Well, that wasn’t what I was expecting.
House the show, like House the character, is a master of misdirection, and this episode was full of many tantalizing examples. Even knowing all was not what it appeared, the episode left me admiring the show’s ability to piece together this heartbreaking, infuriating character I’d like to kiss and then stab. Kind of like Cameron.
A media release ruined the first bit of misdirection by revealing that House wasn’t talking to another hospital as a job candidate, but as a patient for a brain cancer clinical trial.
Because it seemed an unlikely direction for the show to take, and because I’m a big baby who can only handle one life-threatening event against House each year, I basically took advantage of our interview to get Katie Jacobs, executive producer and first-time director of this episode, to reassure me that it couldn’t possibly be cancer without exactly telling me that it couldn’t possibly be cancer, because I don’t like spoilers.
So watching Cameron, Chase, Foreman and Cuddy unravel the mystery behind House’s flight to Boston, I figured something else was going on. I just didn’t expect the ultimate answer to reveal such a brazenly unsympathetic side of House while still managing to managing to elicit my sympathy for the miserable, messed-up bastard that he is.
In stark contrast to the complex title hero, the simple patient of the week in “Half-Wit” is musical savant Patrick Obyedkov, played with a profound sweetness by musician Dave Matthews. Patrick is brought to the hospital after his hand freezes up during a concert, and the diagnostic team is brought in largely because House is curious about how Patrick’s brain works rather than about the cause of his hand dystonia.
“Half-Wit” was full of delicious witticisms, but as someone who loves making up my own words, I was particularly fond of the line: “Just because it’s inexplicted doesn’t mean it’s inexplicable.”
Kurtwood Smith of That 70s Show is very un-Red-like as Patrick’s father, a somewhat stern but always loving presence who surprisingly doesn’t harbour an alternate identity as the stage father from hell who is somehow at the root of his son’s medical issues.
He does act as interpreter, informing an auditorium full of people (and therefore, no coincidence, us) about his son’s accident 25 years earlier that left him brain damaged but a sudden musical prodigy, and informing House and Foreman (and therefore, no coincidence, us) about Patrick’s coping mechanism of mimicry, because he knows he’s expected to respond to people, but can’t always grasp how.
House has found a fun, new toy in the person of Patrick, getting him to mimic the opening bars of “I Don’t Like Mondays” (subtitle in House’s mind: “Or Anything or Anyone Else”), then to continue a song House had begun composing in junior high school but had never been able to complete.
“He’s fine. Can he go?” Foreman asks. “He’s great. He’s staying.” responds House.
The camera panning from Hugh Laurie’s hands to his face – look, it’s really him! – reminded me of the fun clip on the FOX website where modest Laurie praises Matthews’ musicianship, but Matthews the guitarist and vocalist gets the definitive word on who’s the better pianist: “I had a hand double, whereas Hugh did not.”
Watching doctor and savant play piano together, with House’s grizzled features next to Patrick’s child-like openness, makes them seem like polar opposites, but the episode uses that connection between them to further explore a couple of favourite themes of the show.
House is almost jealous of his patient. Patrick has something House would dearly love to have, something you couldn’t say about most people. If you discount the fact that most people have two pain-free, fully functional legs, that is.
The one thing Patrick can do in life is play the piano, but he has nothing else, not even the ability to button his own shirt. Unlike House, he has no other choice, nothing he’s deliberately sacrificing in order to maintain that one thing.
The one thing House has is his medical brilliance, and he has no qualms about pushing people away, or abusing drugs, or forgetting to button his shirt, as long as he can focus on a case and do his job.
But House’s one thing is dangerously close to becoming drug seeking rather than solving medical puzzles. And his drive to treat his patients at any cost is close to morphing into treating himself at any cost, after his temptation in “Insensitive” to harvest his CIPA patient’s spinal nerve, and his actions here to take a spot in a clinical trial away from a terminal cancer patient so he can get the good drugs.
In an attempt to see the music, House puts Patrick in an MRI machine. House tells his patient to pretend his leg’s a piano, and has to insist when Patrick objects that his leg is not, in fact, a piano.
“Kid’s a moron,” House says to Foreman, and I’m clinging to the fact that Laurie’s purposely over-the-top delivery is why I am not a horrible person for laughing so hard.
The MRI shows us that, as House says later, music is a global phenomenon when it comes to the brain’s hemispheres, and Patrick’s racing heart tells the doctors that his hand issues might be tied to a heart problem.
