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House: Epic Fail

by Jonathan Toomey, posted Sep 29th 2009 1:02AM
House (Hugh Laurie, L) convinces Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard, R) to take a cooking class with him.
(S06E03) "House was an egotistical, pill popping, lawsuit magnet... and a genius." - Foreman

Change doesn't come easily for House. Fresh out of his stint at Mayfield Psychiatric Hospital and you'd think he'd be craving his old routine. Instead he quits his job. As we learned, though, it was more about coping and less about change. Ironically though, House, the one character who had the biggest change and now has the most to cope with, seems to be doing the best out of them all.

With House's departure from Princeton-Plainsboro, you knew Foreman would step up and lobby to take his position. And you knew Cuddy would say yes. And you knew it would create an ungodly amount of tension between him and Thirteen. We've seen this happen before. Foreman craves the spotlight but whenever he's in it, he fails miserably. Partly because he doesn't have lots of self-confidence and partly because he doesn't know how to properly handle an office romance. I don't think I've ever heard of the ol' "fire your girlfriend to save your relationship" move, but hey -- you never know.

With Remy and Taub, who quit on his own, both gone (I'm assuming it's only temporary considering this news about Jennifer Morrison), it clears up any confusion about how the old team would get back together, but it still leaves the question of House -- what brings him back?

Nothing too mysterious, unfortunately. It seems as though he truly has kicked the Vicodin and replaced it with Ibuprofen, which barely manages the pain. Otherwise, he seems pretty normal. Occupying his time with cooking (obsessively) and freaking out Wilson by having dogs pee in the toilet -- stuff like that is the House we know and love.

But he needs something to alleviate his pain consistently and let's be honest -- the man is a workaholic. While I was thrilled to see Andre Braugher back as Dr. Nolan, his presence in this episode did feel a bit underused. Anyone who knows House could have told him that going back to work is the only thing that'll keep him clean.

Stuff worth mentioning...

  • Anyone catch the jab at Jeremy Piven? When Vince, the patient, said he thought he had mercury poisoning, Thirteen asked if he had read any bad reviews about his Broadway show Speed the Plow. Very funny line, but I wonder what the joke behind including it is.
  • And speaking of Vince, it was only fitting that Foreman's first case be the most difficult patient ever. How cool was that video game he was working on, though? The whole scene where he hallucinated in the hospital lobby was pretty impressive to watch.
  • "I'm short, he's black, you're gay-ish."
  • Did we know House was bilingual? Also, I was surprised to find out that Cuddy only had the diagnostic medicine department because of House. It never existed before him, and she didn't seem entirely keen on keeping it going without him.
  • Anyone else find it amusing that Thirteen tells Foreman stories about her lesbian encounters to cheer him up?

Like we all knew, House couldn't stay away from this job. He couldn't even stay away from Vince's case when he posted all his symptoms online. It was because of House that Thirteen properly diagnosed him. She and Taub were just starting to get good at this and let's be honest -- Cameron and Chase have to be a little rusty. Any predictions for next week's Princeton-Plainsboro reunion tour?

[Watch full episodes and clips of House, as well as other shows, over at SlashControl.]

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Theabunai

What a fitting title to this episode.... Seriously Foreman should never be the main focus of the show... He only "works" when he is a supporting role.... Once again, they must've known what was going to happen when they named it "epic fail" LOL

October 02 2009 at 5:48 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Edward

Why write Morrison out when they could write Wilde out?! I too dislike the Foreman-13 relationship, but I think the writers are doing a good job if they can get this emotion out of its viewers.

September 29 2009 at 10:12 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
The1337

Without House, this episode would have been a disaster. Foreman and Thirteen are incredibly bad, and somehow the writers had to focus on them after the amazing season premiere. I like what they are doing with House and regardless of whether the change is permanent or not, it is very interesting.

http://th3tvobsessed.blogspot.com/2009/09/review-house-season-6-episode-2-epic.html

September 29 2009 at 7:12 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Chris

Apparently I'm the only person who enjoyed this episode? I thought the interaction between Foreman and 13 has matured and improved a great deal from last season. It was even entertaining. Not as entertaining as Chef House, but still, I really like both characters and can't wait to see where they go from here.

As much as I love House and Hugh it does sadden me just a bit that once he returns Foreman will be deposed in the most humiliating fashion just to further emphasize the fact that he's not as good as House and everyone will squeal with glee.

September 29 2009 at 6:31 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
chris

Bummer of an episode after coming back from the 2-hour premiere. They gave me a taste of life with House outside of the hospital and I quite liked it. I now care little for anyone in the group save Wilson. Andre Braugher is awesome. