House

[tzikeh]

Hate. Hate. Hate.

ETA: Other hate-filled rants about this episode can be found here and here and here and here. Let me know if you see others, mmmkay?

That tears it. I have officially become the fan who watches House because of two actors (Laurie, Leonard) and two writers (Egan, Moran), rather than because the show is any good. I don't want to be that fan; I don't like the way it feels.

What. The. Hell. Was. That. We've just had a multi-episode run of House becoming even more of an unredeemable asshole, abusing his ties with Wilson and with Cuddy well past what should have been their individual breaking points (Lying to the cops? Lying *under oath*?), yet he is completely ungrateful to either of them -- it doesn't even appear to register with him the extraordinary lengths they went to for him -- and the entire arc amounts to *nothing*. Nothing has changed. The audience gets no payoff or resolution. And now, with, seriously, no character-driven logic, House is spending a day in the park with a rape victim who will only talk to *him* -- about what, she doesn't know, but it has to be *him* -- and he's discussing philosophy, and the nature of being, and telling her (and the audience) that his father abused him? WHY, WHY WITH THE ABUSING! I'd pay money if we could have a national moratorium on television characters having had abusive parents. I swear, it's becoming a joke - I sense that we're one step away from the unintentional hilarity of the Gremlins "Why I hate Christmas" monologue.

"Has anything really bad ever happened to you?" -- No, he limps along with a cane because it's fun. WTF? That's supposed to be a serious question from a real human being?

"It just seems like you've been hurt too." -- If a fanfiction author wrote that dialog for an OFC in a House story, we'd be mocking the shit out of the author.

What happened to this show? What happened to these characters? Cuddy, who used to kick ass on a regular basis, is now a whiny, toothless waste, trailing after House like some kind of perjurous puppy; Wilson has gone past being a co-dependent enabler (as well as interestingly fucked up in his own right) to a House addict who will, on occasion, sullenly cross his arms and hold his breath and swear he's taking his toys and going home and THIS TIME HE REELY MEANS IT OMG, but ultimately does nothing about anything. (And WTF was the point of the subplot with Cameron and the homeless cancer patient? We already *know* Cameron's a bleeding-heart masochist - what possible narrative advancement did this serve?) How did we get here? WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?

How could David Shore, he of Occam's Razor, Sports Medicine, Babies and Bathwater, Three Stories, No Reason, and, oh yeah, *creating the show*, have written this... this... I don't even have words.

Please, please, please - I want this show to pull it together. Lots of shows revitalize after a poor season. I hold out hope. But, to paraphrase Governor Ritchie from The West Wing: "House; boy, I don't know."

Eesh.

Comments

[cynicalgrl.livejournal.com]

In a previous post you asked how people found you and why they keep up - THIS! this exact post is why. I hate being this fan - and I really feel that they are writing for the performance (specifically Hugh's) and not for the actual show. REALLY frustrating - especially since the performace is outstanding.

And the abuse is cheap - a cheap device to get another "Very Special Episode of House". But I think much of the characterizations have been lost.

Maybe David Shore is already concentrating on the new series, which is casting right now. Yeah - that's it.

But the reason that I've kept up on all of your postings for the last year is the last line. One of my 3 favorite moments of the West Wing - I'd just like to tell David Shore that this episode is when we decided to kick his ass.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

THIS! this exact post is why.

LOL! Thanks - I guess I always feel like a dork when I post stuff like this, because I get so inarticulate when I get ranty that I have no idea if what I'm saying will make any sense to anyone else.

I had no idea Shore had a new show. *sigh*

oh - and

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

I'd just like to tell David Shore that this episode is when we decided to kick his ass.

YES! LOL!

[zulu]

Dude, I have been that fan for most of season three. They're lucky I love the characters and live with them in a happy place that I like to call Magical Late Season One Land.

La la la I didn't actually see this episode la la la.

(It's really sad that I made a House pie-filling icon and I now actually have a context to use it in earnest. Doris Egan, come and save us!)

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Doris Egan and Thom Moran - our saviors, we hope.

*sigh*

I like your icon, sad though it may be.

