Spoilers for last night's "House" coming up just as soon as I get myself into the Guiness Book of World Records... Gotta be brief, as my schedule's hectic today. I continue to enjoy Lucas the private eye far more than expected, as he's coming across like a softer, more self-aware but still very smart version of House. ("People hate people who have theories about people.") The scene at the coffee shop put a smile on my face almost as big as the one on Cuddy's. (Because her usual role on the show is to be annoyed with House, this was the longest bit of sustained happiness Lisa Edelstein has been allowed to play.)
I could do without the patients' lives being such direct parallels to members of the team, even if it gave Taub a needed spotlight. (And recast his wife; I don't know who played her previously, but it wasn't Jennifer Crystal.) And three episodes in, I still see no evidence that the producers have any idea what to do with Cameron or Chase.
All that said, what stands out most for me was the CGI montage of the beezor, which may be the grossest thing I've ever seen on "House." They've shown a lot of gore over the years, and this is the first time I can remember having to avert my eyes for it. Ugh.
What did everybody else think?
28 comments:
Word re: that beezor scene. Stuff like that is the reason my wife and I passed a "no eating dinner when House is on" rule last season. Ick.
Why are Jennifer Morrison and Jesse Spencer still in the opening credits? I didn't even see her in the episode, and he appeared in one scene.
It wasn't a bad episode, although the case wasn't as interesting as the eventual, digusting, solution.
Apparently, a bezoar was featured in one of Harry Potter books, although I don't remember it. I'm not sure how I'd forget something like that.
First time this has ever happened when watching House: I was bored. The whole time.
Maybe my brain is fried from working too much. I fully cop to that possibly being part of it. But all in all, I was just bored.
Apparently, a bezoar was featured in one of Harry Potter books
Books One and Six. "A stone from the stomach of a goat that will save you from most poisons."
...Yeah, I'm just that geeky. However, I didn't know it could happen to people, so I learned something last night (providing, of course, that that point was accurate - never a sure thing on this show).
It was boring because the patients were soo boring. For three episodes I truly could not care less whether that assistant lady, Felicia Day, or Breckin Meyer just dropped dead. And I like Felicia Day and Breckin Meyer. What a shame. Without Lucas, this would be the most lackluster season yet, or maybe it's his fault?
Does someone know if thats the first time the show used that stop-motion cgi, if you know what i mean (however its called)? Thats usually done to demonstrate the growing, but it was also showing the bloodstream, i liked it.
The world is spinning backwards: Bianco from TV Guide is now defending "House" and Mo Ryan says she's bored. Me, I'm with you Alan. Despite myself I find I'm enjoying the PI character. I expected to just suffer through his arc, and yet I find him a real kick to have around.
By the way, I don't know if they had to "recast" Taub's wife so much. The only time we saw her was when she was asleep in bed at the end of last season.
I was eating when I saw that beezor scene. I had to stop during it, fortunately my appetite came back right afterwards.
The human body is quite disgusting on the inside. We're fortunate it has relatively attractive packaging aren't we?
I really liked PI guy. I find him much more interesting that the usual hijinks between House and cancer doctor. Although the previews for next week (I will say nothing here, since sometimes I get the feeling people don't want to know) looks like a good departure from the current storylines.
I would love for Lisa Cuddy to get herself a real live boyfriend, so I hope this dude stays for a long, long time.
I wasn't so enamored of the medical case this week either.
And can someone explain to me why Dr. Taub wanted to have a 'talk' with the wife? What exactly is wrong with their relationship? I didn't quite get it.
Yeah, I was real confused by that too. Taub seemed totally ok with the gift-giving until she took the blindfold off, then all of a sudden it was like she shot a puppy. Alan, tell me your master intellect picked up on something I missed.
Otherwise, I must say I really like Weston's character so far. I also hated his part on SFU, mostly because it was so out there and obviously done for shock value, but he was amusing in an otherwise forgettable Jason Biggs-Isla Fisher RomCom a couple years ago, and it's good to see him bring his breezy attitude to this show.
One last question: Remember a million years ago when Cutty was trying to get pregnant? Did that storyline just drop altogether, or did I space on the resolution?
You know, when Cutty from the Cut had a sex change in Season 5 and then tried to have a kid?
I guess I'm still not over The Wire, as my post above so clearly shows...
Taub and his wife have to talk about his philandering, which he's so guilty about that he has to confess to her, even though he recognizes it'll hurt her at least as much as it helps him.
I have to agree with Mo Ryan that this was a pretty dull episode--not "the whole time" for me, but enough that I didn't care much for it.
Ignorant of medicine, I generally care less about the accuracy of the show's diagnoses than their thematic appropriateness (not that I don't check
Polite Dissent every Tuesday night). While it was probably too on the nose with Taub, a disease that progresses from seeing things differently than your lover to requiring an operation that stops your heart from feeling was a lovely conceit. I just couldn't connect that deeply with either Taub's dilemma or House's scolding. However typically convoluted House's explanatory jujitsu, it played like the writers ironing out a moral wrinkle in one of the characters, whereas I enjoy and admire House for his general indifference to such matters.
Lucas and Cuddy is one of those developments that seems forced on the characters to me, but I can't deny the appeal of Edelstein in flirtatious mode.
I'm shocked that even with a brief review, Alan forgot to mention Not!Taub and Not!Hadley. That was awesome.
There is something seriously wrong with House this season. It's not the newbies because they aren't on enough to matter; and I had no love for the original three, so I don't miss them. House's humor isn't as sharp. The scripts are meandering. The idea that Cuddy would be the least bit interested in Lucas is preposterous in the extreme (and trust me, I'm all for Cuddy having an interesting hook-up). Can't quite put my finger on it. Did a main writer or medical advisor get fired or something?
