Season 5 General Discussion

Well, I think he got into it thinking that he could get the hospital to pay for the PI. When that didn't happen, I assumed that he probably hadn't paid him anything and maybe they negotiated some kind of fee after House was done with him. Of course I don't know that any of that happened, maybe House paid him just because he wanted to know that much. He does spend money when he really wants something: a baby grand, a flying V, escort services. And his mooching habits have more to do with pushing boundaries and seeing how far he can go with other characters more than him being a tightwad. The cable thing was twofold: he really did want cable but he also wanted his new employees to stand up to him and quit worrying about their jobs. See, I think House is always -*test*-('")ing everyone around him, pushing their buttons, manipulating them, seeing what they'll lie about, and collecting data on how they respond: it's how he understands what makes people tick: he watches, he imagines.

Because we don't see every minute of every day? Or maybe because 13 has a doctor of her own somewhere who is monitoring her off screen? We know she's receiving some kind of treatment based on the meds Foreman found in her apartment. The posters weren't arguing about it being an important point, but simply your misspelling of the word. Huntingdon Cambridgeshire.... Huntingdon Quebec.... Huntingdon Park Resort, Huntingdon SS in Alabama, Huntingdon Pennsylvania....Huntingdon Tenn.... Henry Huntingdon, author.... Huntington's disease. Let's move on the the inaccurate medicine currently on the show. Thirteen is taking pills. But no one at PPTH seems to care whether the disease is affecting her enough to do her job competently (and her emotional processing symptoms suggest they should). House started out as a medical detective show, even though of necessity some things were unrealistic (wait times for -*test*-('")s were shortened and Cuddy doesn't fire House). (Foreman's 3 weeks to publication in SDL strains credulity though.) If we have to have Thirteen's death watch arc, I would have preferred to have it about medical rather than soap,what it's like to have an employee who has a degenerative disease and what the hospital needs to do to be fair to her and to safeguard the patients, that liability that Cuddy is always talking about. House hates bureaucracy but he needs to put something in place because if she starts having visuospatial deficits, she's going to screw up the -*test*-('") results he needs. I don't recall any show doing a serious arc about what happens when a main character starts showing signs of decline and how it's handled in the workplace. The problem with making it about Thirteen and her reactions is not only that the show hasn't made me care about her, but that they go beyond soap-opera in her story line. Many people react badly to the news that they have a degenerative disease but few start doing drugs and sleeping with a different stranger every night. And if they are engaging in such risky behaviour, their bosses do something to minimize the damage they can do at work. House's addiction story line, suddenly dropped after Tritter left, was enough to swallow. This story line of Thirteen's with House hiring her back and Cuddy (who in season 3 spoke to Cameron about having a monogamous relationship with Chase) apparently uncaring of what she's doing, is shark-jumping in a serious show. And that brings me to the boston.com blogger who Namaste quoted. He likes the show but he likes it as "a comic psychodrama" and a "psychological farce." He's got a point about what level it works on. But I've never heard anyone connected with the show describe it as anything but a procedural / character exploration. Peter Morgan was talking in an interview about writing The Queen and how he thought he was writing one thing and the audience was seeing something different. It might be time for Shore to check out that what he's writing is what the audience is seeing. I've been watching for 5 seasons now and I don't think any more that David Shore has a creative vision other than in making House an urepentent jerk. For the rest, he seems to be making it up as the fancy takes him.

