House

[Xanthippe]

i made this in like two minutes for a friend. the next day it was on the front page of reddit for, like, a whole day. today it's got like 3000 diggs and it's no. 1 for the last 12 hours.

i figure that means I should share it more.

 

Perfect.

[Ratman_tf]

Well, I thought this season was really weak, and I was tempted to just stop watching, but the finale got me back in.

I do hope this next season is their last. I'd like to see them pull it together and make a kickass last season and go out on a high note instead of running it into the ground.

[cironian]

Funny, I found this season to be a great evolution of the previous seasons. Having the medical cases fade away into background noise really helped with the well-done "House goes off his meds" storyline. Admittedly, some other parts took a back seat to that; I can't imagine anyone still giving a rats ass about the thirteen stuff for instance, so whenever that came up it just wasted screen time. Overall, it was damn good TV.

[Jeff Kelly]

The best episodes were always the ones where they didn't stick to the standard formula.

The two hour season opening, the Wilson episode, the Cuddy episode, Lockdown two weeks ago and now the finale.

The writers however have a few issues:

- They don't really know how to handle an ensemble cast. Most episodes usually center around House, Cuddy and Wilson (with each of the two getting a lot less screen time than Laurie) and one of the remaining cast members getting some sort of B plot (if he or she is lucky) that is irrelevant and usually gets even less screen time.

- They desperately stick to the proven formula of House which amplifies the first problem and usually leads to the weakest episodes of a season.

- If they try to break the mold by either trying a different narrative or at least by actual character development they usually revert back to the standard house formula and even roll back plot or character development. I suppose they are too scared to leave the beaten path.

- 1 to 3 lead to people not caring about anybody except House, Cuddy and Wilson which makes writing different episodes even harder.

I don't really like the normal brand of House episodes anymore because it's to constrained to offer something novel. The other types of episodes however were all pretty good this season.

[Murgos]

The 'normal' house episodes are almost unwatchable due to how formulaic they are, the only redeeming feature of those is House's sarcasm which can't have too much more mileage left in it.

[Ratman_tf]

The soap opera stuff (Notice the goddamn music this past season?) got really strong and it turned me off, because the writers just can't pull of House style drama lately. Stuff like "Three stories" or "One day, one room", maybe the whole of the Stacy arc, good House drama. Past few seasons? It's all been bloop bloop bog standard soap fare. Uninteresting and bland. No real human texture to it.

In fact, the one thing I rather didn't like about the finale is how abruptly Cuddy just threw herself at House. Not necessarily that she threw herself at House, but that it was done poorly and at the last minute.

[Xuri]

[Murgos]

I have to think that the ending was put in later, or revised. 

[Vaiti]

Guessing this has been around awhile, seeing as it has the cast from the first season in it. But I just now saw it.

[Ratman_tf]

I have to think that the ending was put in later, or revised.  

It's basically a pity fuck. Note the scene where House is describing what happened to his leg. Cuddy's got this tear going down her cheek.

She's a total sap, and that's the jarring part. Because up until now, Cuddy seems to have known that he's an asshole with a nice guy wrapper with a curmudgeonly skin. And when House gets tired of her, it's gonna be fun to watch.  

[Vaiti]

I don't think it will be fun to watch. Simply because it's pretty predictable how it will go. I have a pretty clear idea in my head already of exactly how it will work.
And if it just happens NOT to work the way it is working in my head, then it still won't be fun.

Reason for this is simple. Watching House in a loving caring relationship a good show does not make.

[Reg]

Well, after marrying the hooker in last night's episode I suspect that House has officially jumped the shark. It will be renewed of course but if the producers had any sense they'd end it now rather than let it struggle on for another couple of seasons.

[Ratman_tf]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1B8xxa0a_0&feature=related

[Trippy]

Thirteen is back

[Slyfeind]

And there was much rejoicing.

[Tebonas]

There was?

Shouldn't buying the Tron Legacy Blue-ray give you enough samples of her talents to last you a lifetime?

