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House
Jan 29, 2007 10:52:48 GMT -5
Post by Patcat on Jan 29, 2007 10:52:48 GMT -5
I finally saw the end of the Tritter story line, and I must say I've rarely been so disappointed in TV show. A confession--I've not watched much of HOUSE this season because it is on opposite LOCI and I found the Tritter story line ridiculous, for many of the reasons Mr. Roush listed. But the ending of this line, with House seemingly completely unapologetic for the hell he put everyone through, was very unsatisfying. I can't help but wonder if the show has jumped the shark.
The actors, especially Hugh Laurie, are still terrific. But I've always had a problem with the writers and producers of HOUSE, who seem to think the show is better than it actually is. There are moments--THREE STORIES, for one--where it is the best thing on TV. But the Tritter story and the one featuring Chi McBride show a series that believes some of its own publicity.
The Tritter episodes left me with such a bad feeling that I really don't know if I'll give this show another chance.
I'd be interested in what others think.
Patcat
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House
Jan 29, 2007 17:22:38 GMT -5
Post by NikkiGreen on Jan 29, 2007 17:22:38 GMT -5
I haven't had time to see any of the Tritter storyline. I have all of the episode on tape though. I shouldn't waste my time then, eh?!
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House
Jan 29, 2007 19:52:00 GMT -5
Post by Techguy on Jan 29, 2007 19:52:00 GMT -5
From www.TVGuide.com on January 23, here's what's coming up on "House" tomorrow (Tuesday January 30): Shocking Preview: A Beautiful Stranger Rocks the House! by Matt Webb Mitovich
How does a gal go from kissing the Sexiest Man Alive to unsettling the most vexing physician alive? Actress Katheryn Winnick demonstrates just that on the next new outing for Fox's House. The episode doesn't air until next week, but Winnick was nice enough to offer TVGuide.com a sneak peek at her "controversial" story line — one which promises to shed light on a long-dormant secret of the dark doc's.
TVGuide.com: On House, you're playing Eve, a rape victim. What else can you say about this episode and your role in it? I'm hearing the words "controversial" and "stirring" tossed around.... Katheryn Winnick: It's probably one of the biggest guest-star roles ever written — not just in terms of the size and amount of material, but in the way it goes very in-depth for a guest star, as Eve goes head-to-head with Dr. House. I don't know how much I can give away, but she's a rape victim who goes through a lot of different stuff within the episode. It was pretty intense while shooting it.
TVGuide.com: I imagine you share a lot of meaty scenes with Hugh Laurie? Winnick: Yes, which was unbelievable. I try to break him down, but his character is very strong and he doesn't allow his feelings to get involved with patients. But for whatever reason, because of what I've been through, I feel that I can relate to his pain.
TVGuide.com: Yeah, I've heard that your character's interactions with House shed some light on a past secret of his. Winnick: Yes. She sees herself in him because they're both suffering through pain, because they both went through some traumatic abuse. I think that's why she connects to him and only wants to connect with him and not with any other doctor.
TVGuide.com: Were you a fan of the show going in? Winnick: I had heard of it, but I hadn't seen it. They sent me episodes, but I kind of wanted to go in there with a fresh perspective. But since then I have been watching, and it's great. Everybody's really good in it.
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House
Jan 29, 2007 21:05:22 GMT -5
Post by DonnaJo on Jan 29, 2007 21:05:22 GMT -5
And we complain about CI being too soapy?
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House
Jan 29, 2007 21:08:21 GMT -5
Post by Sirenna on Jan 29, 2007 21:08:21 GMT -5
Yes, posted above that I always thought it unfair that House had leeway to be a bastard but not anyone else. He never seemed to learn nor grow.
