I am going to devote three blog posts to the three television shows I consider to be the best. These are House,Frasier and Seinfeld. These shows are all very different, but I believe they have more in common, then you'd think. This first one is about House.
House is a show that is completely focused on its main character, the genius, damaged Dr. House. Almost everything the other characters do on the show has some connection to him and in the rare instances that there is no connection to House, the show simply becomes less good.
Dr. House (Hugh Laurie) is a truly genius doctor that saves lives most other doctors can't save. It's interesting that House does indeed know a lot about all kinds of diseases, but that is not the main reason he saves all of these lives. That's his even greater knowledge of the human condition. During the debates about his patient, it are actually his team members that come up with the most possibilities for the disease their patient has. Eventually House finds the cure by deducing the character of his patients. This is practically what happens in every episode and originality is not the shows biggest strengths. However the dialogues are often brilliant and discuss ethical and philosophical issues. There is also a lot of humor.
House himself has some problems too. He is addicted to Vicodin, because his leg is in constant pain. This makes him miserable and misanthropic. He has only one true friend, the oncologist James Wilson. It is often said though that House always was a bit miserable and misanthropic. His leg trouble just made it worse. House is a pessimist, who doesn't have a high opinion of the human race. His two favorite phrases are: "Everybody lies" and "People don't change." Unfortunately most of his patients give him no reason to change his mind. House debates religious people the most. He is a rationalist who tries to find a rational reason for everything.
The main theme of the show seems to be the (in)ability to change. I believe that the show shows that House does want to change. The reason he can't do this is that he believes he needs a big obvious reason to do this. Not for himself, but for the people around him. They need to know that there is something different in his life that is out of the ordinary to truly believe that he is finally going to change. They have known him for so long, that otherwise when he tries to change they believe he lies, that he has some hidden agenda, or that he is having some problem and they start worrying about him. The irony is that House seems to be right about this. To I hope to show this all by citing a lot of different examples from the show.
To a lesser extent all of this also applies to a lot of the other characters on this show.The first hint of this comes in the season 1 episode 'Babies and Bathwater." A billionaire named Edward Vogler will give money to the hospital if everything in the hospital is to his liking. Of course he doesn't like House, and they get into a lot of fights. Vogler though is willing to forgive and forget everything if House gives a speech about the greatness of a new medicine, which may earn Vogler a lot of money. House doesn't believe in the medicine and deliberately screws the speech. After this, we literally get a glimpse into House's mind. House is fantasizing about talking to Vogler. They are having a friendly conversation and House says that he is sorry Vogler got cancer and that he'll do anything to help him. We see that House thinks that something drastic needs to happen so he can talk normally to Vogler. One may not think that this is very obvious, but this is the first time we get a direct glimpse into House's mind and it's not something that happens very often in the show. It has so far only happened then, in the last episode of the second and fourth season, and during the last couple of episodes in the fifth season. I can't think of other examples unitil the last episode of the second season which is, not without reason called 'No reason.' In it House is shot. During his coma, he hallucinates and looks for reasons why he's shot. House always treats his patients badly and they or their relatives have quite some reasons to hate him. None of them ever shot him though. Since this one did, House thinks his actions had a completely different and worse impact on this guy then on anyone else. There must be a reason for House, why exactly this guy shot him and not someone else. It never occurs to him that this might simply be a bad guy.
After being shot and coming out of his coma House request to be treated with ketamine. Apparently that can diminish his leg pain. For a while it does. During this period we see a reasonably happy House, that treats his patients and the people around him better. At the same time his best friend Wilson bores him to death with his analyzing about why House changed. The ketamine wears off though and House picks up his old habits. The situation is again like it used to be, so House has to be like he used to be. This sets up season 3, the show's greatest season yet.
House gets into trouble when he verbally and physically abuses detective Tritter, a cop who is as stubborn as House and won't back off until he teaches House a lesson. Tritter tries to force House stop using Vicodin. Of course House doesn't want that, but he is in even more trouble when Tritter finds out House has been forging Wilson's handwriting to get even simpler access to Vicodin. This, unfortunately for House, is a criminal act and he can go to jail for it if Tritter can prove this. Tritter offers House a deal though. He can either go to jail and lose his medical license or go to a withdrawal clinic. House doesn't want anything of that. But at Christmas Eve something happens. House almost dies of an overdose. Now this is something that never happened to him, so now he has a reason to go to the clinic. Unfortunately for, now Wilson has a reason too to admit to Tritter that House really forged his autograph. While in the withdrawal clinic House apologizes to Wilson, because he got him into so much trouble. Even though Wilson is his best and only friend, House doesn't treat him too well either and this is the first time in the show we see him sincerely apologize to Wilson. Of course he now has a reason: to apologize is part of the withdrawal course. Every addict has to apologize to someone he hurt because of his addiction. Back in court House is saved by Cuddy's testimony, which is completely unbelievable, but well, if he went to jail the show would be over. He still has to pass a night in jail though for showing contempt for the court. There Wilson again over-analyzes House apology, Tritter can't do anything to House anymore and we're back to the situation like it was before Tritter. And House of course stops the withdrawal course and becomes his old self again. There is no more a reason to behave otherwise.
