"Paternity" (B) - Okay episode really, really boosted by the final and very introspective scene of House standing alone on an empty lacrosse field clearly thinking of days gone by when he was healthy and whole. The humorous side story, which involves wagering on the patient’s paternity, is wonderfully rendered and connects well to the main story. Cuddy and House share a delicious scene (played brilliantly by Hugh Laurie and Lisa Edelstein) in which Cuddy forces House to pay for the expensive DNA test he ran on the kid for the bet (but which proves essential to the correct diagnosis).
"Occam's Razor" (B) - Occam’s razor states that the simplest explanation is usually the correct one. In House’s world, that usually means somebody lied – or screwed up. Mislabeled colchicine (a gout medication, mistaken for a cough remedy) places a young man at death’s door as the team scrambles to make sense of the myriad symptoms. The best scene involves House introducing himself to a roomful of clinic patients: “My name is Dr. Gregory House. I am a BORED (board) certified doctor in infectious diseases and nephrology….”
* "Maternity" (A) — The team is at a loss to figure out what caused (at least) six newborns to become critically ill in the hospital maternity unit. As the situation becomes dire, House doggedly insists they pursue and run a therapeutic trial on the sick infants, potentially sacrificing the life of one baby in order to save many more lives. House’s almost Spock-like cold rationality is more than offset as he agonizes over the choice Cuddy has left in his lap. “Do what you think is right,” she finally concedes. When one infant succumbs, House knows they must do an autopsy but sends everyone home for the night. Alone, in the dark of the autopsy room, the exhausted House stays behind to perform the grim task. It is a brief, but incredibly moving, scene.
"Damned If You Do" (A) - The season one Christmas episode. A nun comes to the clinic with a supposedly simple rash. When she has a heart attack in the exam room, Cuddy accuses House of accidentally overdosing her with the antihistamine epinephrine. Of course the answer is not so simple, but it’s fun watching House begin to doubt himself about it, while trying to deny it. House and Wilson banter about circles of Hell and Christmas, winding up having Chinese food together at House’s apartment. This episode also featured the first time we see House playing his beautiful baby grand piano as he renders a starkly elegant “Silent Night,” sitting alone in his flat drinking a whiskey as Christmas goes on in the world beyond his solitary gloom.
Article comments
1 - Mary
"Jumping into a series mid-fourth year isn't always easy."
I jumped into watching "House" in mid-third year, with my first episode being "One Day, One Room." I had heard the positive reviews of the show, and don't know what had been keeping me so busy that I'd never watched it until a year ago. But the quality of the writing and the acting were so compelling that I was well and truly hooked from that episode. (The following Tuesday evening was one of those two hour episodes of that silly reality show that precedes it, and I remember standing in my living room, waiting for my "House M.D." fix, and being angry that it wasn't available.)
Thanks to DVDs and DVD rentals, it's possible to catch up fast with storytelling as excellent as this. I'm happy that I've had the opportunity to do so, and to share in the appreciation of it that I have found online in forums such as this.
2 - Barbara Barnett
thanks for commenting, Mary. I remember after watching "Cursed," which my first episode, and then going nuts tyring to find the already-legendary episodes of Detox and the pilot (and some others) to download and watch. I always appreciate your comments here.
Barbara
3 - ann neimer uk
Dear Barbara, Thanks for treating " House" as seriously as it deserves and for your perceptive comments.
House is not your cliche curmudgeonly doctor with a heart of gold; he has a heart but it is a dark one.He really is what he appears to be but what he appears to be is only the tip of the iceberg.
I agree with your definition of him as a Romantic Hero, but might he not also be a Tragic Hero ? I think he is angry, not only at what has happened to him but at what he sees around him every day.
This,and his bleak childhood ,leads him to see life as random and meaningless, but,since he is no coward he picks the greatest enemy-death- and fights it tooth and nail.(like Lucifer defying God in Paradise Lost ). This is why he really can't understand other people's obsession with professional rules,conventional ethics or drug addiction, which seem to him irrelevant and trivial.House as a fallen angel ?!
4 - Barbara Barnett
Ann--Thank you for your kind words perceptive comments. I love your take on House. I have also thought about House as a fallen angel from time to time. He does fight death as his arch enemy. But his is not unwilling to let a patient go either, if the choice that lies before them is worse. He also has fought for patients to have a better outcome beyond the ailment for which they originally sought him out. Rather than band-aid a problem, he (when he can) has sought to heal rather than to "fix". A great example is in "Half-Wit."
5 - Phillip Winn
Fantastic write-up, Barbara. I love this show passionately, and I enjoy it even more through your eyes.
6 - Barbara Barnett
Thanks, Phillip! Part two is coming in the next day or two.
Barbara
7 - bliffle
It's pretty obvious that House is Holmes and Wilson is Watson, as the names suggest. Holmes plays violin, etc.
The great thing about these men is that they are great logicians and problem solvers. They are also capable of ego sacrifice (they don't hesitate to denounce their own hypotheses, as necessary, which is a rare quality, almost nonexitent, in either police or medical practice).
Police and medical are the two arenas of our experience where outsiders inject themselves into peoples lives at times of great stress and danger. Like gods. Gods with feet of clay because they make mistakes, mostly out of excessive ego involvement. Success will require getting beyond your own Press Notices, which is why House walks the tightrope of offensiveness and even illegality: he doesn't want anyone to overlook his own mistakes out of an exaggerated respect for his status and reputation for that will lead to their dishonesty and ultimately his own.
8 - Erika
I don't mean to be a kvetch, Barbara, cause I like your columns. But the use of "whole" to refer to the absence of disability is offensive to a lot of us...(able-bodied works without implying that any of us are partial people or anything like that.)
Thanks.
Happy viewing.
9 - Barbara Barnett
Hey Erica--not a kvetch...a valid issue. I meant "whole" in a non-physical sense. The "healthy" referred to his physical being, but I believe the piling on of his existence from his childhood through the present has left him feeling less than whole (and, that, from his POV). I absolutely did not mean that disabled people are less than whole. I have a disabled mother, so I mean no offense. Sorry for the confusion over my use of the term.
Barbara (delighted that you enjoy reading my columns!)
10 - Erika
Well, people do say that sometimes...I just thought I'd point it out...it used to be a more common usage than it is now, and as such, is...not preferred.(But maybe you already knew that.)
Yes, I'd agree that Greg House has...fragmented since his injury and that it activated unhealthy tendencies he probably always had.
Thanks for clearing that up.