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House
Jan 30, 2007 0:07:31 GMT -5
Post by filmnoir5 on Jan 30, 2007 0:07:31 GMT -5
And we complain about CI being too soapy? In season 3 the most common complaint about CI was "when is Kathryn Erbe coming back?" or "he just has more chemistry with Eames" or "I don't like Bishop as well as Eames" At least with Nicole Wallace -- we have only seen her 4 times over a period of 4 1/2 years where we saw Tritter in 6 out of 7 episodes within 2 months. David Morse made more appearances on House in 2 months than Chris Noth or Vincent D'Onofrio did on CI in 4 months. Even Luther Mahoney of Homicide made appearances over a longer period of time. But I actually was much more disappointed in the resolution of this story arch than I was with the arch as a whole. I watched every episode of the arch as it aired and my major complaint was that it needed to be just a two part episode. My other complaint was the fact that it interfered with the other stories. However, I could tolerate all of this if there was a better resolution. I think they could still have House not be likable and still have him recovered from drug addiction. If Andy stayed an alcoholic on NYPD Blue in almost every episode, I would not have been a loyal viewer to that show for all 12 seasons.
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rue721
Silver Shield Investigator
Posts: 101
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House
Jan 30, 2007 3:37:02 GMT -5
Post by rue721 on Jan 30, 2007 3:37:02 GMT -5
1. House came off as a manipulative jerk- when he basically told Wilson that their friendship hadn't grown? That was just plain cruel. I'm not SURPRISED that he was, yet again, a horrible selfish person. But I wish he hadn't been. Everyone is right- who can care about a character in stasis? Especially one who is so extreme... it just gets so old.
2. Why was the conflict between Tritter and House never explained? It was just that Tritter was "out to get" House? Maybe I missed something, because I'm not the most loyal viewer.... but it seemed like they were building this up as a personal conflict, and then they dropped the entire emotional arc like a bad habit. There is a difference between excess "soap" and adequate resolution...
3. And the resolution wasn't just inadequate in terms of emotional arcs.... it also made no sense. You'd think House would have some kind of drug testing at the facility, or at least in his future. Isn't anyone going to notice that he still has a huge vicadin habit? Rediculous. If it was that easy to screw the system over, how would ANY drug rehabilitation center function?
UGH... this train of thought is making me think that the whole "drug problem" story is going to be revisited. It's so boring! Who cares about abuse of a PAIN KILLER? In real life, it's obviously a very serious problem, but it's got to be the most boring addiction to watch on television... what happens when a person gets high? They get tuned out and maybe mellow. They sleep. They aren't sharp witted. Who wants to see that? Let alone watch some inscrutable and overly serious detective methodically attempt to trip up the sleepy, dull-witted, zoned addict. HOW could that be intersting television? And what's the twist- no, not that even on boat-loads of vicodin, House still has the energy to be an ass... but that he's never going to stop being EXACTLY that same ass. Snooze, blah, and give me a break.
What with all this bordom, and frustration with what has turned out to be the most persistantly one-note character on television, I'm starting to hate House a little bit. And no, giving him some abuse excuse isn't going to make me like him more. In fact- what House is good at, and thus the time when he's most compelling and sympathetic, is when he's being a doctor. He's not so good at being a person. So why bring up him as a person ALL THE TIME? Why turn away from him as a doctor?
I don't know why writers always think a sob story leads to sympathy... it just takes the audience out of the story, and the dynamic that made them want to watch the show in the first place. When people watch House, it isn't to laugh or cry, it's to solve a mystery. Laughing and crying is fine, and little sprinkles of it are needed to keep the show human, but they aren't the bread and butter. So why does the show KEEP trying to wring tears out of us? The head character is supposed to be a vehicle that allows us the audience to solve the mystery- a sort of better version of the audience. If the "vehicle" becomes someone with an outlandishly horrific or harped upon, or even individualized past, how could that be good for the show?
Just give us a low-key, steady character tragectory, secondary to the episode long plot based arcs. Please! Just change House slowly but surely- instead of morphing his backstory into something rediculous, or "soaping up" his present!
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House
Jan 30, 2007 9:14:33 GMT -5
Post by Patcat on Jan 30, 2007 9:14:33 GMT -5
From today's NEW YORK TIMES:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
January 30, 2007 ‘House,’ Already Strong, Gets a Boost By BILL CARTER LOS ANGELES — Even after a couple of weeks of giddy two-hour ratings for “American Idol” on Tuesday nights, the Fox network has no trepidation in turning to a drama to follow “Idol” at 9 this Tuesday, because the drama in question, “House,” is already the strongest scripted hour that Fox has to offer.