House has a heart problem of his own – it’s in hiding. When his team snoops and deduces their way into the conclusion that he’s chasing another job, Cuddy goes for the confirmation and instead discovers that he’s a brain cancer patient. Lisa Edelstein beautifully conveys her anguish at finding out House’s apparent medical condition.
She also gets a later scene beautifully mixing a little poignancy with a lot of snap, when she lets him grab some ass while enjoying a hug. But “call the Make a Wish Foundation” she says when he starts following her into the bedroom.
That’s the start of the parade of proof that the people House annoys every day care about him. Wilson confronts House and is rebuffed, Foreman tries to express his grudging affection for his boss and is rebuffed, and Cameron … well, Cameron isn’t rebuffed.
She demonstrates just how much she’s learned from working with House. She takes his “I love you, thanks for the HIV test swab” trick from “Need to Know” and makes it so much more. She starts off with a “newfound nonchalance in the face of cancer,” getting House to sign a reference letter she’s kindly written for herself, then getting all big eyed and moist-eyed before stepping in for a kiss – a kiss he doesn’t step away from, then returns with some gusto – before pulling out a syringe so she can get a little blood as part of the team’s campaign to find an answer besides one year to live.
I don’t want to see House hook up with any main cast members, and if I had to pick one relationship to back, my vote would go to the snarky sparks with Cuddy. But that kiss? Was hot. As was the devious motivation behind it. Another century or so under his tutelage and Cameron just might start popping Vicodin like candy.
And House liked it, too, however much he wants to brush it off with: “I didn’t want you to die without knowing the feeling. No woman should die without knowing the feeling.” And: “You need a sperm sample, come back without the syringe.”
Though he won’t give her the blood sample, he does tell her how to access his medical records: in a nod to General Hospital, soap-loving House has used the name Luke N. Laura for his medical files.
The team, shocked to find that the clinical trial is to treat depression in terminally ill cancer patients, drive themselves haggard pouring over the records, searching for hope, for alternate treatments.
They also continue to try to express their affection for their affection-allergic boss. Foreman ineptly tells him he likes him, which House doesn’t buy for a second. He seems to forget that it’s not impossible to be both annoyed by someone and like them at the same time – though you’d think Wilson would be ample proof of that.
Chase is more effective, in a scene both hilarious and touching.
Chase: Do you have to do that?
House: You mean cheapen everyoneβs attempt at a human moment by identifying the real calculations that go into it?
Chase: Yeah.
Chase presses on, though: “I’m sorry you’re dying. I’m going to hug you, OK?” It’s sincere, and simple, and he doesn’t even take any blood samples. House doesn’t know what to make of it.
After his colleagues decided he was dying, House finds himself in the position of being able to see how much they care, and to abuse them for caring. Win-win for House. It’s almost a game to him, to see how they attack his medical files, and see the parade of concerned faces knocking at his office door.
Through it all, there is no hidden angst behind Hugh Laurie’s performance, no sign of actual depression from a man who’s shown signs of it frequently enough before. So the spectre of him having a year to live, or needing the clinical trial for depression, seemed puzzlingly unlikely. But then how would House react to his impending death? It’s quite possible with just that much sang-froid. There were enough hints throughout the episode that there was something wrong with the scenario deduced by the team to keep up the tension, and enough doubt to make me wonder what exactly I was being directed away from.
House has better social skills when dealing with Patrick, sort of. He manages to engage him and make a connection that involves something more than parroting, which gives their exchange of “Do you like your life?” “What life?” a shadow that might otherwise be dismissed as Patrick simply not understanding the question.
There’s a cute scene where House teaches Patrick some bad words – I almost wish the show were on cable, so they could have really had fun with it – and teases him about girls. Patrick says he doesn’t like girls. Or boys. “I like piano.”
Though House is annoyed at people making deductions about him, he’s still in Sherlock Holmes mode about his team’s private life himself. He seems to have already picked up on the Cameron-Chase fling, accusing them of showering together, and it doesn’t take much for him to trace the gossip line from Wilson to Cameron to Chase.
The friends with benefits arrangement seems to be working well so far and adds some fun tension to the proceedings, like when they use their newfound teamwork to break in to House’s apartment – Chase the ever-stylish wearing a wearing fluorescent orange trucker hat as camouflage – and Cameron dodging the question of whether she’s been there before.
