TV Review: House - "Family"
Published May 02, 2007
What's better for a medical show than a child in peril? Two children in peril!
We meet the family of "Family" in the teaser, when Wilson is preparing mom, dad, and youngest brother Matty, who is going to donate bone marrow to his leukemia-stricken brother Nick ... until a sneeze timed for maximum dramatic effect puts that in question.
Post-teaser, we get a family of a very different sort, as House wakes up to his new furry housemate, Hector. Who would have guessed, but House shows remarkable rage control as he surveys the chewed sneakers and books, and picks up his sopping cane before escaping to his other family. Though if Wilson thinks House and his team are family, I can only imagine what his dysfunctional frame of reference is.
The gang congregates in the chapel, where Foreman is apparently trying and failing to find solace after killing last week's patient. House tries and fails to contort the needle in the haystack cliche to explain why they need to make Matty's infection worse in order to pinpoint what's causing it. Because just to twist the knife embedded in Foreman a little more — to use another cliche — the diagnoses this episode are similar to last. Infection? Auto-immune? Who's to know. And he feels the need to really know this time.
Foreman isn't thrilled with House's idea and proposes the usual house search for contaminants, which House isn't thrilled with, since they have all the evidence they need in their patient's body. He also sees Foreman covering all possibilities as a sign of weakness. The parents, not surprisingly, are not thrilled at the idea of making their supposedly healthy kid sick in order to treat the definitely sick kid. House is not thrilled that Wilson didn't manipulate the parents into agreeing to the idea, risking a no for the comfort of being the good guy. To sum up: no one is thrilled, though the parents do agree.
It's kind of sweet to see not-always-friendly Foreman and Chase search the house together, commiserating over their respective fatal mistakes — Chase's way back in season two's "The Mistake." Chase is on a strangely sweet kick lately. I wonder what that's a symptom of? However, Foreman takes little comfort in their shared history, since Chase had been affected by his father's death, while he made a calculated decision. "You acted like a human being. I acted like House."
Foreman's always been troubled by any suggestion that he's like his boss, focused on the case rather than the patient, but if even Cameron's getting less interested in the humanity that comes across their whiteboard, there's not much hope for Foreman. Though the fact that he cares that he might not care means he hasn't been completely subsumed by his boss's personality.
Diane is a publications manager who's addicted to television, movies, and books and justifies her pop culture obsessions by writing about them for Blogcritics. She also runs the TV, Eh? website, a compilation of news and information about Canadian television series.
- TV Review: House - "Family"
- Published: May 02, 2007
- Type: Review
- Section: Video
- Filed Under: Video: Drama, Video: TV Recap, Video: Television
- Part of a feature: House
- Writer: Diane Kristine
- Diane Kristine's BC Writer page
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My understanding is that bone marrow donating is extremely painful, and that's under anesthesia. I can't even begin to imagine the agony Matty suffered under Foreman's needles. That scene was unwatchable, listening to the poor boy begging for him to stop. Nick had better be really, really nice to his little brother for the rest of his life.
And as for Foreman leaving, I doubt that'll happen. Otherwise, Omar Epps is the dumbest actor on the planet. I think he's great and all, but he did screw up once by leaving ER. Even David Caruso learned his lesson, and has stuck with CSI Miami.
Hector is adorable. I cracked up when House finds his stereo stolen because he left his door open.
Judy, yeah, I think he's been less focused on patients this season. partly because he was more focused on getting drugs and curing his leg and staying out of jail. Though I think in this episode it was partly a way of highlighting his point that it was his way or nothing. And there was no puzzle to solve with leukemia kid, so he was sacrificeable (yeah, I know it's not a word) in order to solve the puzzle with Matty.
Kaonashi, yeah, Hector was adorable, not at all the kind of dog I expected ... which made it even funnier.
Good to hear I'm not alone in thinking Omar Epps will stay. Did he really leave ER by choice? I thought the character was supposed to be doomed from the beginning. Anyway, I'm still feeling good about the bet.
Poor Nick. He's doomed to a lifetime of "I gave you bone marrow with no anaesthetic and all I get for Christmas is this lousy CD?"
Diane - Granted, I don't know the real reason why Omar Epps left ER, but from what I've read on Wikipedia, many of the actors leave the show because they asked to, rather than as part of their contract -even those with smaller roles.
What sucks is that ER tends to prevent characters from returning by just killing them off, usually in a violent manner :P I mean, Epps' character was hit (or leaped in front of) by a train, while Kellie Martin's character (annoying as she was) was stabbed to death! Those were two very memorable episodes, even if they were only supporting characters.
I have a feeling Epps is fairly similar to Foreman,at least as far as stubbornness is concerned.He might leave for good.Or maybe a long hiatus from the show.Or becomes a recurring guest appearance like Brenda-The-Nurse and the Pharmacy guy.
Best parts:House and the dog.And I felt this episode was much more similar to season 2 episodes,which is the best of the 3 aired so far.And it was one of the funniest so far.
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Is it just me or has House been less interested in saving the patients lately. He used to stay up all night reading books, googling and throwing his ball around and now he just says "cant be fixed, let's go home." What's up with this?