This season “House” has reached as many as 17.5 million viewers a week. And those numbers were scored before the show enjoyed what it will enjoy again, starting this Tuesday — the adjacency to “Idol.”
Along with those stellar ratings, “House” is bucking the current trend in serialized dramas. It tells a complete story every week, which means that its repeats are far more valuable. All this success comes from a series that at first seemed to belong on a different network, that struggled so much in its early weeks that Fox cut back its order of episodes, and that at one point defied what sounded like a fix-or-be-canceled order from executives.
That it all worked out so well is a testament mainly to the show’s consistently high quality. But as its top producers, David Shore and Katie Jacobs, noted in an interview in their offices here on the Fox Studio lot, it also took some preposterous luck in casting and some exquisite timing in scheduling.
Things might never have worked out had a largely unknown British actor named Hugh Laurie not sent in an audition tape at just the right time. Or had all of Fox’s other new series in the fall of 2004 not failed so quickly that by the time “American Idol” came the next January, “House” was the show selected to be placed immediately behind it.
“Probably the only reason we’re still around,” Mr. Shore said, “is because they had nothing else.” What “House” really had was a creative team committed to its vision of a singular lead character. “What they pitched was a doctor who hates people but solves insoluble medical mysteries,” said Craig Erwich, executive vice president of programming at Fox.
That was how Mr. Shore and Ms. Jacobs, along with her husband and producing partner, Paul Attanasio, conceived their show in the summer of 2003 — although there was one critical difference in the character. At first, Dr. House was in a wheelchair.
“The idea was that this was not only a doctor who didn’t want to see patients, he didn’t want to be seen by patients,” Ms. Jacobs said.
Gail Berman, who headed Fox Entertainment, loved the idea, but she had one caveat. “Gail decreed that he not be in a wheelchair,” Mr. Shore said. “That’s when the cane came in.” But Fox did not object to House’s other quirks, like calling patients idiots and popping Vicodin like M&M’s to stave off pain in a damaged leg.
Everyone at Fox also got the unmistakable allusions that Mr. Shore was making to a classic character: the brilliant mind for connecting obscure scientific clues, the drug habit, the antisocial behavior and, of course, the best friend who was his outlet to the real world. It was all easy to spot — especially when the friend’s name was Dr. James Wilson instead of Dr. John Watson.
“The Sherlock Holmes thing was part of it from the beginning,” Mr. Shore said. It is also the reason the character is called House. “That was our little joke,” Mr. Shore said. “Holmes, as in ‘home,’ becomes House.”
It became the title of the show, though that initiated another issue because “House” sounded like a family show, not a medical show. (Mr. Erwich said one title considered was “Jagged Little Pill.”)
The title problem was addressed in two ways: first, adding “m. d.” in tiny letters after the title, and then, in what Ms. Jacobs called a clever touch by the Fox graphics department, putting a square around the first letter in “House” to signal the setting of the hospital.
Mr. Laurie, who was in Namibia shooting a film when he made the initial audition tape, had received only a few pages of the script and thought that House, as nasty as he was, must surely be a supporting character. Mr. Shore knew Mr. Laurie from his comic work in England in shows like “Black Adder.” “I knew him as a British twit,” he said.
After an appearance that Mr. Erwich called “one of the great auditions of all time” no one else needed to apply.
Before “House” had its premiere, in November 2004, the producers had heard great things about the quality of their pilot, and endless questions about why this show was on Fox. “This is such an NBC show, everyone was telling us,” Ms. Jacobs said.
One reason everyone thought of NBC may have been that by that time NBC owned the show because it had acquired Universal, the show’s original studio. But Fox had already secured the rights to the series, not that it seemed a coup at first. Its ratings in the fall, before “Idol” started, were puny. The producer began to worry when they finished up shooting their first 13 shows and no order came for more.
Just before breaking for the Christmas holidays, Fox called the producers in for a meeting. “They were demanding changes,” Mr. Shore said. “They wanted a bad guy.” The character was meant to be in constant conflict with House.
