House - episode 2x02
Feb. 15th, 2006 08:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
timepiececlockseason 2, episode 2: I started cracking up in the scene b/w the little girl and Dr. Chase. I knew she was going to ask for that a few lnes before she did and I almost couldn't watch. Too amusing.
The easiest way to organize your thoughts is to number them. These are numbered as they occur to me.
1. I loved the way "Three Stories" was written. Very meta, very inventive both rhetorically and visually. At first I thought it'd be the show branching out into a creative arty style for an episode--- I didn't expect the arty writing experiment to be a creative vehicle for introducing House's tragic back story. Once we were far enough along to see it coming, it fit very well and was emotionally quite effective. It also did an excellent job of introducing Stacy's characterization.
2. I don't like Stacy's place on the series. I liked her in the end of season 1, but I can't for the life of me figure out why she's still here in season 2. Seems like bad writing. She could be replaced by a more interesting character--- at this point I don't really believe she'd cheat on her husband, so I'm not buying into the UST. And if she's not providing UST as House's ex then she has no character purpose and that makes her presence pointless. Bad writing. Next!
3. I was intrigued the the progression of House and Cameron's non-relationship in season 1, but I'm disappointed by how's it's been shunted aside in season 2. Not because it's a loss of OTP thing, because I've watched all the episodes in a two-day period so it's not like it's Spuffy or DoctorWho/Rose or something. From a plot perspective, it's disappointing. They build up this tension very smoothly for 17 episodes. Then they kill it by episode 20, but in such a way that it's not totally killed, just sort of put off (the way House puts off all relationships). Yeah, he handed her a bit of psychoanalysis that may very well be true, but that doesn't change the fact that she certainly likes him and they made it clear he's not completely indifferent to her. They ended the season with the conversation b/w Cameron and Stacy where we know that Cameron, at least, hasn't changed in her feelings. It appears they've both decided to live with it for now.
And then season 2 starts and it's totally been killed. House is even more indifferent, and Cameron says that she's completely over her affection for him. The actress acted it in a way that I believed it was sincere. So what, I ask, was the POINT? This pseudo-relationship HAD NO POINT. House didn't change for it--- he changed b/c of Stacey. You could say he changed to be more sensitive b/c of Cameron, but that could have been achieved without a romantic subplot. Cameron herself hasn't changed in any noticeable way either, except proving that even fictional women ascribe to my roommates theory that all women change their hair after a failed relationship (I wouldn't know). Both are now in the same professional position they were at the beginning of season 1.
There was definite chemistry between the actors, but if neither characters changes emotionally or in their professional/environmental circumstances as a result of this relationship, then why do it? Why spend the second half of the first season with this running subplot and then drop it for no discernable reason?
This feels like the uneveness of writing that comes with different writers/creators handling the show differently. Like writer A saw the relationship as particular thing with a particular character goal and then writer B takes over and drops it in the next episode so that you can play up this other relationship instead.
Rather like the way minor characters just randomly disappeared from the West Wing from one week to the next, if you think about it. On the show House, M.D., relationships randomly disappear from week to week.
4. Cuddy is awesome. Never change.
5. Wilson too.
6. Based on episode 2.2, it looks like Chase has suddenly stopped being an unexplainable jerk off and gone back to being a passably nice person. Again with the unexplainable character changes.
7. I like this show. I'm gonna have a ball with reading the fanfiction.
The easiest way to organize your thoughts is to number them. These are numbered as they occur to me.
1. I loved the way "Three Stories" was written. Very meta, very inventive both rhetorically and visually. At first I thought it'd be the show branching out into a creative arty style for an episode--- I didn't expect the arty writing experiment to be a creative vehicle for introducing House's tragic back story. Once we were far enough along to see it coming, it fit very well and was emotionally quite effective. It also did an excellent job of introducing Stacy's characterization.
2. I don't like Stacy's place on the series. I liked her in the end of season 1, but I can't for the life of me figure out why she's still here in season 2. Seems like bad writing. She could be replaced by a more interesting character--- at this point I don't really believe she'd cheat on her husband, so I'm not buying into the UST. And if she's not providing UST as House's ex then she has no character purpose and that makes her presence pointless. Bad writing. Next!
3. I was intrigued the the progression of House and Cameron's non-relationship in season 1, but I'm disappointed by how's it's been shunted aside in season 2. Not because it's a loss of OTP thing, because I've watched all the episodes in a two-day period so it's not like it's Spuffy or DoctorWho/Rose or something. From a plot perspective, it's disappointing. They build up this tension very smoothly for 17 episodes. Then they kill it by episode 20, but in such a way that it's not totally killed, just sort of put off (the way House puts off all relationships). Yeah, he handed her a bit of psychoanalysis that may very well be true, but that doesn't change the fact that she certainly likes him and they made it clear he's not completely indifferent to her. They ended the season with the conversation b/w Cameron and Stacy where we know that Cameron, at least, hasn't changed in her feelings. It appears they've both decided to live with it for now.
And then season 2 starts and it's totally been killed. House is even more indifferent, and Cameron says that she's completely over her affection for him. The actress acted it in a way that I believed it was sincere. So what, I ask, was the POINT? This pseudo-relationship HAD NO POINT. House didn't change for it--- he changed b/c of Stacey. You could say he changed to be more sensitive b/c of Cameron, but that could have been achieved without a romantic subplot. Cameron herself hasn't changed in any noticeable way either, except proving that even fictional women ascribe to my roommates theory that all women change their hair after a failed relationship (I wouldn't know). Both are now in the same professional position they were at the beginning of season 1.
There was definite chemistry between the actors, but if neither characters changes emotionally or in their professional/environmental circumstances as a result of this relationship, then why do it? Why spend the second half of the first season with this running subplot and then drop it for no discernable reason?
This feels like the uneveness of writing that comes with different writers/creators handling the show differently. Like writer A saw the relationship as particular thing with a particular character goal and then writer B takes over and drops it in the next episode so that you can play up this other relationship instead.
Rather like the way minor characters just randomly disappeared from the West Wing from one week to the next, if you think about it. On the show House, M.D., relationships randomly disappear from week to week.
4. Cuddy is awesome. Never change.
5. Wilson too.
6. Based on episode 2.2, it looks like Chase has suddenly stopped being an unexplainable jerk off and gone back to being a passably nice person. Again with the unexplainable character changes.
7. I like this show. I'm gonna have a ball with reading the fanfiction.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-16 06:14 am (UTC)