House: Season Premiere

T

trueut2003

250+ Posts
What did everyone think? I loved it, and Hugh Laurie is just unbelievable as this character. I thought it was a great change of pace from the patient-of-the-week formula. The whole time I was waiting for House to diagnose the silent girl, but I found myself releived that he didn't.
 
Although terribly cliché (******* genius), I’ve always enjoyed House. I’m afraid the show has lost me as a fan. I do enjoy the character and the dialog, but too many poorly conceived plot points.

* Why would House get a recommendation to re-instate his medical license by pissing off the ward lead? NO. If you piss him off, he would not need to recommend you – in fact, he would just kick you out and not recommend you (like he tried to do at the end).

*Psych doctor is going to confront a patient’s delusion in the commons area for all to see? (when superman dude was asked to lift the piano)

*High security psych ward (I assume since bars on the windows and House couldn’t use the phone) is going to let House leave with another delusional and highly depressed patient to help a lady with her cello?

*How the hell did House get to use the Puerto Rican’s phone privilege anyway? I may have missed how he was able to access the floor with the phone.

*Lady who only knows House is some crazy in the psych ward will allow him to joy ride in the car? Then when he actually commits grand theft auto, she’s just cool with it? He either committed a crime, or she helped them both escape. In the real world, somebody would be in jail.

*House has done everything he can to make all the other mental patients miserable, but he suddenly grows a heart for this one special guy. So much so, that he is willing to risk his freedom to put a smile on his face? Being a truthful ******* so people will get better has always been House’s MO. He is completely contrary to that with this one patient.

*A country fair has a multiple story parking garage?

*During pee tests, they don’t give a **** about your dignity.
 
Is it me or did the show borrow too much from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: (1) inciting the patients: ping pong vs. baseball, (2) basketball scenes, (3) music box vs. record player, (4) head gear on House?
 
I love Andre Braugher and would love for him to find his way into the show's cast (since there are literally no other figures left with any authority over house anymore), but I think the episode was incredibly problematic for a number of reasons, both from realism as well as for what it means to the show. I'll speak to the latter first since it is more the heart of the problem... the criticism of this show for the last 5 years has been that it is the same damned thing week in and week out. So either this episode signals a dramatic change in the show's central dynamic (house is broken) or yet another bait and switch. I'm betting on something down the center where we get to watch House's fall from grace over the course of the season... which would make it exactly like every other season of House. A bunch of sound and fury signifying nothing.

As for realism... well, as a former mental health worker I spent the whole episode scratching my head wondering if they bothered to visit a mental institution or if they just rented cuckoo's nest and called it a "research". It was so far from reality as to be bizarre.

-A detoxed chemical dependency patient (even with hallucinations) gets discharged to outpatient, not the mental health ward.
-A voluntary patient who asks to be discharged and is denied that, is being kidnapped, not cared for.
-No insurance would cover this treatment for a patient of House's acuity.
-No mental health ward with psychotic patients is going to allow a guy to have a cane.
-No mental health ward with psychotic patients is going to have this much exposed glass.
-No mental health ward with combative patients is going to give haldol in pill form... not because they patient may cheek the pill, but because they would bite the fingers off of the person trying to administer it.
-Seclusion (padded room) is not used punitively.
-There would be more techs on the floor.
-MDs don't do group.
-A patient admitted for chemical dependency doesn't get free reign at a cocktail party.
-A patient doesn't EVER get an unsupervised pass from the unit. If they are safe enough to be on the other side of a locked door without supervision, then they are safe enough to go home.
-If House steals a car and kidnaps a patient, he goes to jail regardless of whether the guy jumps off the roof... and there is an investigation and the hospital gets closed down.
-An MD asking for a professional favor from a patient loses his license for ethics violations.
-Mental Health wards don't operate on the "one of each type of crazy person" theory.
-They also don't conduct group sessions with people who are unwilling or unable to participate in them.
-They also do 99% of their treatment in pill form. Once stabilized the patient is out the door and in outpatient therapy.
-A person who's catatonic for 10 years goes to a long term care facility.
-At night the nurses station is occupied by nurses, not patients humping visitors who are there outside of visiting hours.
-Speaking of which, visiting hours are short and rigidly enforced.
-Private hospital's tend to not look like 19th century prisons....

you know what I culd go on for a couple more pages, but I think the point is made. They didn't make a slight effort for realism here, even though realism wouldn't conflict with the storyline... that's just lazy.
 
