House is rude, he’s a big meanie! :sad:
house is a heavy formualted show. shti sux
Actually, the premise is “the smartest doctor around is a huge jackass.”
Nice going. :rolleyes:
Thanks. btw I would like to pinpoint what is perhaps the worst line of dialog in the entire show:
When the black guy was promoted to become House’s boss at the end of one episode, Wilson says “Well I guess I’m his best friend now”, referring to him.
This was not only bad dialog, it didn’t even make any logical sense (esp for a show that prides itself on logic supposedly ruling the universe). Is it the hospital’s policy that Wilson has to be best friends with the boss of House’s group? Maybe there’s no written policy, maybe the writers just decided that it ought to be the case-- but then why does Wilson have to a) realize it and b) say something out loud to acknowledge it? Comic relief for the viewer so used to him being House’s friend? Not funny, I want my money back. Sense of disbelief completely ruined. I mean it would make total sense if the actors or writers said something like this off-air, to themselves. Maybe as an in-joke. Actually no, it wouldn’t even be all that funny in that case either.
Lousy dialog.
Just saying, you complain about dialogue, but you make it completely ambiguous who the “him” is referring to at the end of your first sentence.
Better ep than most teh rest of the season. BTW, 13 should NEVER wear her hair in a way that accentuates her GIGANTIC head.
Pretty good episode, I thought. But we need more Wilson! I mean, I know he is all boo hoo over Amber’s death, but he is a far better foil to House than Cuddy is. He is just a truly evil mastermind almost on House’s level…just really nice. And they really need to update the credits. There is no reason Cameron and Chase should be the regulars while the new lackeys are the “special guests”. Hell, we see Cuddy a whole lot more than we do Cameron+Chase! Unless they plan to kill off all the new cast or something…
Cameron/Chase always steal their scenes for me.
Here’s what you need to know: It’s a TV show. It’s supposed to be entertaining. Shut up now.
kinda but not really
It was the only time where Wilson said that fucked up quote. Before this, I think the only other time may have been when House was working at the hospital under the principal from Boston Public who was chairman of the board or something like that and tried to get House fired-- not that black guy. That guy was black too but was bald. I’m talking about the black guy that’s a doctor in House’s group.
It’s just bad TV. It’s immoral. You people want to know what a good TV show looks like?
Check out Huff.
This is one typical criticism I’ll never understand. Why do people think that dialogue in fiction has to mirror dialogue in real life in order to be good? Why do people think it would be good? Listen to the way most people converse in real life, especially in the workplace, and imagine applying it to a long-running television drama or a two hour film. It would almost certainly be drivel.
Think of shows, plays, and films that get particular praise for their dialogue. Do they mirror real life conversation? I doubt it.
What makes you think House fans have to rationalize his bad behavior in order to enjoy the show? Again, I don’t understand. Do you rationalize the flaws of the protagonists in every movie you’ve ever liked? I don’t imagine you’re a big fan of Taxi Driver or The Godfather.
The premise of the show isn’t that it’s okay to be an asshole as long as you save lives. The premise of the show is that while most doctors wait until the patient is out of the room to vent what’s on their mind, this doctor will say it to the patient’s face.
House is hardly a perfect show, but if you’re going to criticize it, criticize something that has some ground under it. Bagging on the dialogue for not imitating real life conversation is only a problem if you believe it should be, and I don’t see why you would. Criticizing it because you think the main character is a douchebag misses the point entirely.
sense of disbelief
I didn’t say that it had to mirror real-workplace dialogue. The problem with the show is that (largely due to the dialogue in shows like this), it often rips the viewer right out of the sense of disbelief. The sense of disbelief is required in order to tell the story effectively.
Glengary Glenross did both, and that was some good shit. Good dialogue often does mirror much of real life conversation, actually (it certainly doesn’t have to, as long as it doesn’t get too absurd like in House). Also another great show with real WORKPLACE workplace kind of dialogue is The Office. People talk like characters on that show in offices all the fucking time. That show is comedy to some but to people that have worked in those types of typical offices in such typical companies? It’s downright fucking scary. Much, much better than House.
Taxi Driver was good, the Godfather was good but they kept talking about “business and not personal” but it was always mixed anyways. And why did they kick out Tom again? Anyway, House fans misenjoy the show where the rules for everyone else don’t seem to apply to the bad guy. I am not the one rationalizing-- the writers, and by acceptance/enjoying the show, the fans are. They rationalize that he is a genius, therefore he gets to get away with being rude. If that shit happened in the Godfather? Taxi Driver? fgedbaouit. Characters in those stories were real, because they-- ahem… got bonus points for caring.
