Season One, Episode 21, Three Stories

House's ex Stacy Warner asks him to treat her husband. House takes over a diagnostics class for a day and presents the class with three case studies of leg pain. As House tells his story and the class gradually fills up with listeners, the class learns a lot about how to be better doctors, and Chase, Foreman and Cameron learn some important details of House's past. 


House admires Carmen Electra's golfing attire

finally, the REAL payoff. I suspected something like this was coming but am glad I didn’t take shortcuts. Your highlights may have gotten me there by a faster route—say, Everest by helicopter—but would I have appreciated the view as much? That’s why JAWS doesn’t show up until the third reel.

And it gets better: the “ducklings-to-be” in exact same proportion in the half-empty lecture theater; the game w/Carmen Electra!; gobbles a handful of pills—“on average, drug addicts are stupid” and, after he becomes ID’d as his own: Asian girl: “The patient was stupid!” H: “On the average, they all are.”; and the piece d’ resistance--staring into the camera “Oh, yes, that patient won’t come in for another three months. Luckily, it has been well-established that Time is not a fixed construct…”—and then that eyebrow lift… HOUSE GOES META!

Then the backstory w/Stacy. Now we understand his view of the untrustworthiness of love.
He said: all or nothing.
She said: the middle way.
He gets: chronic pain and limp.
She gets: frozen out forever.
Both of them get: a Life.

Then the exterior, interior thing. Notice how the ducklings turn up, and the lecture hall starts to mysteriously fill up as word spreads like wildfire: “Psst! House is teaching a class!” then Wilson, then cuddy—this is a major event at the school! And so the answers: it would appear that cuddy felt guilty, no matter what else, when she hired him (unless he already was working there then--ambiguous). And even though Wilson is not present in any of the scenes, he knows about the death-time House spent on the astral plane. And after Wilson, Cameron and Foreman all ask their big ones what’s his summary? “I find it more comforting to believe that this is not simply…a test.”

OK. WAIT A MINUTE! Straight, declarative statement, but he says nothing about what IT IS. Did you get that? He gives you a negative but do we not automatically assume the false positive? This is a core value of philosophy, right? Ok. Carle’s Law 101: a Negative is NOT a False Positive; it merely SOUNDS LIKE IT while it states what something IS NOT. All he says is that the answers proposed are too simplistic. And that is what truly fine brinksmanship in writing sounds like. also Derrida, but that's another thing. THIS IS SOMETHING HOUSE THOUGHT ON, A LOT, BEFORE REACHING HIS SECULAR CONCLUSION.

Yeah. This I could like.

House Triple Play Day! Darth Vogler X 3

House, Triple Play Day

s1 ep 15, Mob Rules

Plot: A judge orders House to treat a mob informant. House does so under protest, but even when the patient recovers, he figures something is wrong with him and wants to keep treating him. When he butts heads with Vogler over the treatment of the patient, Vogler spends two days fighting with Cuddy over House's continued employment, resulting in Cuddy having to make a terrible compromise in order to keep House at the hospital. Meanwhile, House figures out someone on his team is keeping Vogler informed and takes steps to try to confirm who it is. 

you’ve got “Vogler the enforcer” and a federal witness in here; perfect fit. But there is no way a mob-connected atty is going to have that much access to the witness, even if it is his brother. I mean, are these writers only basing this script on what they've seen in “the godfather part 2”? (I couldn’t never figure how tom hagen got to frank in that army base lock-up. Did anyone ever explain that?!?!)

