'Dancing With The Stars' Season 14 Dream Casting
MTV Sets Premiere Date For Pauly D's 'Jersey Shore' Spinoff
House: Half Wit
(S03E15) Well, at least FOX was smart enough with yet another "delay" in this season of House to spark it up a little by getting Dave Matthews to play Patrick Obyedkov, a musical savant who plays the piano like a master. They also jacked us up for awhile with a bit of a threat to the the future of the show, which the day-of previews were talking about as far as a "secret" that Cameron wasn't supposed to share with her team members. Unfortunately for us, we'll be waiting - yet again (March 27, thankyouverymuch) - for another new episode, something that FOX and the other networks are going to need to learn to work on, if they're hoping for any sort of continuity.
If there was an effort to get emotion out of viewers this season on FOX, then this might have been the moment. I think, when Matthews' character had the seizing in his hands while on stage, that I actually made some sort of audible gasp, probably much like the people in the audience (which looked real, by the way). That, followed by the hospital rumor that House was dying of cancer probably had a lot of people worried that their show might not go on. Hell, it got Cameron to think about resigning and getting a new job at Penn.
One of the things that this episode had that made me really happy were the one-liners. From House, who apparently knows every doctor in the country by his or her first name hanging up on one (Goodbye, Pete!), to his efforts to get some grabass with Cuddy, who could only smile. I'm sure she's not so pleased now that she knows that House isn't dying (well, everyone's dying, I guess) in the near future. It's also plain as day, amusingly, that Cameron and Chase are sleeping with each other, and I can't wait until Foreman decides to have his way with that little situation.
For House, this was surely a three steps back, one step forward kind of week, and Wilson told him so. He just shuns, shuns, shuns, and doesn't really care about the implications of doing so. Irrelevant of him being social at the episode's close, I can't say if House will ever really move forward enough in his little world that it makes a difference, and based on the reactions of his team when he came clean about the drug he wanted implanted in his brain, he might just piss them all off to the point where they want no part of working for him. Heck, they could all get a really good recommendation from him right now, signed, sealed and delivered. He wouldn't even have to write it!
I can't say this is a good opportunity to comment on Dave Matthews' overall acting abilities, but I was definitely into him in this role. Except for shows like Las Vegas and Law & Order (and offshoots), I think that House might be one of the more successful users of one of the favorite things in the 70's and 80's - the guest actor character - and this week, we had two, with Kurtwood Smith playing Matthews' father.
While the Tritter plotline was what frustrated most people earlier this year, I think American Idol hangover and the constant shuffling of House to one week or another is a much bigger concern. While House isn't alone in being moved around when it comes to network TV, that doesnt' mean it's a good thing for a show of this caliber. Presumably, the net knows what's good for it, but with a powerhouse like AI seemingly calling the shots, I can't say there is much we, the fans of House, can do about it. What I do know is that, when it's all been put together, that Season 3 has been just as effective as 1 and 2 in making fans happy, even if it has been frustrating at times.
18 Comments