[dargie.livejournal.com]

Word.
I don't mind the abuse thing as much because he learned his behavior from someone, but in tandem with all the rest? Suckitude.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

I need a "word" icon. :)

And I *do* mind the abuse thing, because he as a character is much more interesting if he *didn't* learn his behavior from someone and was just that way, without external forces causing it. Some people are *just that way*. I'd rather everything not have a "when I was a kid blah blah blah" reason.

[dargie.livejournal.com]

I should add (don't mind me, my brain is just gone tonight) that his relationship with his father should have been clear almost from the start of the show. That would eliminate the Big (stupid) Reveal, and give House something to butt his head against, i.e., his behavior stinks, it stank when his dad pulled it on him and it stinks when he does it to others, but it works. People do what he wants. How does he find his way out of a situation where he's getting what he wants, knowing how disastrous his methods are? That would provide a heckuva lot more dramatic tension than "Ooooo, his dad was mean to him! We would never have guessed."

[luminosity]

After tonight's episode, I turned to N and said "the thrill is gone, baby. the thrill is gone." WTF WAS THAT? TALK ABOUT 42 MINUTES OF NON-SEQUITUR TELEVISION!

Good God y'all.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR!

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

You can see my very long response to the commenter in my LJ - the one you responded to - who asked about whether this ep was going to look "brilliant" in restrospect (Hah! as if) here (http://bethbethbeth.livejournal.com/396761.html?thread=8767961#t8767961), but I just wanted to add that the main reason I didn't hate this episode as much as you and some other folks did was because I've been "that fan" you're talking about above ever since the Vogler arc.

There have been wonderful moments in the show - and certain episodes (like "Three Stories") were extremely good - but...let's just say the show as a whole has had less far to fall in my estimation than it has in a lot of other people's minds.

I'm certainly with you in the "no, not good" camp though, despite not despising the ep.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

I didn't hate this episode as much as you and some other folks did was because I've been "that fan" you're talking about above ever since the Vogler arc.

Fair enough - after (network-pressure-invented) Vogler, I assumed the writing and production staff had... learned their lesson? I guess? So it never crossed my mind that they'd do it *again*. (I'm probably in the minority when it comes to the Stacy arc - I liked it a whole lot.) But if we're talking diagetically, I can't believe that after Vogler, and what Wilson and Cuddy were willing to give up for House in that arc, and the fact that House knew what they gave up for him, it would all happen *again*. Hell, House was *more* repentant after Vogler than he is now after Tritter.

And as much as I love (loved?) the House/Wilson vibe, I had other equally compelling reasons to watch the show (Cuddy was a great character, I love watching people be good at their jobs, the wit of the writing, etc.), but they're all gone, it seems, except for some funny lines here and there.

Argh.

[kassrachel.livejournal.com]

What bums me out -- tremendously -- is that I am right there with you.

I have more to say about this, and will try to do so later today in my own lj, but for now: yeah. Sigh.

[kassrachel.livejournal.com]

My own rant, fwiw, is here.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

*sigh*

And your "I have more to say about this" reminds me that I meant to respond, in depth, to your dislike of "No Reason" (which I still think was fabulous), but... the wind has kinda gone out of my sails for the time being.

[semielliptical]

I don't usually notice the credits at the beginning of the show, so throughout I kept saying "Who let the writer(s) get away with this crap?" So in a way makes sense to me to find out that it was David Shore, because I guess he can write whatever he wants, even if it's a stupid premise *and* poorly executed.

The best part of watching the show, by far, was the popcorn that I was eating.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

The best part of watching the show, by far, was the popcorn that I was eating.

The best part of watching the show for me, by far, was... uh...

uh...

that it's over now.

[marzilla.livejournal.com]

*sigh* I never watch live anymore, because I like to be forewarned about the badness these days. And this time? I think I'm not going to be watching at all.

I still love Hugh, but I just don't think I can stick with this show anymore, not when everything I loved about it has turned into a caricature of what used to be great TV.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

:nod: I hear ya. I'll probably stick around with the TiVo and maybe something else to do while I watch (homework, chatting online, knitting...) but--and man, I *never* thought this would happen--if it doesn't get better, it's gone.