[Slyfeind]

In a word, no.

In more than a word, the show really took a nosedive for me when they got rid of everybody except The Bachelors and added a schoolgirl. It started to look like something out of the 70's with the young woman doctor in a man's world trying to prove herself and blah blah blah, also she looks 30 years old, and also she stupidly wears tiny skirts all the time. The actress is good enough, and the character is sometimes interesting, but not interesting enough to distract from the weird dynamics they created.

Now not only Thirteen's back, but also Rachel, and that makes things not as awkward.

[Trippy]

There was?

Shouldn't buying the Tron Legacy Blue-ray give you enough samples of her talents to last you a lifetime?

You can never have too much Olivia Wilde on your screen.

[Ratman_tf]

I've been a big not-fan of the 13 character, but Wilde's break to do Legacy, and the stuff they did in this episode on bringing her back, hath redeemed the character for me.

[HaemishM]

Best 13-centric episode ever.

[Arthur_Parker]

Just catching up with this again, just watched 13 reappear, no way a tv show should be this good on it's 7th series.

[Ard]

Hugh Laurie has hinted at it ending with the 8th season though.

http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/s58/house/news/a318804/house-renewed-for-eighth-season-by-fox.html

[Samwise]

Much as I like the show, 8 good seasons is a very respectable run, and I'm really excited to think about what the writers might do once they've got something to work toward AND they don't need to worry about setting the show up to continue afterwards.  The season that ended with House in the loony bin was FANTASTIC.

[Surlyboi]

And it looks like this season's gonna end on a psycho note too.

[Viin]

Hugh Laurie was on the Graham Norton show this week - apparently he has a blues band or some such now. And he seemed to suggest that he would rather do that than act.

[Ironwood]

He could easily afford to.

[Slyfeind]

Definitely a better actor than singer, but Hugh Laurie is still a good singer. I don't blame him his aspirations; I'd rather play blues gigs the rest of my life, too.

House is pissing me off though with its "only one female doctor at a time" thing. What the fuck. I was happy when Thirteen came back, and I never liked Spunky Skoolgrrl that much anyway, but now the show's a damn bachelor-fest-with-a-chick again.

[Ratman_tf]

Definitely a better actor than singer, but Hugh Laurie is still a good singer. I don't blame him his aspirations; I'd rather play blues gigs the rest of my life, too.

House is pissing me off though with its "only one female doctor at a time" thing. What the fuck. I was happy when Thirteen came back, and I never liked Spunky Skoolgrrl that much anyway, but now the show's a damn bachelor-fest-with-a-chick again.

It's always been that.

Yay. They fixed House's leg, like in season 3. It would have been more interesting if he'd been moving to harder drugs, because of building up a tolerance to Vicodin. Ah well. Looking forward to the sad montage when his leg gets worse again! 

[Slyfeind]

It's always been that.

Negative. Around seasons 3-5, there were at least three female leads, not counting Cuddy, who is a special case. (Mama Bear, etc etc.)

[Ratman_tf]

Negative. Around seasons 3-5, there were at least three female leads, not counting Cuddy, who is a special case. (Mama Bear, etc etc.)

The team has always been 2 dudes and a gal, with a little overlap between actors coming and going.

[Ratman_tf]

Wow. I guess I have tumor on my face.  

*edit*

WTF. 13 has gone from zero to awesome.

Rather liked this episode. I expected everyone to call in sick the next day. 

[Surlyboi]

"This isn't where I parked my car"

[Merusk]

I was thinking that would have been a great end to the series.  I really don't want the happy-go-lucky everything's peachy and everyone's got a partner ending.

[Arthur_Parker]

Even though I liked the episode overall.  I really hate shows that start with a "this is odd" scene, then cut to a message saying "24 hours" or "three days earlier".  It works if you don't need the message, if you need to write the time period message then it's stupid.  It's happening more and more and it's annoying.

[Ratman_tf]

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh. I dunno if I like this one or not. It had it's moments, but it's still suffering from "One episode you can't miss!"-itus.