Tuesday, September 21, 2010

House “Now What?” Recap & Review: Entering JumpTheSharksville

Photos from Fox
I knew when I saw a Fox promotional photo for the new season of House(Fox) with Hugh Laurie in a clown face (I hate clowns) that the show may be on the down slide. During last night’s season premiere titled “Now What?” House (Hugh Laurie) asks Lisa Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) that same question after they have a romp in the bed. I find myself thinking that I really do not care what they want to do next. I should go on record to say that I am not a House/Cuddy (AKA “Huddy”) “shipper”; in fact, I think the two of them getting together may ruin the show. After watching the season premiere, my opinion is the show is teetering on the edge of a cliff, inches away from dropping off the edge into JumpTheSharksville.

The episode opened where last season left off, with House and Cuddy connecting romantically after working on a building collapse. The episode is filled with romantic, intimate, and treacle-y scenes with the two of them, in bed, in the bathtub, etc.etc. They seem to be worried about what they need to do to make the relationship work. I find that I am more worried about who is taking care of Cuddy’s kid and the out of control and soon to be shut down Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital.

While House and Cuddy are off playing their indoor games, House’s staff is working to keep the hospital running. Apparently there must be a neurosurgeon on duty at all times, otherwise the hospital can’t operate as a Level 1 Trauma Center. When House fields a call for Cuddy and gives Cuddy’s assistant an order to send the only neurosurgeon on staff to go home sick, the assistant is legally obligated to report it to the proper authorities. Of course, Cuddy has no clue about this. In fact, Cuddy seems to not have a clue about anything, brushing off her hospital duties a little too easily. Being a career woman myself for many years, I don’t think that a woman who worked so hard to get to the top would be so eager to just turn it off so completely, well, unless of course the woman is insecure and desperate for a man. At least that’s what they want you to think. Me? Since a crisis had just occurred the day before, I would have at least called in to someone to tell them where I could be reached in case of emergency but to only call if it is an emergency. Cuddy did nothing. I now have zero respect for her.

Meanwhile, House’s staff runs around trying to cure the neurosurgeon's illness in order to prevent the ER and trauma center from being closed. It was a dull and lifeless scenario. Also dull and lifeless was the attempt at drama and mystery with Thirteen (Olivia Wilde) and her apparent departure to Rome – except they find later that is not where she is going. I find myself thinking I don’t care where she is going, I just want her to go and not come back. (With Olivia Wilde's reported extended leave of absence from the show, I will get my wish.)
The only interesting scenes are those that involve House and Dr. Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard). I enjoyed Wilson’s phone call where House fakes he’s the answering machine, and when Wilson later crawls in the kitchen window. I realize that I am, at heart, a House and Wilson shipper, because these two really make a great pair.

When Cuddy finally - FINALLY! - leaves House’s apartment and says, “It's gonna be great" I say out loud, “No, it’s not.” Both have a look of concern on their face, but it doesn’t anywhere near match the look of worry on mine. House is slowly working its way off my “must watch” list.


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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh so sad and true

maybe said...

I'm appreciate your writing skill.Please keep on working hard.^^

Anonymous said...

This was probably worse than the courtroom scene in the second LOLA episode - it just seemed to go on forever. Declaring a day off is one thing when you're a college student and decide to cut classes, but when you're responsible for other peoples' lives? Come on. These two should be old enough to be able to work through the dopamine rush, although I'm not sure they convinced their audience that that is what they were experiencing. Better to have left it as it ended last season and picked up at the hospital the next day.

We can hope that House soon wakes up and realizes it was all a dream, I suppose, but do people speak in a special tone of "us" and their "relationship" in that kind of dream?

On the other hand, this frees up another hour a week for more productive activities - going through stacks of old computer magazines, reviewing Albanian, etc.