Funny, I really liked the episode, and all the obvious glaring holes you just blasted into the story didn't really detract. (Thanks, though, I love reading that kind of thing, about the plot errors. I'm a trial lawyer, and you can imagine my reaction to all the lawyer shows.) For me, the point was that House's character is so entertaining, they can put him in any environment, and it's still "House," even with all the other characters and the setting gone.
 
VYFan, with the exception of letting a CD patient drink wine at a hospital party, all the rest of them bother me because I think they build on the existing stigma of MH facilities as being frightening sad places to keep sick people out of sight. Furthermore, I think there are very real problems with how mental health disorders are treated in this country, and by focusing on the problems of the last century, we are ignoring the problems of this one. There is plenty of negative to focus on if that is their intent, if not, I don't understand the point of painting the picture they painted. But that is something that I think most people wouldn't have a problem with unless they understand how this type of medicine is practiced and how these problems really manifest. I can imagine how you must feel watching lawyer shows, as you must imagine how I feel every time I see a multiple personality criminal mastermind... that just isn't how it works, dammit, and I can't let it go.
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That said, I think you hit the nail on the head of the my first issue with it. If the point is that you can stick House in any situation and its still House... then why do they keep trying to "reform" the character and simply let the show go on? If he is just going to be him, then stop telling me how terrible and unmanageable the his addictions are if there are never going to be any real consequences for them. It is just frustrating. It is time to either change the game, or stop threatening to.
 
I can't believe there are still people that ***** about realism on a ******* TV SHOW. It's not a documentary. It's network television.

There is one reason to watch House, and that is Hugh Laurie. He acts circles around every other actor on TV, and about 99% of all actors period.

Of course, my second biggest reason for watching is Olivia Wilde, but she wasn't in this episode.
 
Mia, I see your point about the MH facilities, and there are topics that I do get this same reaction to as far as Hollywood/TV world goes. (Such as, deliberately trying to teach my children to cuss, and refusing to portray a normal nuclear family as a strong ideal.) MH isn't an issue for me, so it goes right past. I do learn something from your post noting the problems, however.
I guess I do just like Hugh Laurie's character enough that it doesn't matter. It's really the quick wit and believable insanity/genius/insecurity/superiority edge that holds my attention, and I've gotten to where I barely even follow the disease that's being cured.
To give credit, I suppose some writer is as responsible as the actor, and I suppose some director is responsible for the angles and timing that holds my interest. Whatever, it amuses me.
 
I really liked the episode, and felt it proved House would be worth watching again this season, not just another "jumped the shark" show.
I was reminded of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" a few times, but I was able to overlook it obvious references, as the storyline was good, the acting good, and the result not immediately apparent. This is one of the few good shows left on network, so hope it maintains interest this season.
As for why House got his license back, he is a great diagnostician, so a plus to the hospital staff, despite his human flaws. That's what makes the show interesting.
And they couldn't very well have a season where House is out selling shoes as a job, could they?
 
He didn't get his license back yet. The psychiatrist was going to write a letter recommending it. If you say the scenes from next week, he was being told he could see patients until he gets his license.

As for the realism, I have to agree: it's TV. Made up. Drama. Are cops showsdone correctly? Was ER correct? Lawyer/Court shows (see The Practice)?
 
I'm not asking that the shows be an exact replica of reality, but I think grover hit it on the head. There gets to be a point that you are so far from reality that it is hard not to be distracted by gulf between the way it is and the fantasy. It is interesting that the modern view of a medical treatment room is glass walls and machines with better interfaces than a star trek ship, but a psych ward needs to be damp, dark, and gothic. Honestly, I don't think any psych ward has had a padded room (the padding is horribly unsanitary) or a straight jacket (dirty, dangerous, and not very effective) in more than half a century... but they are still on the TV. I'm not saying that the cliches should be abandoned, just updated. It costs the production nothing and it actually can contribute to the story telling.

I not asking for a TV psych ward to be real, just vaguely realish.
 
House has become overly formulistic. Always great dialogue but same start, middle and end. This episode was a nice break from that pattern. But dude better watch out messing with Jason Bourne's girl.
 
tomatoes and cucumbers are considered fruit if you are talking from a botany perspective.

If you are talking from a culinary perspective, they are both considered veggies.
 
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