Barbara Barnett: Freelance Writing/Editing Services » huddy

House, M.D.’s House and Cuddy in Season 7: A Relationship Analysis

BarbaraBarnett — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 18:34:49 +0000

I’ve finally had the time to re-watch House, M.D.‘s seventh season in its entirety, no breaks or commercials). I tried to understand the arc of the House-Cuddy relationship—where and when it is good for them, and how it falls disastrously apart.

House, M.D.: Season 8

BarbaraBarnett — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 21:22:35 +0000

I realize we’re only a week out from the very controversial ending to Season 7, which finds House having crashed his car into Cuddy’s house and then running away from it all to a beautiful tropical paradise. But how do the creat

ive folk at House work

themselves out of the finale’s ending. At the very least, House will not be able to show his face in New Jersey without getting arrested. He could be charged with everything from reckless endangerment to felony drug charges. My guess is that Wilson will not let him off the hook as he did in Season 3, and with Cuddy now gone, neither of his enablers will … enable.

Or will House come back having gone through drug rehab and a pain clinic, coming out of the disaster a new man, much to the shock ofeveryone who knows him? But he’ll still have an awful lot to answer for.

So, dear readers, what do you want to see as we wait three or more months for the next new episode of House? I know nothing, as the writers have just come back from hiatus, where they will have to tackle the double thorny issues of Lisa Edelstein’s departure and the destruction caused by House to Cuddy’s place–and to all of his relationships back at PPTH!

You never know who’s reading, so let’s make this a wish list worth remembering come next September!

And while you’re thinking House, be sure to pick up a copy of Chasing Zebras if you haven’t already. Even though the episode guide only goes through Season 6, there is a lot of meat there to enjoy about the characters, relationships (all of them), the series social commentary and special commentaries on some of the finest House moments in the series history. It’s available at many retail booksellers, but also online (and all over the world) at B/N, Amazon, Borders, WH Smith, and in e-book at all e-book sellers, including iBook, Kindle and ebooks.com.

The book is already out in Spanish and will be coming out in Russian translation very shortly if it hasn’t already!

Time Ticking Down on Negotiations for House, M.D.

BarbaraBarnett — Thu, 05 May 2011 23:48:46 +0000

Will House, M.D. be back for Season 8? That is still the question as Universal Media Studios (UMS) and FOX continue to negotiate, according to Deadline Hollywood. At this point, according to Deadline Hollywood the studio and the network are yet about 20 percent apart. With the May Upfronts next week in New York, both parties are close to playing brinkmanship; FOX will announce its fall schedule at the annual industry event.

The FOX position is that with the series ratings down this year (Monday’s episode were down again), UMS (which also owns NBC, Bravo, and USA Network, where House runs in syndication) is charging too high a license fee to air it. FOX wants only to pay $5 million per episode, 20% less than UMS seeks, according to the Deadline Hollywood report.

If they come to an agreement it might mean fewer episodes for some of the show’s cast, whose contracts are up for negotiation this year, including Lisa Edelstein, Omar Epps and Robert Sean Leonard. David Shore is also up for a new contract this year from UMS.

The decrease in ratings for the series could not have come at a worse time during the intense talks between Universal and FOX. Some fans in recent weeks have become unhappy with the course of the series’ storyline, although seemed happier as after this week’s episode (“Changes”) and the release of promo photos from the next two episodes. But even if they come back to the series, by Monday, it may be too late.

Ratings have undoubtably been affected by the final episodes of Dancing with the Stars, which airs opposite House. While House has been a powerhouse of a series, any show cast opposite DWTS is surely going to suffer. It’s like slating a show opposite American Idol. It’s a suicide mission.

I doubt that either UMS or FOX wants to let go of this still very popular show. Both entities understand that the show’s popularity is more than its overnight Nielsen ratings. Last week, for example House gained substantially adding in DVR viewing–and it is still a Top 20 show.

What do you think?

In the meantime, we have those lovely provocative (and angsty) photos from episode 7×22, what do you make of those, and how do you think Season 7 is going to end for our hero(s)?

Episode shots from House, M.D. 7×22 “After Hours”

BarbaraBarnett — Wed, 04 May 2011 02:49:31 +0000

HOUSE: Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard, L) waits for House (Hugh Laurie, R) to wake up after surgery in the “After Hours” episode of HOUSE airing Monday, May 16 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. ©2011 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: Jordin Althaus/FOX

HOUSE: Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard, L) helps House (Hugh Laurie, R) after surgery in the “After Hours” episode of HOUSE airing Monday, May 16 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. ©2011 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: Adam Taylor/FOX

What do you think will happen by the end of House, M.D. season 7?

BarbaraBarnett — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 02:04:08 +0000

Your thoughts…serious speculation. Prognostication–no bitterness.

