I'm not sure how the Emmy's work...

...but I hereby predict that David Shore will win Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for last night's HOUSE: "Dont Ever Change". When I saw "Three Stories" a few years ago, it was the best TV I had ever seen.

Sorry. Just had to share that.

Back in some other life I lived, I did five years of general surgery residency, in which I dealt with quite a number brilliant physicians who happened to be flaming assholes.

Trying to turn these wretches into sympathetic heroes is beyond belief. Believe it or not, there are plenty of outstanding diagnosticians in the real world who are actual, caring human beings. HOUSE isn't amusing. It's disgusting. And the character isn't even as unpleasant and vicious as his many real life models.

-- Paul

You have to remember that this isnt a medical show, it's a relationships show. If it were a medical show, it would have been off the air after the third episode / third medical case that goes exactly the same. Medically, every episode is identical. That's not the story or the show.

	Quote:
	Believe it or not, there are plenty of outstanding diagnosticians in the real world who are actual, caring human beings.

I believe it. House is a character on TV. I dont assume anyone is like him, although it wouldn't surprise me if someone were.

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	HOUSE isn't amusing. It's disgusting.

Oh... it's amusing. It's TV. It's amusing. HE's amusing. Have him as my dying brother's doctor, in real life, saying the same things, I'd knock him the F out. And he has been knocked out on the show.

It's too bad your personal experience keeps you from enjoying this show; it is brilliantly written. (And again, I dont mean the "medical" portion.)

Plenty of attending physicians are like House. Like him they had relationships all right -- sucking up to superiors and abusing inferiors. Kind of like most of academe, only more so.

**

Sorry about the rant. Most medical shows don't have a clue. Real emergency physicians don't get excited about the diagnosis, by the way. The get excited about finding the fender for the De Soto they're restoring. Patients don't want docs getting all excited. They want someone calm who knows what the hell to do. Real ERs are more like NORTHERN EXPOSURE. The xray tech is banging the ward clerk and the nurses are banging the firemen.

In my ER life, I saw about 70,000 people suffering in various degrees. There's not one in thousand TV patients who behave that way.

I appreciate that people who don't know the secret handshake might find HOUSE amusing. But it's all part of why I haven't sat down for an evening of broadcast network TV since 1970.

I really liked the first season of DEADWOOD and all of ROME, though. But those aren't broadcast TV. And what could be more utterly boring than all those Dick Wolf doink-doink shows and their endless spin-offs? (You know, the tedious cop shows where the music goes "Doink Doink!") And high drama about the work of --

??!?? PATHOLOGISTS ??!?!!?

What planet are these writers from?

-- Paul

I was about to reply to apologize if I sounding patronizing in my last post, but then after reading your most recent, I fear I'll do it again. Again, I think you are missing something about the show. You allude to us who have not worked in the world as the one's missing something, thus finding it amusing, but again, it's not about medicine. It's about this guy. And he happens to be a doctor. The same exact show could have been made in ANY place of employment - say, a body shop - and everyone that once worked for a car repair company is hating the show because it strikes a negative cord with the place they worked. While the trauma employees happily enjoy the show because they dont know the "secret handshake".

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	Most medical shows don't have a clue.

I agree. And I have relatives that are nurses and other various hospital type employees (I'm ignorant enough that I just understand "doctor" and "nurse". I dont know what the other people are.) and they all complain that the diagnosis are ridiculous or treatments, or whatever. They're missing the point. Then I know people that say "the show is stupid. Every week. Something happens to person, they try to figure it out, they almost kill the person, and then at the last second House solves it." They also dont get it.

Now, maybe it's my stupidity and ignorance that keeps me from not liking it, (those are my words, not yours) but I dont watch the show expecting to learn anything about medicine.

It's not a show about medicine. And I again, humbly, not patronizingly suggest your experience clouds this and you are missing out on a great show.

Gage --

First:
You are not stupid. No one on this list is.

Second:
You are absolutely correct that my experience has clouded my capacity to see HOUSE as anything other than the celebration of a flaming medical asshole. I could care less about his problems and his relationships. I had enough flaming medical assholes in my life, true oxyacetylene schmucks, and the House character isn't even as obnoxious as the people he's modeled on.