“There was the clear implication that your show is gone if you don’t accede to these demands,” Mr. Shore said. Nevertheless, he was opposed. “I said no,” he recalled. “I said it was a bad idea. They sat there and nodded and agreed.”
Mr. Shore left for Israel on vacation. He had barely landed when he got what he called a “panicked phone call” from Ms. Jacobs saying Fox had asked when the outline for the new character would arrive. “I realized things aren’t going so well,” Ms. Jacobs said. “It was very stressful.”
What neither producer knew was that Ms. Berman had called Jeff Zucker, who as head of NBC television was in charge of the Universal studio, and asked that the show’s original order for a full 22-episode season be cut back to just 16.
Eventually, Mr. Shore relented just enough to create a character, a hospital administrator, who would clash with House in a story arc. Chi McBride signed to do the part. Five episodes with Mr. McBride were shot. But even before they got on the air, the episodes the series had completed before vacation made it onto the air — behind “American Idol.”
The ratings soared. Mr. Shore ended the McBride character after just those five episodes. “House” was on its way.
Mr. Laurie has since won two Golden Globe awards as best actor. Mr. Shore gave Fox credit for appreciating down deep what the show was all about.
“There was a reason a network should have been scared” of this character, he said, adding, “Fox was never scared. The phone call I expected to get from Day 1 I never got: ‘Everything is great, great; but you’ve got to make the character more likeable.’ You always get that call, and we never got that call.”
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Patcat
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House
Jan 30, 2007 10:59:04 GMT -5
Post by Patcat on Jan 30, 2007 10:59:04 GMT -5
Replying to my own post (the height of egotism(g)):
I agree with what you say rue--you've captured a lot of the problems I see in the show. And the article from the NYT shows a lot of the arrogance of the creative staff.
As a Sherlock Holmes fan, I have some issues with their interpretation of Holmes as a completely misanthropic and dark character. He certainly was and did use cocaine and was extremely skeptical of human behavior. But Holmes was also empathetic and sympathetic, a believer in and instrument of justice. Goren is a much better reflection of Holmes.
Patcat
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House
Jan 30, 2007 13:18:59 GMT -5
Post by SarahIvy on Jan 30, 2007 13:18:59 GMT -5
I have such a love/hate relationship with this show. I love Hugh Laurie, and I WANT to watch House because I think his performance is just incredible....but I really don't like much of anything else about it. I find it predictable, his underlings annoy the piss out of me, and no matter how great Laurie is, there is only so much he can do if the character keeps being drawn in such an endlessly frustrating loop. And I agree wholeheartedly with Patcat about the writers and producers being a bit too big for their britches and buying into their own hype. I don't tend to keep very close track of House, but I've been watching the reruns on USA, and try to catch new ones when CI isn't new. Somehow we missed the last new one, the final Tritter episode, and from the TWoP recap I read I'm honestly glad...it sounded awful. I pretty much agree with a ton of what Rue said too. Lastly, it cracked me up that the above article called Laurie a "largely unknown British actor"...maybe I just watch too much PBS
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rue721
Silver Shield Investigator
Posts: 101
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House
Jan 30, 2007 22:31:27 GMT -5
Post by rue721 on Jan 30, 2007 22:31:27 GMT -5
Ok, ok.....I was wrong. I am a total sap, and loved the episode tonight. I usually find House rediculously annoying and cruel, but he was actually *sorta* endearing tonight. I could have done without the abortion discussion, but this IS Fox, so it's not a shocker. Eh anyway- I'm not going to lie- I'm the type of girl who cries at hallmark commercials. And I cried at this epsiode of House. DAMN.
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House
Jan 31, 2007 15:53:46 GMT -5
Post by NikkiGreen on Jan 31, 2007 15:53:46 GMT -5
Damn is right! I haven't seen a first-run episode in quite a while, but I'm glad I tuned in last night since the CI episode was one that the CTV ran only some days ago. Great episode, but I wish they'd left the second story with Cameron for another time and concentrated just on House since this was supposed to be his "one day, one room". Well, now we know why he hates his father. That rat a@@ b*****d!
