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This blog is the work of an educated civilian, not of an expert in the fields discussed.

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Et tu, House?

And Also: A creative, if somewhat troubling, little parable (fable?) caused the author (a judge) a bit of difficulty. A good piece on the anti-birth control national birth control representative, including the dangers of such people moving the goalposts of the conversation (given a fancy name). My latest, per a Dahlia Lithwick piece, on releasing audio of Supreme Court arguments.


[Update: To underline something, one reason I don't like the story line here is that I find it poorly written -- simplistic with no real nuances. Not totally so, sure -- one good scene involved Dr. Cuddy breakening down, noting how House usually censors himself, but here went of his way to hurt her. But, overall, the story here is badly drawn. And, again, it annoys.]

Sometimes I sort of go off the deep on respecting "little" things. This is best seen during sports contests -- we all need our emotional releases -- but sometimes other things do it as well. For instance, some opinion piece that seems to me asinine, or some fictional plot matter. This last category got me in the "screaming at the television" mode tonight. It involved the "sweeps month" story arc involving a police officer who Dr. House treated with his usual poor bedside manner. The officer called him on it, in effect calling him a bully etc. while questioning his medical judgment (the ultimate sin), and House left a thermometer in his butt. Yeah ... he sometimes is about that infantile.

Well, he targeted the wrong guy -- not paying attention to the chart, House didn't realize the guy is a cop. He refuses to apologize regardless, so the police officer takes it to the next level. Stops him via a traffic stop, searches him and finds the pain drug House is addicted to, and guesses that he broke the rules at some point in getting them. House unwisely challenges on his ability to find such proof, only driving the officer on, and some is found. The officer now feeling justified -- the theme set in that he too is quite sure of his abilities and willing to quite arguably stretch the rules (that stop had a pretextual feel to it) to get his sense of "justice" (he even later says the Houseism that "everyone lies") -- goes into high dungeon mode.

House's one friend (Dr. Wilson) is targeted, especially since he not quite the innocent enabler. His assets frozen, his prescription writing privileges put and hold, and finally he decides that he has to step down from his practice (cancer). House continues to act like an ass, not seeming to care about the depths his friend has fallen -- the last episode had a particularly depressing symbol of that as he waits for a bus (his car seized) while House drives by. Likewise, House's team is targeted, each one's vulnerabilities raised, one told that if he testifies, his criminal brother would get out of jail momentarily. The officer comes off as a self-righteous asshole. The idea that House is an addict is not news, obviously, but helps to give the show its edge. And, most likely, represents reality to some degree.

To the degree this can serve as plot bait, fine, but perhaps with a person who isn't -- in a fashion -- as much of a power hungry "I'm right, so whatever I do is fine" asshole as House. It simply is not enjoyable to watch. Anyway, his usual supply shut off, House is left with asking for prescriptions from his team (no dice) and the chief administer of the hospital (who does so, since the alternative would look suspicious, but rations the dosage). This led to some signs of withdrawal today, which might very well had affected his clinical judgment. Who was affected? Yes, a cute little girl, who he (wrongly) thought required amputation of her limbs. I simply don't like use of cute little children as plot devices. I surely don't like it when it promotes an annoying plot.

What really pissed me off, probably a bit irrationally, was that no one basically called the officer a self-righteous prick, even as he continually acted like one. A good time would have been when he was preaching his gospel to the chief administrator (Cuddy), who came off as a wimp girl. To underline that he was acting just like House -- one even gave a somewhat knowing look when he used the "everyone lies" line. The show was already getting darker of late -- even Dr. Cameron looked like she had continual late nights at the office -- so if they wanted to take things to the next level of "personal interactions suck," I do wish they did a better job than this.

And, by the way, the officer was really in effect, a dangerous prick. See, when someone has a problem, it often is dangerous to cut it off without proper procedures. Thus, someone who starves herself cannot simply be given large amounts of food all at once -- it is liable to be dangerous. What the moron did in effect was to put him in unregulated withdrawal, while he was still doing a dangerous job. This when he -- self-righteously -- "knew" that his fellow doctors could not neutrally handle the situation. And, a cute little girl's life was put at risk in the process.

A doctor sorta knows these things. The episode ended with Dr. Chase pissed that House punched him when his diagnosis was (rightly ... and House knew it) challenged. Wilson apparently figured he was ready to talk, like the Boy Scout he is didn't want him to shoulder the burden, and went to the officer ready to talk. I know this extended discussion is mostly a personal screed, but so be it. It is a good show, so a bad story line that might have serious aftershocks is worthy of some comment. Facing up to his addiction in some serious fashion is fine. Not this way. Sorry, doesn't wash. I simply don't see how assholes, cheap use of a child, making us challenge a key point of the series that gives it an edge without truly good returns, and so forth is a good thing.

Apparently, they want me to recognize that series television is totally gone for me. Not quite there, but with the downfall of Gilmore Girls, this is drawing me nearer. But, hey, I have watched it all my life. I will return. So there! I need to think seriously about not watching the show until this whole subplot has played out though -- stress simply is not something that you should get when watching the show. Leave that for Giants games.

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* Oh, and 9PM EST was the show's original time. It was temporarily shifted an hour earlier at the beginning of the season, but was shifted back after baseball. But, we keep on hearing during football games how it is a "new" time.