4 posts tagged “house”
Apparently the writers of House do.
Last night's House was, frankly, boring, preachy and irritating. Three words I never thought I'd use with this show. I have no problem most of the time with showing rape victims or child abuse issues on TV - they're both important issues that should get more exposure. But. When the rape victim screams plot contrivance and just won't shut up, and House suddenly gets all mushy and exposes the deep dark secrets of his past to a total stranger (apparently his dad was crazy and abusive), and they spend what feels like hours on philosophical discussions about abortion and the existence of God... seriously, what show am I watching? I don't expect this level of cliche sentimentality from a show that's usually snarky and morally gray. And I certainly didn't expect the writers to make such a trite move with House's childhood - are we now supposed to think that he's how he is because he was abused? Because that is such a cop-out.
And let's not even go into Cameron's B-plot. Double ugh.
There were some bright spots - Chase had some very funny moments, and the Wilson/House scenes were, as usual, great. And there were some funny clinic patients and a cool moment where House found out where a magnet that a kid had swallowed was by sticking a metal instrument (a scalpel, I think?) to his stomach. But other than that, I really did not like this episode. And I was looking forward to it as a rebirth after the Tritter arc. I really, really hope next week is better.
Luckily, last night's episode of Veronica Mars, while not perfect, was pretty good, if lacking in supporting cast (Wallace? Are you alive?). But the promos certainly didn't help my "after-school special" evening - either the horrific CW promo people strike again, or I'm going to have to write Rob Thomas a letter informing him that pregnancy scares are so not amusing and so not what this show is about. I'm hoping it's just bad promos again. And if so, maybe I'll just direct that letter to them. Because that really doesn't make me want to watch the episode, even as a hard-core viewer.
Last night's Golden Globes offered a nice start to the 2007 awards season, with enough back and forth between funny and moving (with the usual dull bathroom-break times mixed in) to actually keep my attention all (okay, most) of its three-hour run.
Some of the highlights:
- Hugh Laurie's hilarious acceptance speech. It's always a little jarring to hear Dr. House with a British accent, but the man is funny: "I'd like to thank Robert Sean Leonard. I can't remember why." And discussing how great the crew of House is: "Somebody, somewhere is working with a crew of drunken thieves... [ours] smell of newly mown grass."
- Justin Timberlake having to cover for Prince not getting there in time to accept his award. You could see a flicker of panic on Justin's face, but he stepped up and made it into a joke. You just know someone got fired over that one.
- Sacha Baron Cohen, as himself for once, accepting his Globe with what basically became an ode to a rancid air bubble from between his costar's asscheeks.
- America Ferrera and Jennifer Hudson's genuinely moved acceptance speeches. Awwww. Combine that with Forest Whitaker's baffled speechlessness when he won, and I almost needed some tissues.
- Tim Allen referring to 30 Rock as "Third Rock," right before presenting Alec Baldwin the award for the same show.
- Schwarzenegger's inability to pronounce "Babel" and "Bobby" differently. Luckily, he managed to clear it up enough to get across that Babel was the winner.
-Beyonce's lack of wins in the face of Jennifer Hudson's triumph. I'm not sure why that's so satisfying, but oh, it is.
Three hours almost wasn't enough. Well, okay, it was plenty, but at least 30 minutes of that was pure entertainment.
And I'm so very glad.
I know I'm not the only one relieved that the House's Tritter arc is over. Sure, in real life, I'd prefer not to have a doctor who's also a jerk and an addict, but it makes for damn good TV and Dr. House is one of the most appealing assholes around. He's a lot more fun to watch when he's popping pills and making unnecessarily snarky remarks.
In much sadder news that I was unable to discuss earlier due to some laptop issues, The O.C. has been officially cancelled. We've got til the end of February to watch what has been one of the O.C.'s strongest seasons yet, and then it's done. I have to say, sad as I am, I'm glad the show is going out on a high note and I hope the rest of the season continues to be this great.
Is it just me or is Veronica Mars getting better and better this season?
Last night felt like old-school VM, with Veronica working to clear her name of cheating in what turned out to be a plot by the TA to let her know her new favorite professor isn't quite what he seems. Cheating was the theme of the night - Walace admitted that he cheated last week and took a zero to stay in his engineering class, dropping basketball for the semester to free up more studying time; Keith had a rendevous with the unhappily-married Harmony (Elliott and Maya together again!); and the promos for this week showed something about Logan being unfaithful. Which... didn't happen. Most misleading promos ever.
I might forgive the CW promo department if next week is as crazy as it looks from the preview they showed last night. It freaked me out - I'm already going crazy to see what happens next week.
Thanks to the power of the VCR and multiple TVs (I should probably move into this century and get DVR or TiVo at some point), I was able to catch House, too, and boy, are they letting us know its sweeps. Illness-plot of the episode aside (a seriously obese man kept getting annoyed that they were telling him something was medically wrong with him after he came out of a COMA, and Cameron was kind of awesome for once), House is getting himself deeper and deeper in with the cop who arrested him last week. The guy's persistant - he found House's rather extensive narcotic stash in his apartment, and it looks like House may be getting Wilson into trouble as he confirmed he signed all of House's prescriptions (although it was pretty clear he didn't). Eeep.