This episode seems particularly jam-packed with detail. I believe it’s the first time we haven’t had the full credits sequence, though it was a nice touch to end on a jarring piano note before heading into the post-teaser commercials. The line abused by the promotions people – Wilson imploring Cameron “You can’t tell ANYONE” – was cut. Still, I’m glad they found time for a shot of House’s high school yearbook with a familiar-to-Hugh-Laurie-fans shot of his young unsmiling face. (The nice detail is that he still has his yearbook around – wow, is it possible that I’m less sentimental than House?)
The volume of quips, character moments, fun and angst did mean that I felt the full weight of the decision House presented to Dr. Obyedkov wasn’t given quite as much time to breathe as I would have liked. Though Patrick ends up having two treatable conditions, House is convinced that removing the right hemisphere of his brain would not only eliminate the need for anti-seizure medication, it would allow the left half of his brain to function at a higher level.
In advocating for the procedure to Patrick’s dad, House dismisses his musical gift: “He’s the monkey grinder at the circus.” Which is both harsh and not entirely untrue, like a lot of the horrible things that come out of House’s mouth. He also forces Dr. Obyedkov (I wish they’d given him a first name so I didn’t have to keep checking the spelling of that) to examine whether he’s thinking of Patrick’s happiness or his own gratification.
“I’m offering him a life,” House says, ironically something House doesn’t really have himself.
Dr. Obyedkov tries to discern from his son what the best decision might be.
Dad: Are you happy?
Patrick: Are you happy?
The scene is wonderfully ambiguous. Is the father’s decision to proceed with the hemispherectomy because of his son’s limitations, limitations that mean he can’t grasp the meaning of what it means to be happy, so simply mimics his father? Or is he answering the son’s question? As in, no, I’m not really happy to button your shirt every day of your life so you can do the one thing you’re capable of. Either way, it’s not a selfish act – he’s attempting to give his son a life, and maybe in the process, give himself one, too.
It was a rare House where I could eat dinner while watching … until we got to the place where they took chunks of brain out of Patrick’s skull. Afterwards, House and Patrick’s father wonder how much he’ll recover, then watch as he buttons his shirt by himself, something we saw him fail to do in the teaser.
“He looks happy,” House remarks.
Though I didn’t think Patrick looked miserable before, it’s impossible to think Patrick’s father made the wrong decision, since the other option was just as much of a compromise – to preserve his musical abilities at the expense of his ability to live a more normal life.
Would House take that trade? His one thing for a shot of normalcy? We have our answer from “No Reason.” He has taken it. It failed. And there’s the root of my sympathy, even when my face was just as horrified as his minions to realize the medical records they’d been pouring over, the medical records House used to get into the clinical trial, belong to a patient at the hospital.
One bit of irony in the episode is that House’s team solved a medical mystery that House didn’t even realize was a mystery. The patient does not have cancer and is going to be fine. House is less than thrilled to discover he’s been “cured,” leading him to admit that it wasn’t his file, and he wanted in on the trial because they’d inject a drug directly into the pleasure centre of his brain.
“You faked cancer to get high?” Cameron asks, aghast, as we see the shocked and disappointed faces of the three of them. Chase has to be looking like quite a catch to her now.
House had to know there would have to be an end game strategy. At some point, he’d have to explain why he wasn’t dead yet. But that could wait until he got that great new drug. However, the team had sent the happy results to the Boston hospital, so House wasn’t getting on that plane in the morning.
Later, Wilson confronts him to clarify the inner workings of House’s brain, as is his lot in life.
Wilson: How depressed are you?
House: I’m not depressed.
Wilson: You faked cancer!
House: It was an outpatient procedure. I was curious.
Wilson claims depression in terminal cancer patients isn’t that common, not in people with friend and family, anyway. It’s not the dying that gets to people, it’s the dying alone that does. So he points out the irony: “You don’t have cancer. You do have people who give a crap. You fake cancer, then push the people who care away.”
“Because they’re boring,” is House’s reply.
“Half-Wit” was written by Lawrence Kaplow, who seems to think he’s moving on at the end of this season. Hmm, and I seem to think I have anything to say about that. It echoes some of the themes of season two’s “Distractions,” which Kaplow also wrote, and which showed us the lengths House would go to in order to avoid dealing with unpleasant emotions – now, even boredom falls under that – and how his drug use is tied to that. And again in “Half-Wit,” Wilson pleads with House to take up a non-self-destructive pastime, like going for pizza with a friend.