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House
Jan 31, 2007 16:19:56 GMT -5
Post by Patcat on Jan 31, 2007 16:19:56 GMT -5
Oh, so there was some actual abuse? I flicked over to HOUSE during a LOCI commercial, but it looked to me as if he were lying to a rape victim, and as my tolerance for HOUSE is pretty low right now, I went back to MASQUERADE.
Patcat
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House
Jan 31, 2007 16:43:00 GMT -5
Post by NikkiGreen on Jan 31, 2007 16:43:00 GMT -5
He was lying where he stated that it was his grandmother. In their final scene together, he admitted to little Miss Did anything bad ever happen to you? (!!! ) that it wasn't his "Oma" but his father who had inflicted the abuse. ETA: The first 10 minutes or so were pretty funny with the various patients in the clinic, his bet with Cuddy, the guy with the cockroach in his ear...
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House
Jan 31, 2007 19:26:23 GMT -5
Post by filmnoir5 on Jan 31, 2007 19:26:23 GMT -5
Oh, so there was some actual abuse? I flicked over to HOUSE during a LOCI commercial, but it looked to me as if he were lying to a rape victim, and as my tolerance for HOUSE is pretty low right now, I went back to MASQUERADE. Patcat Well I hope a few other viewers do the same thing next week.I watch House but I would rather see House taken down a few notches than see CI canceled over the new American Idol fueled House. Source : Variety 'House' at home on top of Nielsen's Drama soared to new heights Tuesday By RICK KISSELLFor one week anyway, Tuesday night on Fox wasn't all about "American Idol." Sure, the music competition put up its typically whammo numbers, but it was the net's third-year drama "House" setting records this time, following "Idol" with the best delivery for any scripted skein in nearly a year. The competing dramas on CBS and NBC were in repeats Tuesday, but that probably didn't matter much on this night, as fans of "House" turned out in huge numbers for the drama's first fresh episode in three weeks. The Hugh Laurie-fronted drama had been picking up steam on its own -- up double-digit percentages vs. the previous year -- and used the colossal coattails of "Idol" to soar to new heights Tuesday. According to Nielsen nationals, "House" racked up a huge 11.1 rating/27 share in adults 18-49 and 27.34 million viewers overall -- retaining 82% of its demo lead-in from "American Idol" (13.5/33 in 18-49, 33.65m). Combined, they gave Fox its best ratings ever for a regularly scheduled night of programming. "House" rose nearly 10% from the previous high set by its season finale last May (10.2/25 in 18-49, 25.5 million) and gave Fox its best 18-49 score for a drama since "The X-Files" eight years ago. The 11.1 demo rating edges out the 11 that ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" opened this season with, making it the highest for any scripted program on television since an episode of "Grey's" last February. Also impressive was that the audience that started "House" largely stuck with it throughout -- a rare occurrence for a program that follows a higher-rated one. It earned an 11.3 rating in 18-49 at 9 o'clock and dipped just slightly to an 11 at 9:30. One problem for Fox, if you could call it that, is that "House" has been and will continue to be preempted by extended editions of "Idol." It is skedded, for example, to sit on the bench for the last two Tuesdays of the February sweep. On the other hand, no Tuesday repeats of "House" will air through May, and the net may have the luxury of airing original episodes of the show on other nights to use its full-season order before the end of the season. As for "American Idol," it was up 9% in 18-49 and 12% in total viewers vs. the same night a year ago, and is up by about 5% for the season in both categories through five telecasts. No other program topped a 2.3 rating in 18-49 opposite Fox's heavyweights on Tuesday, a night when CBS aired repeats of dramas "NCIS" and "The Unit" and NBC did the same with "Law & Order: Criminal Intent." CW's "Gilmore Girls" held up well at 8 o'clock (2.1/5 in 18-49, 4.27m). Show, a favorite among young femmes, likely benefited from Nielsen's first week of incorporating some collegiate dorm viewing in its national sample. Its tally in women 18-34 (4.1/10) was the series' best since last January. Not so hot was ABC's serialized comedy "Big Day," which ended its run meekly (1.4/3 in 18-49, 4.27m). "
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