If we have to have Thirteen's death watch arc, I would have preferred to have it about medical rather than soap,what it's like to have an employee who has a degenerative disease and what the hospital needs to do to be fair to her and to safeguard the patients, that liability that Cuddy is always talking about. House hates bureaucracy but he needs to put something in place because if she starts having visuospatial deficits, she's going to screw up the -*test*-('") results he needs. I don't recall any show doing a serious arc about what happens when a main character starts showing signs of decline and how it's handled in the workplace. Thirteen has not yet developed Huntington's and it will be years until she does, even with the aggressive type. It's very realistic for someone in her position to find out she carries the defective gene years before it manifests and go through an emotional difficult time. Whether the writers pull off this storyline remains to be seen, but there's nothing wrong with the premise. And if they are engaging in such risky behaviour, their bosses do something to minimize the damage they can do at work. House's addiction story line, suddenly dropped after Tritter left, was enough to swallow. This story line of Thirteen's with House hiring her back and Cuddy (who in season 3 spoke to Cameron about having a monogamous relationship with Chase) apparently uncaring of what she's doing, is shark-jumping in a serious show. Cuddy spoke to Cameron after finding out Cameron and Chase were screwing around on the job--she gave her a heads up on the hazards of intradepartmental romances but what prompted the talk was the improper professional behaviour. She was just as interested in Thirteen's improper behaviour in turning up at work under the influence and not making a meeting, and ready to discipline her. But House is Thirteen's department head and if he supports Thirteen, Cuddy doesn't have much to go on without a drug -*test*-('") to confirm. Cuddy doesn't care what Thirteen is up to in terms of monogamous or non-monogamous relationships--she cares that she's turning up at work sober and on time. House caring about Thirteen's issues in his own way was nice to see. I'd hate to think he has no feelings at all about what Thirteen is going through--it doesn't match my expectations that underneath it all, he cares more than he lets on about the people in his orbit.

It might be time for Shore to check out that what he's writing is what the audience is seeing. Time to dig up that dead horse again? Since this has been debated to death before, let's see if I can put my view on that into shorthand of eight words or less: The creator should follow his own vision. Period. And ... I'm done.

The problem with making it about Thirteen and her reactions is not only that the show hasn't made me care about her, but that they go beyond soap-opera in her story line. Many people react badly to the news that they have a degenerative disease but few start doing drugs and sleeping with a different stranger every night. While 13 may be spiralling downwards since her diagnosis, there is no reason to think that she didn't have a self-destructive bent before her diagnosis. I don't equate her recent behaviour solely with receiving the bad news. First all, she was aware that her mother died of it and so was aware she might carry the gene for it, but never got herself -*test*-('")ed. It's not like she was living in a knowledge vacuum about her condition. The mirror, mirror guy was able to pick up her fear and some of her emotionally destructive ways, and the lack of personal relationships and commitment, in Games she defends the punk guy and states that "drugs are always a mask for something else" which at the time I thought probably referred to House but she also could have been referring to herself. We knew she was bi before her diagnosis and in Living the Dream she joked about potentially dating the actress on the soap they were watching, leading everyone to believe that she was actively bi. Then when Amber was dying, her reaction was to experience it as if she was facing her own death. She emotionally fell apart, while House was already getting frustrated with her. This was all before she was diagnosed. She was never all that stable to begin with, so her behaviour after the diagnosis didn't surprise me a bit, since I felt they had already set it up that she was an unstable character. The fact that in Joy she also showed she had street smarts just adds to my suspicion that her drug-use just didn't show up out-of-the blue after the diagnosis. I think we can safely assume that she is and has been a party girl, which is why House says the line about all party girls being fun until they throw up on your shoes. She reminds me a bit of a female version of Kalvin, the PoTW in the 2nd season, in that her condition just gives her a good excuse and a public reason to behave badly, but their disease isn't the reason that they are self-destructive, both of them were destructive before they were diagnosed with their respective diseases. And if they are engaging in such risky behaviour, their bosses do something to minimize the damage they can do at work. House's addiction story line, suddenly dropped after Tritter left, was enough to swallow. This story line of Thirteen's with House hiring her back and Cuddy (who in season 3 spoke to Cameron about having a monogamous relationship with Chase) apparently uncaring of what she's doing, is shark-jumping in a serious show. There is no reason to believe that Cuddy knows what 13 is doing, at least sexually, and besides 13 isn't dating anyone at the hospital, which was the situation between Chase and Cameron. Like House said in his defense of 13, Cuddy shouldn't be questioning her about things that happen outside of hospital hours. Don't be too sure about bosses minimizing risk, check the statistics about the number of anesthesiologists who are addicted to their own drugs, it's frightening how many go into surgery high. And, Cuddy is not uncaring, she may not know exactly what is going on but she does suspect that 13 showed up to work under the influence of something, which is why Cuddy wants the drug -*test*-('"), but House whisks 13 out of there pretty fast and then fires her, basically for her own sake, and to let her know just how serious her breach was, that he lacks confidence in her, and he doesn't trust her anymore. 13 then spends the rest of the ep trying to get her job back. I can see House folding simply because it would be tough for someone like him to not give someone a second chance considering how self-destructive he is and how many chances he's received. It was a Houseian thing for him to do. I know a lot of people don't like 13, don't sympathize with her, and don't care about her, and that's fine, but I think you are being seriously unfair to Cuddy, who is not in House's loop when it comes to problems on his staff (he generally tries to protect them from Cuddy, except in the Chase/Cameron closet situation - and I think in his own way he was still trying to protect them.) I also don't think the writers have changed 13 in any big way, they've just revealed the self-destructiveness that was always just hinted at. I think your post is just a reflection of the fact you obviously have strong feelings of dislike, if not outright hatred for 13, which is colouring your views of other characters or the writing in general. I have no idea why there is such hate for 13. I have no great love for the character, but I don't hate her either. OW may not be the grea-*test*-('") actress, but she's far from being a terrible actress. She's being asked to play a very tough role, sometimes she does okay with it, sometimes she doesn't. In either case, I don't see her ruining the show. In fact, I'm starting to like the Foreman/13 pairing, it allows Foreman some character-development and softens him up a bit, and gives her character more depth. Edited to hide spoiler. Please remember, if it hasn't aired, it's a spoiler Poeia

