posted
My wife and I just watched the pilot to this series. The main reason that I tuned in was for Hugh Laurie. I'm something of a fan.
Hugh did a great job. I've never seen an English person do a more spot-on American accent. His acting was great as always. I always like him more whenever I see him in something new, and this was no exception.
I didn't get a chance to develop much of an opinion on the supporting cast, but they didn't annoy me. I could get to appreciate them, given the right development. I liked the little un-PC touches. The fact that they had the nerve to cast a black guy as a childhood criminal, and how the doctor explained why he hired the girl for her looks. It wasn't offensive, but it didn't pander to reverse stereotypes like most shows do.
Some of the writing was good. There were several cliches and some of the dialogue seemed a bit too premeditated. Particularly the scenes with the strong-willed patient who makes it her business to psychoanalyze all the doctors, and the Geordi LaForge deus ex machina medico-babble saving the day. But there were some really good moments in there. Particularly in the short scenes that didn't relate to the main story. Some fair humor and character development.
I'm not hooked, but I think the show has potential. I'm sure I'll at least catch the next few episodes, just to see how it plays out. It's not the best series premere I've ever seen on Fox. But maybe that's a good thing. Perhaps it'll get to last more than 8 episodes before it gets cancelled to make room for Celebrity Fart Joke or an OC spinoff.
posted
It looked good in the commmercials to me, but I didn't catch it.
quote:The fact that they had the nerve to cast a black guy as a childhood criminal,
That doesn't seem like all that unusual casting to me. Lord knows I've seen too many latinos that are drug dealers and not enough who are other things.
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
I saw it, and enjoyed it. My impression was that I haven't seen enough to say whether or not it is good, but it has a lot of potential. I would hate him as my own doctor, but as a TV character, he's hilarious. And I agree with Speed: casting the black guy the way they did was gutsy. But it fit, and I'll be interested to see where it goes. I also want to see what happened in the "Pretty" doctor's past. House made an observation, and the other comment about stabbing a guy in a bar fight, together they really make me think there's an interesting story in her background.
Posts: 2849 | Registered: Feb 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
I didn't see it, but have you ever heard that guy from Still Standing's accent? (Mark Addy.) He was also Fred Flinstone, if that helps. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004692/Posts: 9871 | Registered: Aug 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Mark Addy is hilarious, and even though I had seen him in a number of movies (Full Monty, A Knight's Tale, etc.) I didn't connect him with Bill from Still Standing. I only realized it after A Knight's Tale and Still Standing were on tv at the same time. The guy does a perfect American accent.
Posts: 1855 | Registered: Mar 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
There were comic elements to the show, and if they hadn't worked the whole thing would have been a loss. Anyway, I like Hugh in dramatic roles. Maybe it's just because I'm a fan, but I'm glad somebody in casting had the sense to hire him. I think he played it brilliantly.
Posts: 2804 | Registered: May 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Did anyone see tonight's episode? Wow. I think it's the best one they've done so far. I loved his relationship with the patient... kind of like the one from the pilot, but much more believable. I loved the interaction with the other doctor, watching their styles come into conflict. I loved how he dealt with the judge. I think that won Line of the Week award.
If this show keeps progressing in this direction, it has the potential to become truly great. Of course, once that happens Fox will have to pull it to make room for the next Satan-Worshiping O.C. or My Big Fat Obnoxious Caddie, but it'll be nice while it lasts.
Posts: 2804 | Registered: May 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
This episode was better than last week's, I thought. Last week, I did not buy in any way, shape, or form, that doctors would go to a patient's home to investigate the cause of a poison. Not happening. Another thing that bugged me is the fact that doctors do not, in fact, sit around their patients, but are mostly absent from them. I think they brush aside the role of the nurses, as they do in most medical dramas I have seen. (which is not really that many, but still)
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Okay, I just saw this week's episode, and it's the first one that really bugged me. The actual medical drama/mystery was good as always. But that little subplot with the pain killers was ridiculous.
I don't work in a hospital and I'm not a doctor, but I do have quite enough medical training to be able to follow what they're doing in most episodes, and to be able to tell that they're at least doing a reasonable amount of research to make the stories, the dialogue and the plot points somewhat realistic. But the person that was doing their fact checking must have taken the week off. Either that or the foul hand of the network exec took the wheel and demanded a stinky melodramatic turd that could be sold as a "very special episode". In any case, whoever wrote this script clearly didn't know the basic difference between addiction and dependence. No doctor in the world would advise anyone to quit a narcotic cold turkey, especially if they had a medically valid reason for taking it. And no one would confuse House's withdrawl symptoms with proof of an addiction. The whole episode I was screaming at him to just take the damn pills already. I'm afraid it ruined what could otherwise have been a perfectly good episode for me.
Hopefully they'll dispense with the arbitrary dramatics for the next show and get back to anything remotely plausible.
posted
After the first few episodes I've noticed that they've really tried to hit character development over the head. You know, rather than slowly feeding us bits of information they're throwing information at us. Its like they don't have confidence that we'll naturally build an interest in the characters and they're afraid that if we don't soon the series is going to get cancelled.
Posts: 3446 | Registered: Jul 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
I mostly watch because Dr House says such terrible things that I find funny. Housisms. I should write down some of them.