As someone in health care, I am kicking myself that I didn't put bezoar on my list of diseases for the House game/pool over at Polite Dissent. But you can be certain I won't forget pica next season.
As an aside, it's interesting to me what grosses people out. Yeah, a bezoar is fairly cringe-worthy, but no more so than the fecal explosion on Foreman last week, the giant parasite they pulled out of a woman last (?) year, or half the scenes of emesis (vomit) that they depict.
Thanks for the quick answer, Alan. I guess I thought they had covered that at some point last season, that Taub had confessed and then quit his plastic surgery practice to appease his wife and that was how he ended up trying to get onto House's staff. But I was souped up on (prescription) drugs last season, so I likely am wrong.
The only thing that would have made the Not!Taub and Not!Thirteen part better would be if Not!Taub had said "Bizarro! Bizarro! I'm helping! Bizarro!"
Hatfield
IMDB says that Jennifer Crystal played Taub's wife in "Wilson's Heart", though I don't know how seriously to take that.
It's funny what gives people the willies. For me, the nasty beezor clump was nothing compared to when they show closeups of parasites.
And after this episode I really don't care Taub at all. If that was the writers' goal, mission accomplished. And House's dance with Taub this week seemed way to on-the-nose and unoriginal.
Lucas playing piano and House joining on guitar was a glimmer of normalcy for House in relating to another person, even if it is a younger, nicer version of himself.
May I say that I had a type of bezoar in my inner ear, where it is called a cholesteatoma. Dead skin, cells, and wax form a growth that metastasizes to the ossicle chain. Causes all sorts of havoc and requires a 6 hour surgery to remove. Maybe the House writers will feature that sometime as they work their way through strange growths in the body.
Ah, thanks, Alan. So Taub was feeling guilty about his infidelity, never bought things for himself or indulged himself as a result. But wife indulges him anyway. He feels a horrid amount of guilt and unworthy of new car.
Got it!
I had forgotten why he'd left his plastic surgery practice.
**Oh, and can I say how much I wish my husband had a secret bank account with $83,000 in it? And not for a new car...just to have that kind of extra money stashed away without me knowing would be awesome!**
I enjoyed this episode more than any of the others so far this season, and I like the PI character, too. It just seemed to flow, perhaps because every single character in the enormous House universe wasn't stopping everything they were doing to psychoanalyze House or try to get him and Wilson back together. I mean, how many seasons in are we, and nobody in the Houseiverse can figure out that he's a misanthropic addict who likes to mess with people's heads and has hilariously horrible bedside manner but his genius makes him a keeper at the hospital? Why must we parse out the man's essence over, and over, and over? I wonder if the show wouldn't be stronger if they focused more on the peripheral characters more often as they did in this one. Also, sort of randomly: I really like Taub's character, and his home & wife were nothing like I'd pictured them.
Also, Alan, if you're not reading the LOLHouse updates on this blog, check 'em out, very funny stuff: http://keepyourreceipt.blogspot.com/2008/09/lolhouse-season-5-episode-2.html
I'm also really liking the PI guy, and he seems to be keeping House's humor and his very tiny sliver of humility in place. But I still see no reason to keep Cameron or Chase around.
to cheer Mo up - I *fell asleep* during the episode.
bezoar, if i am spelling it right, was in a season (2?) episode of Grey's, (guy ate his novel) which is also the only show I've seen do a patient with FOP (it's that rare, so it's not odd that no one else has, but I think the writers did gloat that ER hadn't done it - no, wait, that was the syphilis epidemic, when they had to justify it to ABC. and i have no idea why they had to justify. any TV show that shows as much casual sex as Grey's (or ER) should have an STD ep as a PSA! but preferably something less easily curable))
also, congrats to anyone who can spell cholesteotoma! (did i get it) even though you learned the spelling the hard way. I've heard the word but never knew what it was.
I paid far less attention to the diagnoses, treatments, etc on ER than I did after I started House and Grey's - i think. Now it's interesting to guess, and I feel kinda smart when I'm yelling at the screen - You jerk! It's Kawasaki's!!
I think it's because a carrera cabriolet does not cost more than 100Gs which means she's lying somehow
if anyone is still here, I just saw a guy with a cholesteatoma on Mystery ER.
The odd thing is - I know I've seen this guy before - but I don't think it was this particular show (which is odd - I didn't think these people went from mystery disease show to mystery disease show (i can name 3 of these shows - non-fiction).
As soon as the segment began, I knew what his problem was - but not the name. and yes, m.a.'s experience was hovering in the back of my mind.
now they are going to make me sit thru one more segment to get to the rest of it.
a left-sided temporal lobe encephalocele. Shonda would be so proud of me that I can spell that, right?
I guess he didn't really have a cholesteatoma, but he did have one as a kid.
this time he "just" had a hole in his head. well, actually his brain is leaking into his mastoid bone.
whee...
my sinuses don't hurt nearly as much as last night. but even if they did, at least my brain isn't leaking out thru my ears. (though my mother had an acoustic neuroma - which recurred 19 years later. it would have been nice to have know it was recurrable, but no one told me.) Which doesn't mean I don't still wish that Lexie Grey would come along with a creative idea...
m.a. - glad to hear you got diagnosed and fixed. :-)
(meantime i wonder which other show this guy was on)
he was on mystery diagnosis. (i googled his name)
he and his condition were kind of unforgettable... while the woman in segment 1, i'd never seen before. (those mystery shows aren't big on morgellens. that's more a primetime or dateline thing)
nope, he had the cholesteatoma too, and CSF leaking out when he sneezed.
fun...
details and updates here
f
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