House: Living The Dream
By fred | May 6, 2008
(S04E14) House is not a medical drama. Well, yes of course it is a medical drama, one filled with humor so much that some could be tempted to call it a dramedy, but that’s not the point. The point is that while there is a medical drama going on in the back, we all know the show is character-driven, and likes to wander about philosophical questions regarding happiness, life after death, meaning of existence, and plenty more.
America’s most favorite doctor is back, and of course he’s not happy. He’s not, but more importantly he’s concerned about someone else. House likes to pretend that he doesn’t care, and that whether the patient lives or dies never really bothers him, because he’s in it for the puzzle and the puzzle only, but this week he cared, or did he?
Usually the episode opens with someone getting suddenly sick, and finding its way to House. Not this week, this week House was convinced that the star of his daily soap-opera, who plays a doctor, had a brain tumor. Because he watches the show religiously, and he noticed he makes more pauses when reading his lines, so his peripheral vision had to be affected, so again : brain tumor !
It had to be, and House cares, he needs to save his life, so he does what any good doctor would do : gets himself a limo and goes play the chauffeur, kidnapping the guy and bringing him to the hospital. Of course, chances are House doesn’t actually care whether the guy lives or die, not really, he’s not doing so because he needs him to stay on the soap and do whatever it is that’s coming. Proof is, House is fine telling the guy if he’s miserable he should forget about hope and take the risk, quit his job, and try to do something else.
House just solved another puzzle just by watching TV, and he has to know (if) he’s right, he has to make sure and get proofs that there was a mystery going on, and just by watching TV he spotted it, and resolved it. House is all about the puzzle, he needs to solve it, and he needs to make sure he got it. That’s why he was willing to put his job on the line when he offered a way out for Cuddy : he doesn’t care whether the guy actually lives or dies, he cares that he can solve the puzzle.
Turns out there was a much bigger mystery here than brain tumor, and though it took a bit more time, he did eventually solved it. And I have to say that that’s the one thing I don’t like so much about this show : whatever it is, you can always count on two things : One, it’s not Lupus. And two, House will figure out during the last minutes of the episode, and the patient will live.
And I’m fine with the whole solving the puzzle thing, or the one about Lupus, I just wish that sometimes, more than once or even just twice a season, it would be too late, and the patient would already be dead, or couldn’t be saved. Solving the mystery doesn’t have to mean saving the patient, and they make sure to remind us many times that House is all about the mystery, not the patient. So make it really about the mystery, and not the patient.
For instance this time, I was sure in the end Cuddy would find the guy waking up in his bed, because House was right and had just saved his life. Turns out there was a little twist there, House was wrong ! Still, he somehow saved his life. So that’s already something, and no things weren’t over just because the guy’s life was safe, because House still needed to solve the puzzle. I’m actually shocked he let everyone go home and did not had them to still work on the case, since - as far as he’s concerned - it was not over.
