What a dreary night of television. It isn’t even raining outside where I live, but I feel like the sky is crying for Monday night television on FOX. It’s not unusual, though, to have some sketchy episodes before the November sweeps — but we waited for the baseball playoffs to be over for this?
Amber Tamblyn’s appearance on House, while Oliva Wilde is off filming a movie, has been long anticipated. This should not be confused with “looked forward to.” I remember when Tamblyn was an annoying little girl on General Hospital. It’s not surprising that she has grown into an annoying adult.
Did everybody just take a dose of stupid, though? What on earth was the point of getting rid of Jennifer Morrison‘s Cameron if you’re just going to bring in Tamblyn? And why are all the female fellows so awful? Cameron was moral and a little uptight, but she had her good qualities too. Amber became fleshed out as well … and then killed. Thirteen is okay; she doesn’t bother me as much as she bothers Oreo, but she has a terminal disease and she’s cryptic as hell. These don’t make interesting and complex characters so much as irritated viewers. And here the season was going so well.
The case was moderately interesting this week, except in all the ways it was cliché. Ooh, corrupt politician leaks a controversial ad his campaign manager makes, then “fires” the campaign manager, who is in the hospital. The campaign manager and the Senator have Hep C because they snort coke. However, the campaign manager, Dugan, isn’t responding to traditional treatment. They treat it with (wait for it): a risky treatment. They give him Hep A, and he is one of the 15% of the population who won’t die as a result. The new fellow, Tamblyn/Masters is alternately meek and defiant, has no sense of humor, banters with House about being fired.
It just wasn’t as well done as a traditional House episode. Did they let new writers into the room? Throw them a bone because it’s not sweeps? There were some really funny quotes though, so maybe I’ll just go with those:
“Senator Anderson sent this case to us and personally requested we take a look. That’s good enough for me,”– Foreman
“Black guy campaigning for the other side. Does Obama know?” — House
“I tried calling him on the brother hotline. He didn’t pick up.”– Foreman
Foreman, Taub, and Masters then break into Dugan’s house to look for toxins. Masters stops cold on the threshhold like she has hit an invisible wall.
“Are you a vampire?” Taub asks her. “It’s okay. We’re inviting you in.”
Maybe I should grade this episode: A for funny quotes, and C- for everything else.
Clacked by Jen Creer
on Nov 08, 2010 @ 23:48 EST5EDT
HAHAHA!
I’m glad to see my hatred for 13 is remembered. My problem with her is, I don’t think the actress is very good, but worse was the writing, it became House and 13 instead of House M.D. Every episode dealt with her doing something else stupid. I actually liked 13 in this season’s premiere.
There were a ton of funny quotes, but yeah the episode was boring. I was looknig forward to Amber Tamblyn, but her character reminds me of a cousin of mine… and I wouldn’t ever want her to be my doctor! The writers need to hire some female writers because it’s clear the ones we have really don’t know how to write for women roles.
All the female characters on House are awful. They always have been, and yes, that most definitely includes Cuddy. Amber (Cut throat Bitch) was the closest they came to a decent female character. Stacy started off well, but we all know how that ended up. I really don’t understand how some writers can come up with strong female characters consistently and others fail so badly. I mean, Scrubs, The West Wing, How I Met Your Mother, The Good Wife, Mad Men etc. all managed to create excellent female characters but House writers seem incapable of it. Talk about frustrating.
Worse than that — Eli Attie wrote some very good female characters in The West Wing. Then he completely butchered Cameron in the Teamwork and Lockdown episodes of House.
I suspect it’s not the writers but the show runners who create or destroy female characters. Both Stacy and Amber started off well but by the end of their time, they were cringe-worthy. In her first episode, Stacy said `I don`t cheat on my husband`, by her last episode she was cheating on him with House and intending on continuing to do so.
Female characters are difficult because most writers are men and very few of us understand women. Once you do find a realistic female in television (e.g., Laura Roslyn from BSG), hold onto her tightly.
More great quotes from last night’s ep:
-Taub refers to Masters as “Pippi Longdivision”
-“Have you ever considered going into politics? Because I would love to have you… as an opponent.”
-“Meet Boring, Bimbo, and Bite-Size.” And later, after Foreman speaks, “Now you just have to guess which one is Bimbo and which is Bite-Size.”
I didn’t mind the episode all that much, and it’s always good for House to have new people to banter with in different ways. I wish they’d find a way to make Lucas a little more prominent, though; he and House had some great times in his brief run on the show. Plus, not nearly enough Wilson last night.
*POST AUTHOR*
That’s interesting– Are you saying that most writers are men, or just most writers on these shows? From a very informal survey of writers for shows, I’d have to agree that they seem stacked on the side of being male (and white). But why is this? I don’t think there are genuinely more male writers than female any more than I think that there are more minority criminals than white. So, why are the men being predominently hired? (That is a rhetorical question– and the answer speaks to the larger problem of badly written female characters).
House has a number of good female writers e.g. Doris Egan, Liz Friedman (who wrote Merry Little Christmas and Frozen, two of the best episodes) and Sara Hess.
Doris Egan, who has now gone to Torchwood, wrote Failure to Communicate with a strong Stacy, and then wrote most of House|Cuddy backstory episodes including the 80s dance when they are lying to each other and Cuddy reveals that she has had a crush on House since their ONS 20 years ago when he never called her back. (Is this supposed to be the sign of a strong woman?) She also wrote the opener this season where Cuddy, hospital head and mother, turned off her cell phone so she could play hooky in House’s bed.
Sara Hess mostly writes Thirteen these days. For Cameron, she wrote the two episodes where Cameron hurts a patient because she disagrees with him|her. She upped it with Thirteen, who forced a painful test on House without anaesthetic because he put caffeine in her coffee and ignores patients when they’re asking for her help. For Cuddy, she wrote the episode where Cuddy prevents House from using the elevator, steals his cane and sets up a tripwire in the door to his office. (Must be love.)
On this show, the women writers seem to do a worse job of female characters than the men do. I think David Foster who wrote All In (hospital poker night), Informed Consent (Joel Grey wants House to euthanize him) and Big Baby (Cameron takes over when Cuddy is on mat leave) writes the women best of all.
While it definitely wasn’t my favorite episode, it’s more than likely because they are veering from my formula. Every season they bring in some weird story arc in the middle that is supposed to be awesome and just annoys me, and this season it’s Amber Tamblyn’s character. Why not just leave it alone and give the other characters more screen time until Olivia Wilde comes back?
And now, we have this ridiculous blood test thing that’s going to blow up House and Cuddy’s relationship … so contrived!
I agree: So contrived. I was so annoyed by the blood test subplot that, as you see, I didn’t even mention it in my review. Ugh.