The episode ends on the kind of shocking scene the promotions people wouldn’t think was nearly dramatic enough to deserve that word. “Next, on the most shocking House yet: he thinks about joining people for dinner!” Passing by a restaurant, House sees his minions gathered together, pauses, and reaches for the door handle. While more cynical viewers could imagine him changing his mind, just the impulse to reach for the handle is a buttoning-his-own-shirt step for House. I imagine him joining them, insulting them all, ruining their friendly dinner, but also, secretly thrilling them all with the knowledge that he’s willingly there.
OK, maybe I am sentimental. So I’ll refrain from calling FOX any names related to the episode title for forcing us to wait until March 27 for another new episode.
Thank you for this review. I was somewhat surprised at myself for the amount of sympathy I still had for House at the end of this episode. Though the revelation elicited the shock and anger that one would expect, the thought that followed immediately was “My God… he’s sicker and sadder and has more messed-up-ed-ness than even we viewers ever imagined.” I must say also though that I was somewhat relieved… relieved in my disappointment, if that makes any sense… that recent moments of humanity are in no danger of significantly changing House’s character… and the exploration of this very fact is something that the writers can continue to explore for quite a while.
I love the parallels you draw between Patrick and House, some of which didn’t occur to me (at least not yet… you process these episodes much faster than I do) especially the parallel between buttoning the shirt and House grabbing the doorknob.
There’s more to explore, so I’ll probably be back in this thread soon. π
Great review!
I loved the wordplay too! I now want a tee-shirt with “Inexplicted”… delicious witticisms is exactly right: if life is a box of chocolates, this one is the big deluxe assortment from Belgium’s finest.
Loved, loved, so loved the piano scenes: Laurie is such a gifted musician and he plays with great chops, jazzy elegance, and the Boomtown claps! Perfect.
Favorite moments: Mathews’ performance was touching, trusting, childlike but not silly; Chase hugging House almost defiantly; House’s little boy all-tucked-up seated acceptance of Foreman’s efforts at a kind word, and the dreaded kiss scene turned out to be both hot, then really hot, then devious, then busted! but not romantic. Whew! Then with Cuddy, the real sparks: excellent, excellent fun!
And then, there was the brain cancer story. Yes, HL’s performance was utterly consistent with what was really going on yet messed with our expectations. The lack of angst in HL’s performance was indeed a clue: it seemed he was telling the truth when he said, “I’m fine.”
Instead, it was a secret-secret quest that House missed out on finishing thanks to the great education in diagnostics he has given his students: just the sight of their happy, glowing faces was so touching, ironic, and ultimately painful. He can’t even look at them because they are so great and he is so screwed. Amazing stuff.
Hugh Laurie. There just aren’t words: his raised eyebrow alone should win an Emmy.
An excellent review of an *excellent* episode, probably the best of Season 3 so far.
bofflebobbie said everything else I would have, and right on about the scene at House’s place… it’s a sure thing that he’s actually (in that hide-it-at-all-costs way of his) proud of them for out-sleuthing him on the “cancer” diagnosis, but since he created false pretenses for them to do it under, all he’s left with is a failed plan and a disappointed team.
Great writing, great acting. Does anybody know, though, why we keep getting 3 week pauses between episodes this season? This is what, the 4th time? It’s infuriating!
As always, DK, I loved your commentary. The scene back at his flat after the team found it all out suggested to me that the brain cancer trial was (for him) possibly another attempt at dealing with his pain. IIRC, the Ketamine, too, worked at the pleasure centers of the brain. I think House knows (in his terrible catch 22 of a life) that the amount of time he can continue using vicodin is is limited; he can’t really go for anything stronger (it would impair his thinking)in the opiate family. And perhaps the brain implant would, while relieving his depression (we know he’s depressed–although not in this episode, especially–but he has all that music) work on making his pain more tolerable.
His expression after being foiled is one (when his back is turned) of real disappointment. He had developed this elaborate scheme to simply find a new high? I think there’s a lot more to it than that. when that’s what cameron accuses him of, House glares at her as if to say that NO, it’s not the real fundamental reason I’m risking my life, creating elaborate schemes and lying my way into a study for terminal brain cancer patients.
His response to Wilson’s “How depressed are you.” with “I’m not.” is a typical House brush off of something real. We’ve seen him depressed this season big time, so he’s lying.