I know I promised to throw away all criticality w/r/t the ducklings but this violates my code of ethical detachment from existential living on the 21st century planet earth. And—yeah—I liked the corvette, like anybody else. But would the government keep him on the case with an obvious bribe sitting in his driveway? Oh yeah, and the IRS? Credulity can only stand so much strain…

s1 ep 16, Heavy 

 Plot: A morbidly obese 10 year old girl has a heart attack. House is intrigued, but the obvious cause of her problems seems to be her weight, and Chase won‘t stop mentioning it. Can the team look through her appearance to see the real cause? 
House is trying to deal with a conundrum. On Vogler's orders (backed by Cuddy), to make his department profitable, he has to fire one of his three staff members. House tries to stall for a few months, but Cuddy tells him he has a week.


now Darth Vogler ups the ante.
Cameron: “why are you telling me all this? Because you feel guilty?”
 V: “I don’t feel guilty. But that doesn’t mean I don’t feel sad. I may be rich, but I’m human.”

FINE DISTINCTION. Isn’t “sad” when we are resigned to things over which we have no control? I distinguish this from depression, another animal entirely. Depression is rage/anger turned inward—usually over powerlessness and helplessness.) So why aren’t these Dr.’s smart enough to know they’re being manipulated? I mean, HAVEN’T THEY EVER HEARD OF MEPHISTOPHELES? DON’T THEY KNOW WHAT A FAUSTIAN BARGAIN IS?

Upper photo: Lisa Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) Below: Edward Vogler (Chi McBride)

s1 ep 17, Role Model

When a politician friend of Vogler’s collapses at a rally, he demands House at least examine the man. House soon takes an interest in the case, but his conclusions seem to end any chance the patient has of pursuing his political career. In addition, Vogler’s demands on House increase to the point where he wants House to shill for his new pharmaceutical. 
House goes to give his speech, with Vogler depending on House's reputation and integrity to sway the audience. He starts on script, but ends after one paragraph. When Vogler threatens his fellows unless he completes his speech, he goes back to the podium and just tells the audience that the new drug is good because is just the old good drug, only a lot more expensive and under a new patent. He also says that Vogler's company merely fools around with existing drugs to make them slightly different so they will get a new patent. Cuddy and Wilson are mortified. Vogler is stunned. House leaves the stage.
Cameron goes to see House. She agrees to resign so he won't have to fire her or Foreman. House asks why and she says it is to protect herself. She admits she likes him despite his faults because she thought he liked to help people, but she has now realized that he does what he does because he always wants to do the right thing. She thinks that the only way she can do the right thing is to quit.

this was how many years before Obama? (The politician is black.  He does not think he can win, but he is paving the way for future black candidates) not looking for a prediction, just a comparison. 2005?

OK. So, subplot is the blackmail for the drug endorsement. Uh—what? Like the medical establishment is going to believe this? Vogler owns the hospital and the drug company, and house is a known iconoclast offender, and NOBODY’S going to see the--- oh I give up!

(ok. no, i don't.)

Season One, Episodes 3 & 4: Occam's Razor and Maternity

Description:(Occam's Razor)

After calling in sick at work, 22-year-old college student Brandon (Kevin Zegers) spends the morning having wild sex with his fiancee--and then lapses into unconsciousness. It's obvious to Dr. House (Hugh Laurie) that Brandon wasn't lying about being sick, but his symptoms are mysterious and contradictory--and worse, they keep multiplying. As he tries to figure out this puzzle, House saves time by treating all of his other patients in a record five minutes.

this is a gimme. Occam's Razor  first became popularized via the jodie foster film "contact" from the book by carl sagan. since then, it has become the 'go-to' concept used by everyone as shorthand for critical thinking, and because it sounds sooo cool...which is part and parcel of the essence of this particular episode: teenage sex! yes, starts off with a bang! and why? so the cute F asst. can tease the cute M asst. with saucy asides as she thrust out her prodigious headlamps at him in the lounge. and, as well, the whole 'defiance-in-the-face-of-authority' thang gets the patient a full body scan and medical just because house identifies with her attitude. see? it pays to be cool!

ok. i'll bite. who IS Wilson? seems to be an administrator who's always around but doesn't work for the uber-she. 
 