I have only watched one episode from start to finish and I've seen at least half of probably two others so I can't say a lot yet but so far I find the medical mysteries and his solutions to be either wrong, overly simplified, or so basic that nobody would be arguing the point with him. Furthermore a lot of times his amazing logic jumps are actually logical, stepwise things that a medical student or resident would know. Or they are so busy arguing and sounding smart that they don't do the basic tests that are called for and then have to leap around doing more logic jumps when the patient crashes again and they realize what test they missed doing and catch up on the new situation.
Then of course watching these guys with all this time on their hands doing the job of nurses, nurse assistants, technicians, radiologists, etc etc is just a bit removed from reality. Of course then it is easier to follow, with less actors to keep track of, and we get to see cool medical pictures, so there is a plus side.
I DO enjoy watching, a lot. I am afraid over time the errors and annoyances may become more annoying over time. Hopefully not.
Posts: 1990 | Registered: Feb 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Come on, Theca. You know you have time to dig up someone's dead cat!
Thank you for making the point that doctors just don't(can't) hang around bedsides all that much. This is not a criticism of doctors, but a criticism of the show, to ignore the nurses. (and, frankly, they don't really hang around all that much, either.)
Hospitals are like Grand Central Station.
And I agree with you, Speed. Why would that woman, a doctor, allow House to suffer so?
I do like the show, though.
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Yeah, as far as the medical "mystery" aspect of the show, it's pretty worthless. If you look at the traditional story arc of the well-written mystery, where the author gives you clues enough to figure it out but still manages to keep it hidden, and then at the end when the answer reveals itself you think "why didn't I see that," there's none of that in House. I mean, could anyone honestly have been expected to know that there were termites living in this kids walls based upon hallucinations and anal bleeding?
But, you know, you have to accept a show for what it is. I don't watch this show for the same reasons that I watch, say, Monk (although that show, from a mystery aspect, hasn't been much better lately). I also don't watch it for a totally realistic portrayal of what goes on in a hospital. Yeah, I realize that this isn't actually what any doctor's job in the world is like. And I'm sure if I worked in a hospital, that would probably bug me more. Heck, the way the pharmacist was portrayed in last night's episode did bug me a little, and that was just a couple minutes. They did a much better job of creating a hospital pharmacist character in this week's 24, but I digress... As long as they're not obviously making up drugs or disease names (oh, Lord, he's got Grant Naylor Syndrome, give him 20 grains of Xanthonium injected directly into the heart), I'm willing to suspend some disbelief. Sure, they may be doing everyone elses' jobs and stringing things along for dramatic purposes, but if I wanted something more realistic, I'd go hang out at the hospital. It's entertaining and at least somewhere in the realm of possibility, so whatever.
But when they do something like they did last night, where a whole team of doctors are doing the exact opposite of what real life doctors would do for some arbitrary dramatic stunt, it crosses the line for me. When Omar Epps finally came in with the Vicodin, I thought, "at last one of them has a brain in his head." Then House had to take his heroic little stand which was about as noble as a diabetic trying to be strong enough to live without insulin. As much as I'm willing to suspend disbelief, I don't expect doctors in a medical show to be teaming up in a deliberate attempt to harm someone, even when it's one of their own.
Two weeks ago I said this show was going in just the right direction. Now I may have to retract that statement. Oh, well... as long as Hugh Laurie's in it, I guess I can wait it out a few more weeks. Here's to hoping.
posted
My wife and I watched the show last night and we were a bit irritated when the local affiliate pimped their newscast with a comment about the show and whether termites in your home could be hazardous to your health. This was about halfway through the show, way before we had any inkling of the diagnosis. Thanks for the spoiler, idiots Posts: 2022 | Registered: Mar 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
The shame is that there is plenty of gut-wrenching drama in the accurate and commonplace of medical life. For the other physicians to have acted appropriately with House (as noted by Speed) could have been just as dramatic and telling a story. More, IMHO, as I see this as a cheap narrative trick a'la OSC's "suicide twist."
Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
Don't you inherently have to suspend disbelief just in order to find House funny and in the end I watch because House is the most entertaining thing on in that time slot.
Posts: 3446 | Registered: Jul 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
I love the characters. I cannot suspend my disbelief that much, though, even if I can swing the Hitchhiker's Guide with nary the bat of an eye.
It would be like a lumberjack watching a TV character lick a tree trunk into 2x4s. Kinda fascinating in a Bizzaroland/Daliesque way, but still fundamentally wrong.
posted
Honestly, we can't fault CT or Theca for a lack of imagination in their failure to suspend disbelief. This is, in fact, a well-known phenomenon with dramatic interpretations of professional life. Just try watching Backdraft with a firefighter, or The Dead Poet's Society with someone who's actually been teaching for a decade or so. Nothing's more likely to interfere with even a wonderful and emotionally resonant story than an inaccurate portrayal of what someone does with half of their waking hours. With a few rare exceptions, the people a writer is portraying are the last people they want in their audience. Someday someone may make a good movie about your job, and you too will get crap from all of your friends for ruining it for them.
I just happen to be really lucky in this particular case. I'm close enough to the profession that I can understand all the lingo and follow the conversations, but far enough removed that I'm not always thinking, "why aren't you testing for this?", "why are you wasting so much time discussing something so obvious?" or "it's clearly that, just treat it already." It's right up my alley. But I'm not going to blame the doctors I know for being less enthusiastic about the show than I am.
posted
I saw this show for the first time this week. Eh. One thing might keep me watching, though: Robert Sean Leonard. Posts: 4077 | Registered: Jun 2003
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Mad]](mad.gif)
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