Foreman/13? Is that a spoiler? I hate spoilers! But maybe it's not. I hope it's just a thought...lalalalala.... Mod Note: Apparently it is. As I'm unspoiled too, I wasn't sure. Thanks for pointing it out. Actually, in what I wrote I was referring to what we had seen already, like when Foreman talks to her in the locker room and while in the surgical balcony. He actually became a sympathetic character for me in those two scenes, rather than the egotistical ass he usually is. I find him way worse than House, so it was nice to see him as a thoughtful, caring person again. As for 13, Foreman provided her an opportunity to voice her loneliness. It is tough to like a character when writers provide no opportunity to. 13 is way too reticent.

Ok, so the last episode was actually pretty good. Not one of my favourites by far, as I agree with peggy06 on every comment she made, but it was much better than the previous ones, being the only one besides the first of the season that I actually enjoyed. Maybe they can actually pull off the soapish thing and the Wilson-pretending-to-leave was just a very bad arc. We'll have to wait and see.

I am liking this season so far, but there is one thing that has been bothering me. Thirteen. Boring character+Way too much screentime=Her. Am I the only one who thinks that 13 is slowly becoming The Wesley of the show? (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheWesley tvtropes explains what TheWesley means.) I may have my head in the sand, but I've never heard the phrase "The Wesley" before, but I agree that it is quite apt. Brilliant that Wil Wheaton himself chimes in and explain how terrible the character's introduction was and how he can understand completely why audiences would have hated him. Yup, I'd say "The Wesley" hits it on the mark, exactly. I shall now forever more refer to 13 this way. Thanks, Dr. Jerk!

Am I the only one who thinks that 13 is slowly becoming The Wesley of the show? I have never heard of that reference before, but it is a perfect desciption of Thirteen.

Tvtropes has a perfect definition for everything. For example, Kutner? Ensemble Darkhorse. Let's admit, he barely had any screentime and yet we like him more than thirteen. Or maybe that's just me. House? He's...uh, Dr.Jerk Tvtropes makes everything better. ....I hope they Put Thirteen On A Bus soon.

Well, as long as Ted McGinley doesn't guest star in ...a very special episode, then I hope our favorite show is safe. And yes, in my humble opinion, 13=Wesley.

Holy crap, that place is a time suck. The House page there calls Wilson a Woobie, but my mileage varies on that one. Chase is such a woobie.

I'm not that sure about Chase being the Woobie...Although I did feel bad for him when he was fired. Cuddy is the current Woobie, in my opinion. .....and yes, tvtropes will make you lose hours and hours of your life. Or days. Or months.

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