House is, for the most part, terrible. In one recent episode we were treated to a main story line about a doctor who felt guilty for prodding a sixteen-year-old handy man who wasn't feeling well to repair her roof; he falls and is brought into the hospital with all sorts of odd symptoms. In time, he loses a hand and almost his life.
In an effort to make to make this as sympathetic as possible and emphasize how the doctor must be wracked with guilt, the teen worker is Hispanic. He is the only source of income for his dear, sweet mother, who clearly can't hold down a job because she has to spend the entire day weeping and wringing her hands in worry for her children. More importantly, without his working two jobs, his younger brother, who has such promise, will have to quit school and throw his life away to support the mother's congenital need for the maudlin histrionics. We can count ourselves lucky he didn’t fall on, and break the neck of, the family's devoted basset hound. This is the horror the doctor, House's boss, brought about by not being sensitive to the teen who wasn't feeling well and only thinking about the leak in her roof like some sort of superficial suburbanite. The writers of this theme may be in for a plagiarism suit from any number of adolescents asked to write a story with cultural relevance for their Social Studies class.
The unintentionally hilarious back story in this episode featured a black man who refused to take blood pressure medicine that was targeted especially towards blacks, on the grounds that whitey has always shafted the black man and so creating a drug with special attention toward black folks (who are documented to suffer more frequently from high blood pressure than whites) is just another way of doing it. House's response is to give him the same prescription but lie to him and tell him it's "what I give Republicans". For this he incites the righteous wrath of the black doctor on his staff who explains to him that when a black man behaving like a self-destructive petulant child, a white man can't treat him like a self-destructive petulant child because that would make him no better than a slave master. Seriously, this has to be seen to be believed.
Article comments
1 - RJ
Hmm.
I heard from a co-worker of mine that this is a superb show.
But, after reading this review, I am ambivalent...
(I've never seen an episode before, but have been curious about it...)
2 - Paul Hayes
Just a small correction, for future reference - the "Jeeves and Wooster" series was done by ITV, not the BBC. Good review though!
3 - M
I do think S2E3 is not as good, S2E2 is much better. But if they have more eps like "The Three Stories", then it will remain the show I like the most. Especially when the patient's character/choice reveals deeper sides of each doctor's character, responses, and choices they make, or the issues (mostly put out by House) they touched on, it's often thought provoking.
But I do agree that Hugh Laurie made the show along with the writers. Some dialouges is just laugh out loud funny, especially delivered by Hugh's perfect timing and rubber face. He's really brilliant in this role, such departure from J&W and BlackAdder, and can't be more different than the Stuwart Little's Dad.
Here's wish the show slowly develop more character plots, but not soapy melodrama as S2E3 perilously close to get. More edgy issues, then along with Hugh and other good company, I'll watch the show for a long time to come.
So check it out, give it couple of tries, it may not be your cup of tea, but who knows? You may find you're craving for a good dose of sarcasm every Tuesday. I know I am.
4 - Carebear
I agree that S2E3 wasn't the best episode of House - every show does have a few klunkers in a season. If you look at the S2E1 was fantastic. RJ - give House a chance after the playoffs, It will be worth it.