House – Hospitals and prisons are more alike than you’d think

by Debbie McDuffee

Although the season eight premiere of 'House' takes him away from the hospital and all of the supporting characters, House still manages to hit a home run without his team.

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TV Shows

House
- Season 8, Episode 1 - "Twenty Vicodin"

“Me and humanity, we got together too young.” – House

It’s mindboggling that Hugh Laurie hasn’t won the Emmy for his role as Dr. House yet; you show me another show that can successfully (more than once, I might add … you all remember “Broken“) remove the main character from the show’s normal setting and all of the supporting characters and still be completely compelling, and I’ll show you an Emmy winner. Laurie can carry this show from inside a shoebox … or solitary, as the case may be. Why has Laurie been overlooked? Digression … fine, fine — to the episode!

Dr. House knows how to work a room … or a hospital … or a prison. When House was wandering the prison at the beginning of the episode, calling out chess moves, managing the meds, handing out medical advice (which reminded me of the hospital clinic a bit), it was reminiscent of the way he owns the hospital.

At first, I wanted to be annoyed that they, once again, took us away from the formula and all the familiar and loved characters after a long hiatus from them all. But aside from the missing supporting characters, “Twenty Vicodin” had everything I love about a House episode:

There was a lupus joke. After all the attention “It’s not lupus” has gotten, I thought they were finally going to have a diagnosis of lupus, just for the fun of it. Instead, we got yet another quote to add to the montage. Funny.
House didn’t have Wilson orTaub to mess around with, so he decided to play a bit with the prisoners who were trying to steal his stuff since he was up for parole. The whole stereo plan was hilarious.
House is always right in the end, even though he’s wrong about a thousand times before that. It was a unique way he found out that the aspirin test worked … this show hasn’t lost it.
A bit of annoying set-up, in that someone is always out to get House. It started in season one with Chi McBride’s character, then the DEA agent, and now, chances are, we’ll have Mendelson’s cronies on him. But it’s a typical House plotline.

So instead of being disgruntled, I was entertained AND awed. Some have said that House has lost its shine, but when the writers (and Laurie) can do what they do, I’m not sure how the critics can’t appreciate the brilliance. Maybe the glare is too strong?

Photo Credit: Ray Mickshaw/FOX

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Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Oct 03, 2011 @ 22:00 EST5EDT

2 Responses to “House – Hospitals and prisons are more alike than you’d think”

Ruby

October 11, 2011 at 9:08 PM

I hope you’re going to keep reviewing House. The first two episodes of the season have revived my interest in this show, after the old formula began to go stale. I hope the new girl (the Filipina/Korean doctor) is staying on House’s team. It would be awesome for the show to have a female character that doesn’t look like a model and is both funny and believable and not in the mold of Cameron or Thirteen. Foreman as the new Dean – that could be interesting if it means Foreman gets some character development. This season could breathe new life into the show, depending on what kinds of new characters and story lines are introduced.

Debbie McDuffee
*POST AUTHOR*

October 16, 2011 at 8:21 PM

Hi Ruby! Yes, the plan is to review House each week, but life got in the way last week and I didn’t even get to watch in a timely manner. I like what I’ve seen so far as well and the promos for next week look great. One thing I have to say about last week’s is that I am SO GLAD they didn’t leave Wilson mad at House. They needed to resolve things and be friends again, b/c that is one of the wonderful things about the show. Nice that they didn’t draw it out.