I reread what I wrote about “the premise” and can see how people read it as “THE premise, ie of the show itself” not some premise in general, but ok. He says stuff to their face and keeps it real. I don’t have a problem with that. The problem is centered around his rudeness and how the show’s writing allows him to repeatedly escape reprimand. Speaking of Boston Public, one time, the fat teacher on that show went to see a doctor, and she is crazy so she blows everything out of proportion when he tells her she’s fat. So the doctor on THAT show used tact: “You know, for a teacher, you have a tendency to get everything… wrong.” That was good television.
The criticism I speak of doesn’t just apply to only one or a few shows, but just about every single episode. Time and time again, the “I’m a genius so therefore I get to be rude” comes through just about every show, and most viewers miss this completely and just accept it.
Viewers miss it because “I’m a genius so therefore I get to be rude” is not it. You’re linking two unrelated things.
It’s more “I’m a genius. I’m also rude.”
He is not rude BECAUSE he is a genius.
Are they really that unrelated? It just seems to me that in just about every single episode, he uses his genius (or, the writers’ presentation of it) to justify his being rude-- because, to be fair to the show, other characters do call him on it (his rudeness is not always accepted, at least not at the beginning). But the show always has him get away with it, eventually. He is also a drug addict, using similar behavior and rationalization, but still gets away with that too. He’s used his cane as some weapon at least once or twice on people-- only people on the covers of martial arts magazines with exaggerated facial expressions get away with stuff like that.
When you accept the premise that “I’m a genius, I’m also rude”, first things are not being put first. Viewers are duped into the shortcut, buy-it-all-on-credit, practice-your-halfcourt-shots-until-you-make-the-NBA-draft ways of thinking that are corrupt approaches to life.
Your point would be valid if he was NOT getting away with being rude when he isn’t up to his genius par level.
Similarly, he sometimes gets reprimanded in spite of being a genius.
It’s two traits of his, that’s all. Amongst others of course.
I have no idea what your final sentence means, and how it’s relevant to the point you’re trying to make.
Rationalizing / Justification attempts
Getting reprimanded at all would be good, if it were genuine and not slaps on the wrist- as long as there is some semblance of getting reprimanded. A big part of my point is that whether or not he is a genius has nothing to do with him following the rules, whatsoever. So just because he deserves reprimand, all the “inspite of being a genius” stuff is, in point of fact, irrelevant. It shouldn’t let him off the hook, if that’s what you’re implying, let alone so often as happens on the show, either. First things first.
btw another major motion picture that deals with this concept well is Mad Max The Thunderdome. In the Thunderdome, they have these things called rules, and if you break them, it doesn’t matter how much of a genius you are-- you still have to pay the consequences. Bust a deal?
Face the wheel.
(Bust a deal, face the wheel!!) This movie is considered a standard classic by srk community members and automatically rules over anything House could possibly offer. Try going on GGPO and typing in the chat “Bust a deal” and not immediately see the text “Face the wheel!!” pop up under it by other players. It is our mantra. This is something we care dearly about. And we don’t do it for bonus points, we do it just because it’s the right thing to do, damn it.
The TV show The Fugitive also had a doctor, who happened to fall on the wrong side of the law so he went into running and hiding until he could prove his own innocence. He was actually a good decent guy, and as he evaded the fuzz, he would often go so far as to risk getting caught just to practice some silly rule called the Hippocratic Oath, imagine that. But I remember one episode of House, at the beginning, House watched a lady flop on the floor of a crowded bar, actively ignoring pleas for a doctor in the house. There’s no clause in the Oath to take your sweet time about relieving someone’s pain and suffering, House, ya dickhead, it’s like ‘get to work already’!
Down on the Waterfront was a pretty good movie too. It illustrated the process of transitioning from not caring for bonus points/“fsssst!!” all the way to caring really well.
Typical srk community members might understand it this way… if you call players “scrubs”, that is actually counter-productive to the entire efforts of the founder. The founder might not have ever gotten top 3 in a tournament but his contributions to the community have still been very valuable anyways. Likewise, just because some player is good at a fighting game, does that let him off the hook and we should just let him bring a knife to a tournament? “Oh but he’s good!” First things first.