Here are the synopses:

Monday, May 2

HOUSE (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) – “Changes”

After suffering partial paralysis while searching for a long-lost love, lottery winner Cyrus Harry (guest star Donal Logue) is brought to Princeton Plainsboro for treatment by House (Hugh Laurie) and the team. Cuddy’s (Lisa Edelstein) mother (guest star Candice Bergen) threatens to sue the hospital for malpractice, jeopardizing both Cuddy and House’s medical licenses. Chase (Jesse Spencer) and Foreman (Omar Epps) make a bet that tests each one in different ways.

Monday, May 9

HOUSE (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) – “The Fix”

When House and Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) bet on a boxing match and disagree over the outcome, Wilson gives him exactly one day to pay up or prove him wrong. House presses the boxer (guest star Kevin Phillips) for more information to help prove his case and ends up attempting to breathe new life into the losing fighter’s career. Meanwhile, the team begins to suspect House may have another type of drug problem.

Monday, May 16

HOUSE (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) – “After Hours”

Thirteen’s friend and former ex-con (guest star Amy Landecker) arrives at Thirteen’s apartment unannounced and in need of urgent medical attention. When she finds out that her friend has relapsed into drug use, Thirteen promises not to take her to the hospital where the cops could find her and instead turns to Chase in desperation. Meanwhile, House deals with devastating information, and Taub (Peter Jacobson) begins to come to terms with surprising news.

Monday, May 23

HOUSE (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) – “Moving On” – Season Finale

Well-known performance artist Afsoun Hamidi (guest star Shohreh Aghdashloo) is admitted to the hospital, but when the team learns that her symptoms may have been self-inflicted as part of a documentary for her latest performance piece, they begin to question whether treatments are necessary and if they are unwittingly participating in the creation of a piece of her art. Meanwhile, a situation prompts House to do something very unexpected, a move that could change his relationship with Cuddy and Wilson permanently.

House, M.D.: Season 7 Drawing to a Close with Four New Episodes

BarbaraBarnett — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 02:29:54 +0000

For weeks now, I’ve ruminated upon why some of my friends in the House, M.D. fandom have become frustrated with the series. Why am I’m still enjoying House’s (the ever-incredible Hugh Laurie) journey, while others have become disenchanted? And still others, who a year ago or more wondered why I was still so intrigued, have rediscovered House, finding it once again enjoyable?

Full Review of the Dig

BarbaraBarnett — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 15:23:52 +0000

We are having site issues this morning and I know you are all anxious to talk about “The Dig.” I’ve posted the review below in full. Please pass the word to the various LJs and forums (and on twitter, facebook, etc.) Thanks

First posted on Blogcritics.org

When archeologists work on a dig, they carefully peel back layers of civilizations searching to understand what lay beneath. Along the way, they encounter clues, surprises and the occasional precious gem. House, M.D.’s 150^th episode, appropriately called “The Dig” follows several parallel story lines. While the team tries to uncover the background of this week’s patient through his morbidly cluttered home, House (Hugh Laurie in a great peformance) tries to uncover the “why” behind 13’s (Olivia Wilde) six months in prison after pleading down to “excessive prescribing.” And Foreman (Omar Epps) digs for the secret of Taub’s (Peter Jacobson) new lover, who turns out to be none other than…Rachel Taub (Jennifer Crystal Foley).

The patient’s wife, it turns out has a genetic disorder, which caused multiple miscarriages. The emotional impact of the miscarriages led to sobsessive hoarding, and the hoarding exposed both her and her husband to an illness. Martha Masters’ (Amber Tamblyn) zeal in treating the couple’s home as an archeological dig where they can piece together the story that’s not being told leads her to the crucial puzzle piece.

But the real excavation work is done by House trying to ascertain why 13 has been incarcerated for six months—and what had she been doing in the six months previous to her imprisonment? Greeting her as she is released from prison a year after she disappears from Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital (in last season’s finale) with a martini (complete with olive), House persuades her to help him beat a rival in a spud gun tournament. Their journey to the tournament provides a great backdrop for House to figure out 13’s big secret. It’s a puzzle “too good” to share with anyone, including his team.

But along the way, House also reveals parts of himself that he’s been trying hard to push away since the breakup with Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) in “Bombshells.” There is no doubt that House is still hurting pretty badly, but this week, the over-the-top antics of the past couple episodes are gone.

House is clearly trying to get on with his life in a less self-destructive way, but its equally clear that his grief isn’t far beneath the surface. His emotions almost get the better of him each of the three times Cuddy comes up in conversation, whether it’s the acknowledgment of their breakup, the wistful recognition that it would have been their first anniversary, or in the very painful emotional slap down of 13 telling House that “it’s no wonder that Cuddy dumped” him. His efforts to deflect, when he tries at all, are ineffective.