Still in season 3 there is the episode Half-Wit. On a side note, this episode stars the wonderful character actor Kurtwood Smit, as the harsh father of a piano player. He specializes in playing harsh fathers, most notably in That 70's show and Dead Poets Society. In this last movie he played the father who drove Robert Sean Leonard's character to death. Robert Sean Leonard is the actor that here plays Wilson.
Anyway, in this episode House tries to fake he has cancer. Suddenly Wilson, Cuddy and his fellows all start acting nicely towards him. His condition changed, so now the people around him change their behavior too. Cameron, a fellow of his who has a kind of a crush on him now finally kisses him. Of course this is not a simple kiss. She tries to take a DNA sample to test if there is nothing to be done about his cancer. She needs a reason too to change her behavior. It's important to note that House doesn't want his fellows or his friends to think he has cancer, but some doctors in Boston. They have discovered some drug that they inject in your brain if you have cancer so you don't feel depressed. We assume that House hopes that this will make him happy. More importantly if someone asks why he is happy, he could have a clear-cut answer for it. It doesn't really matter it's unethical. We've seen House do even more unethical things and we've seen him talk about them.
Foreman eventually does quit and House doesn't seem to be really bothered by that. In fact he even fires Chase when he becomes mad at House. That is not something that hasn't happened before and there is not really a good reason why House should fire Chase. During the show we've seen House predicting the behavior of complete strangers. So it shouldn't surprise him that Cameron, who by now has become Chase's girlfriend, would quit too if he fires Chase. I believe that House saw Foreman's quitting as a great chance to start over with a fresh new batch of fellows. Foreman, Chase and Cameron have known him for so long that, he believes, that they'll probably ask lots of questions if he really tries to change and probably will not believe him.
Well, his plan doesn't really work. First of all Foreman, Cameron and Chase keep working in the same hospital and of course so do Cuddy and Wilson. Secondly all his new fellows want to work with him because of his reputation as a great doctor. But they also know his bad sides. This is a bit of an uneven season, mostly because in the first half of it the writers sometimes make House's character go way over the top. The second half is great again, though with a great climax in the finale. But before that finale there are two other great episodes. The first one is 'Games' where there is lots of discussion about whether their patient of the week can change or is changed. But an even greater episode is 'No More Mr. Nice Guy'. The patient of the weak is there a guy who is to nice for his own good. House looks at this extreme niceness as a symptom for a disease. There is no real reason to do this and it is rightly pointed out to him that he thinks this, because if niceness is a symptom for a disease, then rudeness might be too. Once the disease is cured, the extreme niceness or rudeness will too. The interesting thing is that House's rudeness has of course nothing to do with a disease, the guys niceness though does. But the most interesting part of this episode is that House fakes he has syphilis. And unlike in Half-Wit, this time he does hope everyone believes him. Not because he wants them to feel sorry for him, but because he knows that syphilis can be cured with medicines which as a side-effect can alter ones personality and make one nicer. House starts to act nicer and the people around him really believe him, though they worry that he might lose his diagnostic abilities. House eventually makes the error of telling Wilson that he faked syphilis, but asks him to not tell it anyone. Wilson does tell it though to his girlfriend Amber, who out of spite for House, tells it to his fellows. And so everything turns back to normal. Not for long though. In the two-part finale House gets drunk in a bar and calls up Wilson to pick him up. He is not there, so Amber comes to pick him up. They get in a bus and the bus has an accident. House hits his head hard and becomes unconscious. When he wakes up the rescue workers are underway, but he feels pretty fine and goes to the hospital. Unfortunately he forgets that Amber was with him, but he does have an uncanny feeling that he forgot something. At the end of the first part he remembers and in the second part he and Wilson find Amber in another hospital. She is pretty banged up from the crash, but that's not the worst thing. She was sick to begin with. The crash destroyed her kidneys and after lots of efforts she does die. House who electroshock-ed his brain to remember exactly what happened to her gets into a short coma. He then hallucinates that he is with Amber in a bus. In this scene we finally really realize that House is not happy with his life and really does want to change. He says to Amber that he doesn't want to be miserable, he doesn't want to be in pain and that he doesn't want Wilson to hate him for what happened. In season 5 we'll see House hoping to achieve all those things.
