MelissaS's TV Reviews

Okay, so we're not supposed to comment on the other posts, but to the guy who rambled on about wanting doctors to be infallable and not addicted to drugs...You can't be serious!

What makes Greg House such a compelling character (besides yummy Hugh Laurie's sexy limp and piercing eyes) is his humanity. He's not perfect, but he could be real. He has this amazing gift that carries with it baggage. This is how real geniuses are, people. They aren't perfect people, with perfect lives up on a pedestal. They are usually very driven people, sometimes to the point of obession. They are sometimes very lopsided people, with mental, emotional or social problems. Sometimes their very brilliance and intellectual sensitivity predisposes them to have more problems than other more balanced people. If House were perfect we'd all yawn and go watch one of the other boring doctor shows around.

I love the addiction because it helps illuminate his softer, vulnerable underbelly. He is so dark and caustic but you know that all that is just a defense because underneith he is hurting and scared. He's like a small, defenseless animal that evolves to have a razor sharp wit and tongue to defend himself from predators. He hurts people because he is hurting. It's almost poetic. Being a drug addict, and knowing that it is a weakness which he usually goes to great lengths to hide, and being unable to and hating himself for it at the same time as he keeps doing it...it's compelling to watch his layers peel back. (and the towel scene wasn't bad either)

That said, I am hating the cop storyline too, since I am so into this show it actually makes me feel anxious when there is *too* much tension, but it sure makes for good drama. How far will House let him torture his only friend? How will House outwit him, or will he defeat him with some extrordinary stroke of luck, as he did his nemesis in season one? Will Wilson keep forgiving him? Will he have a breakdown? Ahhh, the beautiful melodrama!

There was one episode that I didn't like. One episode out of three seasons isn't too bad, though, considering every single other episode immediately became a favorite. It was the one with the coma guy who wakes up and goes on a road trip with House and Wilson to Atlantic City for a hoagie. It just defied belief and I don't know if they were trying out a new writer or director or something but that episode was way too contrived and farfetched. I kept waiting for it to be another gunshot wound-initiated hallucination since it had that same off-balance, not-quite-right feeling to it. I get that they wanted a character to ask House questions to help peel his layers and all that, but they were scraping the imaginational bottom of the barrel with a man who wants to spend his last hours of life eating a sandwich and delving into the psyche of his son's doctor. House writers/producers if you read this, what the heck were you guys thinking??! You are smarter than that, and can do way better.

Viva House! I hope it runs for a thousand years.
~M