There was this high school kid a few years back, who could actually make FULL court shots somewhat consistently (he even did it at the last second of a game to win the game by one point). And so they had him on the local news as the human interest story, etc. and everyone’s commenting like “oh wow that’s amazing and so inspiring!” but really, it’s misguided and they’re misenjoying themselves if they’re getting inspired by that. He should be taken OFF the basketball team and put on the football team as the quarterback. That would make more sense because such a circus freak is not going to make the NBA. The best he could hope for is making the Harlem Globe Trotters. Larry Bird made all kinds of 3 point shots in the NBA like all the time. When he was a kid, he said all the other kids were big into the hail mary, half-court shot. And so they practiced half court shots, none of them ever making one except maybe once every two weeks or so, but little Larry Bird practiced free throws instead. Fundamentals, baby. He didn’t take shortcuts to get as good as he was. And also he didn’t do drugs.
One of the major themes of House is that despite how big an ass he can be he’s still better than everyone else at A) diagnosing and B) noticing the rare and seemingly undiagnosable.
Now, to address the guy that doesn’t pay attention to the show: Larry Bird also wasn’t in constant massive pain. If he was, you can bet your bottom dollar he’d have been on drugs. Have you ever been in pain? If you’re the kind of person I think you are, you probably IMMEDIATELY thought to yourself “yes, actually, I have”. You would, of course, be lying to you and the rest of us. House’s problem isn’t that he’s a jerk. It’s not even that he’s addicted to pain meds or that he’s in constant pain or that he can’t ever let anyone too close. House’s problem is that he’s never met someone he respects enough to listen to more than himself.
So, before you go comparing his fictional abilities to some half-court shot kid or even then going so far as to compare that kid to Larry Bird then try to link that foolishly back to House (somehow), you really should pay more attention or at least try to listen to what people around you are saying.
Look, you’ren ot getting it.
Breaking the rules to get what he wants is part of House’s character.
LETTING HIM GET AWAY WITH IT is part of the other characters’ character. Particularly Cuddy. And most recently, Cameron too.
You’re waaay too fixated on bringing House down, without considering the other characters and their relevance to the story.
If there is one thing House is DEFINITELY fixated on, it’s on him being right. NOT being an ass. He doesn’t give a shit either way whether he’s an ass or not, or whether others are asses or not, because the thing that matters is being right.
He’s an ass? Irrelevant.
He’s a genius? More relevant, but not always so.
You’re still missing the point. Btw, House DOES know the fundamentals. He…kinda has to, to PUT DOWN AND INSULT the members of his team when they give the WRONG suggestions.
I hope you see a pattern here.
^^^^Listen to this man.
the guy that doesn’t pay attention
Yes, actually, I have.
D’oh!!
Ahh ok I see, so that’s how it works?
Well gee, maybe if I respected the people around me, I might do exactly that. Too bad I’m a genius so that doesn’t apply to me.
Am I paying enough attention now?
If Larry Bird were on prescribed, legal, no-conflict-of-interest pain medication to help him deal with pain, which is impossible because he is like the best basketball player ever in the history of the game but hypothetically, he would not abuse his medication. I’m sure he would take it only in prescribed amounts until properly healed because he is a good American. House, on the other hand, is a fictional character played by some guy from England.
I never disagreed with any of that- ok, they are enablers to his addiction and assholiness, and important characters in the story. They’re no angels either. In fact, that’s yet another reason the show is poor- I’ve already shown one example of the Wilson character fucking up (another time, he just sits there allowing House to eat his sandwich, pick up personal objects from his desk and ruin them/throw them in the trash; again that doesn’t even make any sense But it’s ok cause House needs The Best Friend Character, sorry I forgot). But please enlighten me more on this, I’m curious how interaction with the other characters somehow saves the show. I mean he worked with his ex-wife for some episodes in the same hospital, and then there was sexual tension, and even sarcastic remarks referencing the sexual tension.
It’s the whole “not giving a shit either way whether he’s an ass or not” that is part of him, well, being an ass. Being an ass or not is, in fact, very relevant-- certainly to the viewer and his misenjoyment. Always wanting to be right never quite works the way it does on the show- one reason has to do with human nature and how we try to justify our acts after the fact. Sometimes, being right means acting appropriately, for example, adhering to the Hippocratic Oath and not evading responsibility.
Anyway, I think this is the part where we start talking past each other, each one of us thinking he’s the real genius, so I’m just going to copy and paste a paragraph from my last post (written before you said I’m “still missing the point”):
Typical srk community members might understand it this way… if you call players “scrubs”, that is actually counter-productive to the entire efforts of the founder. The founder might not have ever gotten top 3 in a tournament but his contributions to the community have still been very valuable anyways. Likewise, just because some player is good at a fighting game, does that let him off the hook and we should just let him bring a knife to a tournament? “Oh but he’s good!” First things first.