the same team.

Oct 4, 2009 - 5:59 pm 46. RagnarD:

Mark D E said @ 27:

I have serious spinal injuries, advanced osteoarthritis, ruptured discs, nerve damage to my legs, hips. I know chronic pain, ….

Just so you know, there are others out in the world in much the same shape. I am much the same condition as you. I found relief for the nerve pain via Gabapentin. It works pretty well and does not induce much fog. The bone spurs in the back are …. entertaining when they catch. I have naturally fused lumbar vertebra from early in life injury that confuse things.

Just so you know, you are not alone.

Oct 4, 2009 - 10:28 pm 47. Josh:

House was one of the highest rated/watched shows ever. It obviously wasn’t “broke”, so why did they try and fix it? They tried to change something that was already really good and obviously they failed.

Oct 5, 2009 - 7:56 am 48. Danny:

I loved the first episode, hated the second and loved the third. I don’t believe softer gentler House will last long. Tonight for example he broke into a man’s apartment, stabbed him in the neck with a needle and duct taped him to a chair before he came to. Now thats my House!

Oct 5, 2009 - 7:19 pm 49. biblio44:

45. Kevin S: “biblio And your criticism is what? If it was so cartoonish why did you continue to watch? My own criticism is that I found House interesting for the first couple of years , and then it just became boring…as it became more liberal in outlook.”

That’s what happens to most programs on that damned liberal Fox network!

Oct 6, 2009 - 8:32 am

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