In the Big House....

For those of you who don't know what happened at the end of House's seventh season:


DO NOT READ THE REST OF THIS POST!!!  SERIOUSLY!DON'T DO IT!!
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!



At the of S7 of House, M.D., our favorite misanthropic medicine man drove a car through his ex-girlfriend, Cuddy's, house. Luckily no one was hurt, but that was one HELL of a fuck you. The last we saw of House he was on a beach basking in the sun. Now check out the preview for season 8 of House, M.D., potentially it's final season:







Prepare yourself for an obvious bad pun... It looks like House wound up in the Big House for that little stunt last year. (Told ya, it would be a bad pun... Hey, at least, I warned you!) It looks like he achieved the status he so envied in an anecdote he told previously about a hospital janitor in Japan who no one acknowledged until there was an undiagnosable medical condition at which point, the janitor was called to save the day. This season also marks the end of 13's (a.k.a. Dr. Remy Hadley) tenure on the show. Rumor has it that if S8 turns out to be House's final season, she might pull a comeback, but that remains to be seen.

Still, it looks like House is still up to his old tricks, and if this is his final run, I hope it's a good one!! Thoughts?

More Season Finales...

Here are some of the other season finales that I was too caught up in other stuff to write about when they actually finished. Thoughts and comments are welcome, as always.

Castle

There have been TONS of shows were the main source of ongoing dramatic tension is the sexual tension between the two leads. And almost ALL of them screw up that seemingly essential tension by either mishandling how the two leads get together (i.e. Moonlighting) or by NEVER getting the leads together (i.e. Bones, as of this post). So far, Castle has avoided most of the pitfalls of its predecessors and has handled the relationship between Castle & Beckett exceedingly well. Using believable delays grounded in the character flaws of each person, but keeping enough of those "spark" moments around that the tension never fades away.

The season 2 finale for Castle is another example of how deftly that tension is handled. For two seasons, we've watched Castle go from lustfully smitten to actually romantically interested in Beckett in small increments. At the same time, Beckett has increasingly warmed to Castle as her pre-conceived notions of the author that got her through her mother's death were replaced with the startlingly immature, yet endearing reality.

Now at the end of season 2, Beckett seemed ready to admit some type of attraction for Castle, and was undone by all the work she had put in denying the possibility of that attraction. Again, a completely believable delay. One, that has me wondering what the consequences are going to be for the relationship. I hope that Beckett gets a bit of the same frustration/pain that Castle felt as she watches Castle and the ex-wife together for a little while.

But, I also think that Castle & Beckett should get together in Season 3, either near the middle of the season (like just before the Christmas break) or towards the end of season 3. If done properly, it wouldn't hurt the show, it would ADD to the comedic madness as Beckett has to deal with entering deeper into Castle's semi-upper class world, while Castle has to deal with the real possibility of Beckett possibly dying in the line of duty. That plus the normal relationship issues, exacerbated by both of their larger than life personalities, could fuel the through the end of season 4!

CSI

While I LOVED the addition of Dr. Ray Langston to the CSI team, I never liked the "Dr. Jekyll" storyline, it always came across as a little writer's trick to get the audience to respond to Langston's character. He already had one serial killer in his back story, why not expand on THAT one? Why do you need to add ANOTHER one that just happens to kill with medical expertise, right when a medical doctor was added to CSI?

That's why I LOVED how this season ended. I loved the inclusion of the more interesting killer, and how he related to Langston. I'm dying to see how the next season unfolds!!

The Mentalist

The most compelling part of this finale was Red John. And he was in the episode for like a minute and a half. As much as I enjoyed Patrick Jane's games, I was looking forward to seeing Red John take glorious retribution upon those who would defile his work.

My hope for the next season is that they either introduce a NEW serial killer for the season, or spend MORE time on Red John. Enough of this filler stuff. Let's get to some real challenges!

House

After six seasons, House and Cuddy get together, and frankly, I'm not sure that I like that. Aside from the way it was written, which made it seem more like an afterthought to the ep, I'm of the opinion that Cuddy isn't a good match for House. I'm not denying that there is chemistry between them, but House's personality can too easily overwhelm Cuddy. It's happened so often on the show, it's become part of the formula of the show.