If we take his efforts to get into the study as another attempt at a risk/benefit equation for House getting relief, it fits in with another overriding theme of the season (that began with No Reason last year) to find a solution for his pain, now that he’s tasted what it could be like (in Meaning). Last week’s Insensitive touched on it as well, as he expressed to Wilson his willingness to trade a shorter life on immunosuppressant drugs for some degree of normalcy.
Also (and quite subtle), House is reading and taking notes — lots of journals and monographs on his desk–when Wilson comes in to confront him (even after the case is over)–my guess is that he’s looking for the next idea in his quest.
This is officially one of my favorite episodes in the entire series. And not because it was all that amazing in itself, but because any show that manages to make me swift through so many different emotions in so little time and by the end of it, it has made my knees tremble, deserves many points in my book. And lookie! The kiss wasn’t awkward like that hug in 3×11, like I was afraid it would be.
Great review too. Now I have to find a way to cope for two weeks until the next one…
‘The episode ends on the kind of shocking scene the promotions people wouldn’t think was nearly dramatic enough to deserve that word. “Next, on the most shocking House yet: he thinks about joining people for dinner!”‘
Ha! Love it. Maybe we should put you in charge of promos from now on. You seem to have a better grasp on the show. I just ask that you don’t say, “House goes farther than he’s EVER GONE BEFORE!” every week π
Weirdly, I kind of forgot to be mad about the cancer revelation, since I spent to whole episode trying to figure out what exactly he was trying to pull. Once I kicked myself for not even thinking about him using another person’s file, I was caught up in what a sad, sad man he is.
Your review is fantastic, as always. I rely on you to sort things out and put the different parallels and emotions into words. (No pressure!)
I’m glad that you’ve scored some interviews with showrunners. As their most thoughtful and intelligent reviewer, I think you deserve it.
I don’t know if you caught it, but they are definitely already hinting at Chase being the one to get emotionally attached to Cameron. First, he’s a little too inquisitive (jealous?) when asking Cameron if she’s been to House’s place before. Second, when they discover that House has been faking brain cancer, Foreman says something about House making out again with Cameron and Chase shoots him a glare.
House is right though — injecting stuff directly into the pleasure centre of your brain is totally the way to go. Just saying.
Thanks for the thoughtful comments everyone (except DMc … beware of the stabbing) and aww, thanks Elen! Yes, Darius, I thought that was great – the added tension was definitely mostly from Chase’s mini-jealousy. With Cameron gaga over House, I’m betting he’s the one who’ll get hurt.
I’ve just added your blog to my favorite sites. I read your review of “One Day, One Room” a while back, loved it, and just enjoyed your review of “Half-Wit.” You laugh at many of the same spots I do, your observations and analysis are keen, and you somehow manage to combine fangirl glee with professional critique wihtout batting an eye. Now, I have something to look forward to after the episode is over!
Great recap, as usual, Diane. I liked the episode very much, too. It’s amazing how much they can drag this character through the mud and still have him be likable.
Your exquisite review was great as always. Coming here to read your thoughts makes rewatching the episode much more rewarding.
I do want to register one small note: House’s visit to Cuddy was the final in the sequence of interactions not the first. Beginning with Cameron, then Foreman, then Chase, each visit was excrutiating for House in that he was forced to endure their pity, their invasions of his privacy, and experience his own guilt at the deception.
So the late night visit to Cuddy stood in stark contrast to these prior scenes. She was the only one who had not come to his office to offer unwelcome commiseration about his “cancer.”
Therefore, Cuddy was the only one he had not lied to in a direct manner. His lie to her at the end of their evening was one of omission because he did not correct her when she said that she had forgotten he had cancer. In fact, I think he was profoundly grateful that she was not treating him like the victim of yet another horrible trauma.
Knowing him as well as she does, Cuddy’s method of caring for House is to respect his privacy, his wishes, and his needs. She stands squarely ready to offer support if he asks for it as she demonstrated so well in this episode. Her approach is in sharp contrast to the bulldozing aggression of Cameron/Foreman/Chase who are pursuing their own goals through cloying expressions of condolence and pity.
It seems that finally Cuddy has learned some important lessons about House since her rather stupid behavior in this season’s premiere, “Meaning.”
How interesting to compare these two episodes: both have House coming to Cuddy in the middle of the night to wake her up to discuss a controversial course of treatment for a brain trauma patient. In “Meaning” House comes to the bedroom window and doesn’t enter, in “Half-Wit” he comes in through the front door and stays a long while in conversation in the living room.