Oh my God I actually said it. But you know, I used to hang in until the bitter end for shows I was watching solely due to my completest nature. *You* know, the personality quirk that requires I buy full box sets of tv shows I watched even if I never open the box. But I've learned my lesson about hanging in there (fuck you Chris Carter fuck you Chris Carter fuck you Chris Carter) when I gave up The X Files after Season Seven, which in and of itself was still too late. I don't *want* to look back on House and remember a slow slide into hell; I want to look back on House and remember how much I *loved* it. It took me *years* to get to a place where I could even look at an episode of The X Files in syndication, and even longer before I could stomach it well enough to vid it. And even now, all the emotion I can muster up for it is, "Man, I remember when this show was *good*."

And unfortunately, without a time machine, I can't know if House is there or not.

[tazlet.livejournal.com]

Totally disgusted. Not so much with the 'big reveal' (as Dargie put it) -- booooring but somehow, something like that had to lurking in background -- it's the waste of character (who were those people?) and the thought of the million and one poor-abused-House-and-Wilson-is-the-only-person-in-the-world-who-understands stories that will be spawned from that Epidode From Hell.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

the million and one poor-abused-House-and-Wilson-is-the-only-person-in-the-world-who-understands stories that will be spawned from that Epidode From Hell

BWAH!

Yes, we must never forget that crappy episodes like this one bring even *more* crappy fanfiction than usual. ;)

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

More when I'm not on my way out the door to work, but briefly - CAN WE JUST PRETEND THAT EPISODE DID NOT HAPPEN???

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

CAN WE JUST PRETEND THAT EPISODE DID NOT HAPPEN???

WE CAN TRY! AAAIGH.

[slb44.livejournal.com]

I'm going to pull a Wilson and stamp my foot and cross my arms and pout and stick with the theory that House was not telling the truth damn it!

On the other hand, I think I'm going to start taping this show and so I can fast forward through any more baaad stuff like this.

*shudders*

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

*weeps*

[janedavitt.livejournal.com]

I ranted here:

http://janedavitt.livejournal.com/658778.html

Dreadful, dreadful episode...

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Rant link added. And yeah. Dreadful. As if you didn't already know I felt that way. ;)

[beebalm.livejournal.com]

Whatever. Just whatever. Never before have I wanted to TURN OFF HOUSE. MAKE THE BADNESS STOP.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

MAKE THE BADNESS STOP.

PLEEEEAAAASE! Again I am drawn to a West Wing quote to apply to David Shore, this time from Toby -

"Did you hit your head? Did you fall and hit your head on something hard?"

[dorothy1901]

And what was up with Rape Victim Character? Did she have friends, a family, a job, a name? She was a stick figure made of Plot Device. She existed to prod House into self-revelation, and to demonstrate the latest in smudge-proof lipstick.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

name? She was a stick figure made of Plot Device.

AHAHAHAH - I am so adopting that. "You are made of Plot Device!"

She existed to prod House into self-revelation

Which is another thing that fucking bugs me about this episode. Your audience wants emotional pay-off, David Shore. Emotional pay-off does not come in a vacuum. If he *had* to go there with the abuse, couldn't House have told that story to Wilson or Cuddy? I have no investment in Smudge-Proof-Plot-Device Girl, so what do I care what she thinks of House's revelation?

*sigh*

[no-detective.livejournal.com]

Well, goodness. Had I known you were going to link to my rant, I would've tidied up the CAPS OF RAGE a bit.

(Since you're collecting, ahab99 points out some serious failures in logic in her ep review.)

Oh, you're so right: badfic. This episode was badfic. I can think of no other explanation. I mean, no matter how cranky I get, I rarely want to bitchslap rape victims - even fictional ones. You know?

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Woops! Next time I'll give rant-linkage warnings. :) And I'll like to ahab as well - thanks for the heads-up. Man, it still chaps my ass *today*. I gotta go watch some Roslin and Adama scenes from BSG to scrape this out of my head.