Blogcritics The critical lens on today's culture & entertainment
On Monday night, the House gang will meet a new character. Stage and screen actor Orlando Jones (House of D, The Time Machine) guest stars as Marcus Foreman, Eric’s (Omar Epps) gangbanger brother. Just out of prison on parole, House (Hugh Laurie) kindly gives him a job at the hospital. But perhaps kindly is too strong a word for it. Dr. Curious-About-Everything-And-Everybody likely has a different agenda than kindness in hiring Marcus — like getting more scoop on Foreman’s past.
Meeting briefly with television reporters by phone, Jones explains that the interactions between the brothers Foreman and House “unfolds through the episode so I won’t spoil anything for you, but it definitely gets a little dicey.” Although Jones is cast for only one episode this season, the door is definitely open for the future. Right now he’s filming a movie in New Orleans, “but, hopefully, I’ll rejoin them next season, and we’ll see what happens from there.”
Often when House is at his most manipulative (and it’s a good guess that House will be firing on all burners with Foreman’s brother on hand), the show tips a little lighter than usual. However, Jones noted that there will be a “lot of drama” in the episode. The episode is “certainly not comedic,” said Jones, noting that Marcus has a lot of meaty scenes with House. “I might spend more time with Hugh [Laurie] than my brother, or it’s evenly split.
Of course there’s likely to be a lot of tension between the two brothers. As Jones explained, “anytime you have a family member getting out of prison, it’s always drama.” Jones is a House fan, noting that he likes the show for “a lot of reasons,” but for this episode he had to learn a lot more about the “personal relationships between the characters on the show” to prepare for his role than the “nitty-gritty medical.”
Jones recently wrapped on the forthcoming Chicago 8, which chronicles the wild 1968 Democratic National Convention and the clash between the Chicago police and Vietnam War protesters.
In closing, House fan Jones said that he’s “looking forward to seeing the episode along with everybody else. I think it will be collectively exciting for everybody, and I’ll look forward to being back on House again.”
“Moving the Chains” airs Monday night on Fox at 8 p.m. ET. Until then, enjoy these clips from the episode, courtesy of Fox.
Next week’s episode “5 to 9” focuses on Lisa Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein), and I will be participating in a conference call with her on Tuesday. I can’t guarantee I’ll get in more than one question (if that, since it is likely to be a well-attended press conference), but if there are questions you’d like me to ask Lisa, feel free to post them below in the comments.