Description:  Maternity

After checking on two neonatal infants who have suffered mysterious seizures, House (Hugh Laurie) concludes that the clinic has become the breeding ground for a deadly epidemic--which is rapidly spreading to the other newborns. In order to isolate the reason for this outbreak and to stop it in its tracks, House is faced with a difficult choice: One of the babies will have to die to save the others. As it turns out, the source of the epidemic has little to do with babies, but neither House nor the audience finds this out until the very last moment

Maternity. you know, when i think about the Paternity episode, i think it really ought to have been called, Parenting, because it didn't have anything to do with a paternity suit and the fact that the kid was adopted makes it more about a 'family matter' than anything having to do with who was the sire and who was the dam...and who is the parasite. which may have been the major point of this ep, as house gets to show his contempt for children as well. as for the treatment? no way. never in 1000yrs. this is the stuff that trial lawyers' dreams are made of. sorry, uh-uh. violates credibility

House agrees: everything is better with bacon!

so, why is he in the maternity lounge? to watch the TV? he doesn't seem to mind watching his portable, so why would he change his habits? as you know, habits aren't hard to break, they're fucking impossible to break--they can only be substituted for or curbed, but only with FULL SELF-KNOWLEDGE! and he doesn't ever make a comment that his M asst., the blonde guy, is a dead ringer for the one on GH?

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Wow,  you're getting obsessed!  I STILL cannot believe you are watching every episode of this show from the beginning.  Once you burn out, I'll give you a list of the particularly good episodes.  Bear in mind that in the first season they're still working out the kinks.

Remember, this is television, not reality, so there's a lot of shorthand.  Also, the titles usually mean several different levels (maybe not Occam's Razor, but it became standard later on and gave the analysis monkeys something to dissect).  The reality is that a real hospital would NEVER keep a doctor like House for more than three weeks. But this character is the springboard for 1,000 snarky main characters. Check out:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/House

This site...well, you have to see for yourself.  I think you will really, really like it and not just because of the show. The beginning of the shows are called "teasers" for a reason.  Last season and this season have had overreaching teasers that strain credulity to the breaking point.  What's a gimme?

 catchall for 'been-there/done that' etc. simply that any episode with that title is going to be a cultural hitchhike upon the fender skirts of greater minds...

Wilson's character didn't really come together until Season Two.  He's the head of oncology but who seems to have plenty of time to hang around House and his crew.  Last season they did an episode called "Wilson" in which they explored his day, more or less.  The parts involving House's team was pretty funny, because you saw how completely insane it looks from the outside.  Wilson both works for the uber-she, but also conspires with her to control House.

so, why is he in the maternity lounge? to watch the tv? he doesn't
seem to mind watching his portable, so why would he change his habits?
as you know, habits aren't hard to break, they're fucking impossible
to break--they can only be substituted for or curbed, but only with
FULL SELF-KNOWLEDGE!

House will do ANYTHING to keep from being bored.  Everything is a substitute for his basic addiction: medicine.  Without medicine he is nothing.  Well, he's a drug addict, too.  Pills, video games, television...as for the latter, House watches it all over the hospital as long as he can be left alone.  Mostly in the wing where the coma patients are.  For the medical, etc., you should check a great site, "Polite Dissent," in which a doctor analyzes the medicine in each episode. There are several doctors on the staff, but still, the show plays fast and loose.  This show in some ways is as formulaic as "Law And Order"; patient shows up, the staff nearly kills him a few times before finding the disease--although sometimes they die. 

no way. never in 1000yrs. this is the stuff that trial lawyers' dreams are made of. sorry, uh-uh. violates credibility 

As I wrote earlier, in real life House would never sustain employment.  But this is a tv show called "House, MD," so...

right. answers the above. understood. this is "medical lite" like law&order is "legal lite". so the idea is to ignore the contrivances [after all, this is listed as a mystery] and concentrate on adapting the acerbic comments to any public discourse i might engage in, yes?