House: A Simple Explanation (spoilers)
Apr. 15th, 2009 09:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scottahillI'm on Hulu time (we dropped cable TV when we moved to Irving, and between Hulu and Netflix-on-demand we haven't missed it at all) so I just watched last week's episode of House.
I was spoiled a week ago, which pissed me off, partly because Kutner was my favorite of the three new doctors, and partly because I thought the suicide was going to be in the very last scene, a reaction to what happened in the episode, and I would spend the whole episode waiting for it to happen.FortunatelyHowever, the suicide occurred right away (and because I didn't think it would happen right away I didn't even figure out he was dead until they entered his apartment). It would have been very easy to believe that House might be right about the murder, even though it sounded implausible, if I hadn't read that "Kutner commits suicide" beforehand, so I suppose I was spoiled for that bit as well.
It's weird that they filmed it without Penn at all, the way they do when an actor actually dies-- it's not as if he wasn't available for shooting, since he only just started his job last week and they must have filmed the episode a couple of months ago. Mind you, the storyline worked without him, but I wonder how many viewers now think that Penn is dead because they haven't heard the reason for his leaving.
I have always been suspicious of the fact that the three new doctors were not listed in the opening credits this season, and when I first heard about the suicide my suspicions were aroused further. Of course, they didn't know Penn was leaving until the middle of the season, but still I'm wondering again-- are Taub and 13 meant to be permanent members of the cast? Or are they just there to give the original cast some room to grow as doctors, out from under House's thumb, only to rejoin his team on a more equal footing when 13 succumbs to Huntington's and Taub leaves for whatever reason?
As an atheist, House has frequently ridiculed people for wanting the Universe to make sense, so it is ironic to find him doing that very thing here. If he were a pure rationalist, he would have accepted the suicide and moved on-- after all, human brains are just wet bags of chemicals, neurons can misfire, reactions go wrong. But of course he's always been a very emotional person, otherwise it wouldn't bug him so much to be wrong. His continual fascination with religious people makes me think that he's a "closeted" theist too, exhibiting the same sorts of reactions that a closeted homosexual might (as homophobia).
I wonder about the motivation of having the woman patient die; patients die so rarely on House, ironic given its often grim tone (as compared to Scrubs where patients dropped like flies-- a question of balance), that it probably has a reason. It's an ironic twist on the opening scene where she's sitting there with him about to die, of course. It could be meant to demonstrate just how messed up House was by the suicide, although I thought that was obvious enough.
Oh, and I've never been a careful follower of House, so it's only just this evening struck me as strange that Taub's first name is "Chris" and Foreman's first name is "Eric". To my ears, both names seem "young", and indeed the Baby Name Voyager confirms that both names only became popular in the '70s, and yet Taub and Foreman both seem older than that to me. What's happened, of course, is that "born in the '70s" isn't as "young" as I like to think it is. :)
EDIT: Oh, and I just started reading some of the comments online about the episode that were posted immediately after the episode, and it occurs to me that having been spoiled might have made the episode better for me. If I hadn't known about Penn's new job, I might have thought it was just a cheap ratings ploy on their part (cf my suspicion above), as was the reaction of many people; knowing about the job in advance let me feel sad about Kutner without being pissed off at the writers.
I was spoiled a week ago, which pissed me off, partly because Kutner was my favorite of the three new doctors, and partly because I thought the suicide was going to be in the very last scene, a reaction to what happened in the episode, and I would spend the whole episode waiting for it to happen.
It's weird that they filmed it without Penn at all, the way they do when an actor actually dies-- it's not as if he wasn't available for shooting, since he only just started his job last week and they must have filmed the episode a couple of months ago. Mind you, the storyline worked without him, but I wonder how many viewers now think that Penn is dead because they haven't heard the reason for his leaving.
I have always been suspicious of the fact that the three new doctors were not listed in the opening credits this season, and when I first heard about the suicide my suspicions were aroused further. Of course, they didn't know Penn was leaving until the middle of the season, but still I'm wondering again-- are Taub and 13 meant to be permanent members of the cast? Or are they just there to give the original cast some room to grow as doctors, out from under House's thumb, only to rejoin his team on a more equal footing when 13 succumbs to Huntington's and Taub leaves for whatever reason?
As an atheist, House has frequently ridiculed people for wanting the Universe to make sense, so it is ironic to find him doing that very thing here. If he were a pure rationalist, he would have accepted the suicide and moved on-- after all, human brains are just wet bags of chemicals, neurons can misfire, reactions go wrong. But of course he's always been a very emotional person, otherwise it wouldn't bug him so much to be wrong. His continual fascination with religious people makes me think that he's a "closeted" theist too, exhibiting the same sorts of reactions that a closeted homosexual might (as homophobia).
I wonder about the motivation of having the woman patient die; patients die so rarely on House, ironic given its often grim tone (as compared to Scrubs where patients dropped like flies-- a question of balance), that it probably has a reason. It's an ironic twist on the opening scene where she's sitting there with him about to die, of course. It could be meant to demonstrate just how messed up House was by the suicide, although I thought that was obvious enough.
Oh, and I've never been a careful follower of House, so it's only just this evening struck me as strange that Taub's first name is "Chris" and Foreman's first name is "Eric". To my ears, both names seem "young", and indeed the Baby Name Voyager confirms that both names only became popular in the '70s, and yet Taub and Foreman both seem older than that to me. What's happened, of course, is that "born in the '70s" isn't as "young" as I like to think it is. :)
EDIT: Oh, and I just started reading some of the comments online about the episode that were posted immediately after the episode, and it occurs to me that having been spoiled might have made the episode better for me. If I hadn't known about Penn's new job, I might have thought it was just a cheap ratings ploy on their part (cf my suspicion above), as was the reaction of many people; knowing about the job in advance let me feel sad about Kutner without being pissed off at the writers.