Over the seasons we've seen House causing Wilson, lots of trouble. Wilson was a better friend to House, then the other way round. But Wilson could never stop his friendship with House. Now Amber died, partly due to House, Wilson finally has a real, identifiable reason to stop his friendship with House. At the beginning of season 5 he does just that. The first episode is fittingly called 'Dying changes everything.' Wilson also quits his job at the hospital. It was pretty clear that Wilson would eventually come back and restore his friendship with House. Unfortunately the writers made it happen very fast. This situation lasted hardly three episodes, but it was handled very well. After Wilson breaks his friendship with House, House tries to visit him. Of course he only does this after he finds a reason that he can give for his visit. His patient might have cancer and Wilson is an oncologist. In a brilliantly acted scene by both it is obvious that Wilson does want to restore their friendship, but since nothing changed since last time they talked he can't. They eventually restore their friendship in the episode 'Birthmarks' House's father has died, but House doesn't want to go to the funeral. But Cuddy drugs him and forces Wilson to drive House to the funeral, because House's mother wants him there. Wilson could of course refuse. He doesn't even work for Cuddy anymore. But now he actually has a reason to be with House again. After an interesting road trip where we find out how Wilson and House met and House finds out that his father is not his real father, Wilson and House restore their friendship. Wilson realizes that House is, despite some flaws, a truly unique and interesting person. All is well again. Wilson does not hate House. Birthmarks is the fourth episode and until episode 15, 'Unfaithful' this season is pretty mediocre. There is a bit too much time devoted to Thirteen's troubles with Huntington's disease and there is even a episode with a hostage situation. This episode is probably the worst episode on House. Apart from being very cliched it has also a big plot hole. The hostage taker wants to test every medicine he gets on one of his hostages. If it kills them he won't take it. That is pretty logical, but in the end he ends up with only Thirteen. Thirteen wants to sacrifice herself and take the medicine, even though she has Huntington's and it could kill her. The hostage taker knows this too. Thus it's utterly pointless for him to try the medicine on her first. Eventually all ends well and nor he nor Thirteen die.
Despite all this there are a couple of episodes between episodes 4 and 15 that are worth mentioning. These are 'The Itch' and 'Joy' and 'Joy to the World'. In 'Joy' House and Cuddy kiss. In the next episode, 'The Itch', the consequences of this kiss are examined. Again we see that the characters don't know what to think of this, because there was not really a reason for them to kiss. The episode also seems full of symbolism. House treats an agoraphobic, who is more cowardly then phobic. After treating him, House, calls him out on his cowardly behavior. It actually feels more like House is speaking about himself. At the end of the episode there is a brilliant parallel sequence, where both House and his patient try to be less cowardly. The patient manages to get out of his house. House goes to Cuddy's house, but he just can't bring up the courage to ring up. There is also a weird dream in the middle of the episode where House tries to kill a mosquito and destroys his house in the process. In 'Joy to the World' Cuddy adopts a baby. This shocks House. It's a change for Cuddy, so naturally House thinks this will change their (not romantic) relationship.
As I said earlier this were all fairly decent episodes, but a bit too melodramatic and not really up to the standards of the rest of the show. Luckily this changes by episode 15, Unfaithful. From that episode on till the season finale there is a stretch of brilliant episodes. Unfaithful does not have much to do with the theme of change, but it contains a lot of philosophical debate. The next episode though, 'The Softer Side' deals a lot with change and is one of the best episodes on the show. Everybody is worried when House suddenly starts to act nicely. He has started using methadone. It makes the pain in his leg go away. Unfortunately it also makes him less focused on his cases and at the end of the episode he stops methadone. The cost of his change was to high for him.
In 'Simple Explanation' Kutner kills himself for no apparent reason. House searches for one and when he can't find it he goes literally insane. He starts to hallucinate and sees Amber again. At first he knows he hallucinates, but in the last episode he hallucinates that he stops using Vicodin and has sex with Cuddy. This he thinks is really true. When he finds out it isn't he goes to a psychiatric hospital. Here I unfortunately must stop. Since I live in the Netherlands, I haven't seen anything yet from season 6.
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