In season 2, when House's ex, Stacy, was on the show, things worked between them, because she could return fire and put him back in his place. At times, she could do it effortlessly, other times it was more problematic for her, but she was ALWAYS able to do that. She was always capable of matching House's strength of personality.

To date, Cuddy hasn't come anywhere close to doing being able to match wits, or even attitude with House which makes this ending feel more like Cuddy giving in to what House wants again, than her actually having any feelings for him. I know, I know the events of the episode are, in fact, the reverse, but them being together still didn't work.

It seems like the producers of the show are trying to make House a nicer, more relatable person. That scene with House and the psychologist and the "I want to be happy!!" is a harbinger of that. So is House and Cuddy getting together. I hope that next season will not see House upbeat & happy, but I'm not so sure that it won't.

Thoughts On... Blogging

A couple of days ago, one of my favorite shows came back after a relatively long time on break. The show is House MD, and while I could go on for awhile about why the show is so awesome, that's beyond the scope of this essay. Suffice it to say that one reason I enjoy the show is because they tend to bring up intriguing topics to think about & discuss. This past ep brings up the idea of blogging and the effect it has on people. Both those who blog AND those who read blogs.

The patient in the last ep is a woman who is an avid blogger, who spends a good portion of time posting every detail of her life to her blog for public consumption. Including a fight she had with her husband, and all the issues with her treatments as events in the ep play themselves out. It was brought to a focal point, when she had to choose between two options for heart surgery and left it up to the opinions of her readers which option she would take. A decision that could determine whether or not she would be able to have children in the future.

Is it right to live your life so openly? Posting personal information not only about yourself, but also about those people who matter in your life? A friend of mine believes that losing yourself in a crowd of people can be therapeutic, and I agree. There is a balancing nature in hearing the varied opinions of the people around you in regards to the events you're dealing with in your life. But at what point does it stop being therapy and becomes a place to hide from making decisions on your own?

That's a huge danger of living life publicly. At a certain point, the pressure of your "followers" can overwhelm you into making decisions you wouldn't make under normal circumstances. Think about the example of the lady in the House ep. She was willing to make a decision that could prevent her from EVER having children based SOLELY on the input of her readers. And not what SHE thought was best for her. It's the difference between asking for advice & opinions from others and having your own thoughts overridden by the whims of the masses. Seriously, should you live your life according to the whims of your blog readers? People you don't know, and have never met??

And then there's the consideration of other people you mention in your blog posts. By putting them in your blog, you're taking away a part of their privacy. In today's modern world, there's an expectation of a small amount of public exposure. For example, my friend who has his own blog. I can safely reference anything in that blog, because it's already in a public forum. But at what point should the line be drawn. Would an argument between myself & my friend belong on my blog? It's part of my life, right? For me, I would leave it out, or if I did put it in, make the other person's identity as general as possible to protect their privacy. After all, no one likes unwanted public exposure. The ep mentioned that privacy is a modern concept since people lived in communities so small that it was impossible to keep secrets, but I disagree. If that were true, people would not have lived in in separate, discrete houses. The desire for privacy has been around for a long time. In fact, I would venture to say that it's a primal need. History is chock full of people going off on their own to discover themselves, or for adventures, or just for the solitude.

But when does blogging become too ridiculous? The woman in the ep says that she likes blogging because it's an avenue into how someone thinks and what they are thinking at any given time which, in her mind, makes for a stonger bond between her & her followers, or her and whatever blogger she's into at the moment. She actually stated the fact that she hated that her husband didn't have a blog, hated not knowing what he was thinking. To which I thought, why not just ASK him? Why not just SPEAK to him? To further illustrate the point, another scene in the ep has the blogger lady typing in a post, while a friend and reader catches up on the latest postings WHILE BEING IN THE SAME ROOM! They're in the same room together, and they're communicating via text on the screens of their respective laptops!! One has to ask, is the pseudo-public venue of blogging really a connection? Or is it just another virtual world we lay onto the reality around us to make it more palatable?