In both episodes House urges a dramatic solution to a long-term brain disability. But in “Meaning,” of course, Cuddy rejects his suggestion because she says he is “high” on the thrill of puzzle-solving and needs to be taught a lesson. House even says, You’re smiling; that’s not a good thing, when he realizes she will dismiss his idea.
Now, in “Half-Wit” Cuddy sits quietly listening to House’s persuasive and entertaining description of how Patrick’s brain is working and how it might be fixed. She smiles and nods at his metaphor and accepts his suggestion and tells him to pursue it with the dad. Cuddy and House seem here like old partners in a sharing the joy of a successful diagnosis.
In its strangely cozy way this scene seemed profoundly romantic to me. This is a fleeting glimpse at what House might envisage as his dream of a happy life: coming home at odd hours with an idea frothing in his brain, having a mate of equal intellect and interests to share his tumbling ideas with, being always challenged to be better, being accepted and even cherished for his wildness and his unorthodoxy.
And if that mate has a tush that rocks his world and is thrilled to be held by him so much the better!
Yes, the Cam kiss was hot, but the deeply domestic affection between House and Cuddy was more satisfying.
Carol
One of the best shows of the season. While i cannot stomach the whole Cameron/Cuddy online nonsense. I thoroughly enjoyed the kiss. Nice chemistry between those two. Having said that I really wish they won’t go there with either one. House is not a soap opera. Let’s move on.
Excellent review.
Carol, yes, the chronology mistake was a result of some last-minute reorganizing before I posted – I’d meant her reaction to finding out was the first we see of how much the people around him care but inserted the bit about the later scene in between. Oops.
This was a great episode.I thought it was time I weighed in with a thank -you for the great reviews you are doing, Diane. Always a pleasure to read.
I just wish I hadn’t figured out what was coming in this episode as soon as I did. As soon as the ‘anti-depression drug’ trial was mentioned I knew what House was up to. I knew the hemispherectomy would come up too but had no idea which way the dad would lean. It really didn’t matter though, not much can ruin a great episode of House for me. I just sit back and let it wash over me like a warm bubble bath…
Thank you very much for this review, Diane! I read all of them, but that’s the first I’d like to comment.
You know, I began to be afraid of your reviews lately. π Maybe the problem was in the show itself, but watching it wasn’t so heartbraking, as reading about the lack of logic or something…
I mean it was almost always easy for me to convince myself that everything was OK with the screenplays, but your reviews always pointed something irrational, and sometimes I’d prefere not to think about it. π
But now I feel better. The show still can be a surprise! A pleasant one! π Lawrence Kaplow did a great work, and you did a great work too. It’s a kind of relief to know, that I didn’t miss any point (my native language is Russian) and it was enough logical.
I love characters so much, I just can’t stay critical all the time! It’s good, that you can. Even more pleasant is to read a positive review. π
P.S. By the way, about ‘russian’ last names. You know, they are not actually russian. Obyedkov? My God. It means ‘disguisting food leftovers’ like in a trash can. Couldn’t they use something nice and simple,like Ivanov or Petrov? (My surname is Ivanova, by the way.) π Ask Lawrence Kaplow when you’ll see him.
Thanks Teresa and Kate (and everyone else, but I already said that, didn’t I?) But you make me feel kind of bad, Kate! There’s only been a couple this season that I really didn’t like, which is par for the course, really. As usual, there are a few I thought were brilliant, most I thought were great, a couple merely good, but I think the bad ones stand out because one was the opener, and one was my least favourite episode of the show ever. I don’t write just to praise the show though – that would get boring for me. I write to analyse it to death, which might get boring for other people, but is endlessly fun for me π
Funny to hear what the last name meant – I wonder if they knew that?!
Oh don’t feel bad, Diane! I think I’m just nervous – I know what itβs like, watching your favorite show dying, loosing last logic,last sense of humor and even its charm. I’ve been there with ‘X-files’…
Tell me, Diane, do you belive in ‘House’? That it won’t jump the shark one day?.. There is Hugh Laurie, of course, but… you understand.
I know what you mean, Kate. I actually wrote something about that between the first and second seasons, not because the show was slipping – the opposite, I was still in awe over Three Stories – but because I know that if the show runs for as long as I want it to, it’s probably inevitable that it will.
But I think it’s not as likely to lose its way as badly as something like the X-Files, since it’s not that serialized, or with that kind of complex mythology to unravel (or, for the poor X-Files, ravel into incomprehension).