Over the course of the episode, 13 lets slip that she has a sibling—a brother also with Huntington’s Chorea. Dying, his muscles and even his sanity fading, his last request was for 13 to euthanize him. This is the final clue House needs to put the puzzle together.

She fears now, that with no one left, she will die a slow and painful death, with no one to do for her what she has done for her brother. She has no one to ask, no one she can ask to risk what she has risked—to lose months of her life and her medical license. Her act had been one of ultimate sibling love: selfless and compassionate.

But solving the puzzle of 13′s disappearance doesn’t make him happy. There are no smug grins; no self-satisfied “I was right.” Instead, House is simply stunned silent. He doesn’t know how to respond, what to do—what to say. Although 13 reads his stunned silence as lack of caring, and the inability to make any sort of human connection, I think it just doesn’t know what to say or how to make this sort of grief better. He is without resources and in an emotionally-devastating situation.

But in the end, House does react, and in a way that as much stuns 13 as it doubtless will have shocked many viewers. In a simple act of selfless friendship, House essentially returns 13’s life to her after a year in hell. First of course, he offers her a job—even before her medical license is reinstated—and to pull a few strings to expedite things with the medical board. It can be read as not so much a nice thing as it is rational (and perhaps even self-serving). House believes 13 adds something to his team of diagnosticians, and it’s logical to have her back at the white board.

But then House incredibly offers to euthanize her when the time comes—to do for her what she has done for her brother. Now that House has worn himself out with hookers and monster trucks, leaps from balcony railings and two self-pitying weeks of dissipation, is he internalizing the lessons of the breakup?

There’s no practical aspect to the proposition. It’s a simple, straightforward (and very Housian) promise. “I’ll kill you.” It is an amazing moment for the characters and for the series, made even more spectacular for the beautiful and understated acting of both Hugh Laurie and Olivia Wilde.

There is nothing in it for House. It’s a pure act whose only possible intention would be to comfort a scared young woman and ease her pain. It’s lonely where she stands, and with House’s promise, she is a little less alone. Wow!

The two characters seem to understand each other in a way others cannot. House has always had a protective streak for 13 since early in season four. He sees 13 as a tough-as-nails, hard living woman. But House sees beyond her guards. He pushes her and prods her, but has also protected her from the worst in herself. In her he sees a bit of himself. And whatever he does with his own life, he never wishes his misery on anyone else.

I believe 13 has always seen herself reflected in House, and it scares her in a way. I also think that she has always hoped in her own way that he would find some sort of peace, because in so doing it would give her some hope. Like House, she has always poked and prodded, often at the risk of ticking him off. Unlike others on his team, 13 has no real fear of House; she’s also not romantically interested in him. But I’ve always felt that she “gets” him in a way that neither Wilson nor Cuddy can. I’ll never forget that final scene in “You Don’t Want to Know” when she suggests to him the reason he is always seeking answers is that “when you run out of answers, you run out of hope.” It’s an astute observation, but one she might as easily ascribe to herself.

Random observations:

The rivalry between House and his spud-gun rival Harold Lamb is a cyberpunk cowboy’s delight! Spud gun is a sport for physics geeks who like the great outdoors, I think. I loved House’s hopelessly lame spud gun complete with barbeque lighter. I also loved that 13 really seems to get into the spirit of the tournament until House ruins it by guessing her secret. She is quite the geekette. Let’s hear it for the geekettes of the world! The Sergio Leone vibe between Harold Lamb and House is a perfect homage. Loved it.

Masters has such a crush on Chase. Who else loved that House calls her “Harriet the Spy?”

I thought the patient story was probably the strongest of the entire season—best since “Help Me,” last year’s finale. I love that it was fundamentally a love story about a woman devastated by her loss and terrified to share it with the one person who would share her pain. She was so afraid to lose the person she loved that she nearly destroyed him and herself in the process. There are echoes here of House’s own fears of abandonment and what it’s done to him. He pushes away those who love him and who sympathize with him rather than risk rejection.

I may have more to say later in the week either here or on my personal blog (depending on the heat of the flames). So stay tuned.

New episode airs Monday night, April 18 at 8:00 p.m. ET.

New Review: “The Dig” – Episode 7×18

BarbaraBarnett — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 04:42:00 +0000

TV Review: House, M.D. – “The Dig” – Blogcritics Video

Thirteen Returns to House, M.D. for “The Dig”

BarbaraBarnett — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 05:01:44 +0000

House digs to understand why 13 spent time in the slammer, while the team digs through a hoarder’s home for medical clues on “The Dig,” episode 7×18.

TV Preview: Thirteen Returns to House, M.D. for “The Dig”

Restless House, M.D. Fans Wonder What’s Next?

Barbara Barnett — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 20:07:20 +0000

Has this season of House, M.D. all been in House's mind? And can fans expect more of the same when 13 returns in "The Dig"?