I've seen the show a few times and the one accurate thing in it is that hospital keeps him on solely because once in a while, he solves a medical problem, thus saving the hospital's reputation as The Place To Go. So what?

I was a second assistant in an operation, and I'm pressing on a bleeder, and I'm not stopping the bleeding. Very intimidating main guy -- he had actually invented a whole subspeciaty of surgery. Shortest fuse and he was built like a linebacker. I had to tell him and he screamed at me: "Don't bother me while I'm doing something important!!" I kid you not -- his exact words. Finally he had to pay attention -- the puddle on the floor was too big to ignore. The patient bled to death. He came out of the OR, made a quick phone call to the internist to tell him, and instantly scrubbed up for the next case. That example is why I don't give a shit about "House" and his "relationships."

Yep, it's contaminated my capacity to enjoy HOUSE. Too bad for me.

***

Like everybody else who's survived a medical education, I was going to write about it. But then a novel came out -- and told the real truth. I read it from cover to cover standing in a bookstore. It was so true that it could never be made into a movie -- so it was, and the movie sank without a trace.

Screw HOUSE. Get a copy of THE HOUSE OF GOD by Samuel Shem, M.D.

-- Paul

Point taken. Sincerely, thanks for sharing. With 13 filmmaking books backed up and no time to read them, I sadly will not get around to The House of God anytime soon. It will be in the back of my mind for when I do have the time.

So, Clinco. How do you feel about "Scrubs"?

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Enge
Mars Rising Films

Being a bit flippant here. At least to start with...and possibly to end with.

I haven't seen House yet lots of people (UK) tell me its good. Its kind of odd as I'm so used to Hugh Laurie from his comedy days (Bit of Fry and Laurie, Blackadder) so I'm not sure how much of an influence that has over my viewing - haven't watched a single episode so can't tell. Kind of like Eddie Izzard's new series 'The Riches' which I'd like to see, if only for curiosity value. Hell, if Billy Connolly can do it...

Regarding Hospital politics, my mother has worked in a hospital for years as a nurse and I'm well aware of the hierarchy and apparent disregard for the patients. Its probably very different in the UK but as well as the stories of arrogant surgeons there are some draw dropping stories of how people's lives have been changed and saved (she worked in Intensive Care) by these people. She said one of the most amazing things she ever saw was when they opened up a guy's chest when he had a heart attack and the surgeon physically massaged the heart with his hands to bring the guy back to life. I can't imagine what that kind of pressure is like. Not excusing the arrogance as I've had it on the other side as a patient, but, man, it's not like you've missed a shot and can't reshoot. How do you accept the fact that people are going to die in your hands on a weekly (if not daily) basis and deal with that? In relation to Gage's point (and the point of the drama by the sounds of it) how would that affect your relationships? With yourself as well as others? I'd imagine that is where the human story is in House and dramas like it.

Back to the flippant: every time I see Hugh Laurie I keep expecting him to try and say "antidestinctlyminty..."

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http://www.robert-dee.com
http://www.englishmaninamsterdam.blogspot.com

Thanks Robert. You have made it impossible for me to watch House ever again. Crying or Very sad

I always think of Hugh Laurie as kindly Mr. Little in Stuart Little 1 & 2, not someone who makes a habit of plunging his hands into defenseless people's abdominal cavities and massaging their diseased spleens.

Or whatever.

But actually, I liked House for a season, which is about all I can stand of any television series.

Arthur

LOL! That's how I knew Hugh Laurie. From his days back as a bit player on "The Young Ones" to "Black Adder" and all the stuff in between. I loved him in the WWI Black Adder. It was so weird to see him in this role but I really took to it fast.

What's funny is that I went to IMDB when it was first coming out and saw a fella from the UK who said that he had the worst American accent he'd ever heard and that nobody would believe it. LOL. Pretty convincing if you ask me! :]

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Enge
Mars Rising Films

If there was any justice in the world, this season of The Wire would win pretty much every Emmy there is.

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-Len

Hey, Enge --

I haven't seen SCRUBS yet, but by way of coincidence, at a block party here, someone insisted that I check it out. I will.

-- Paul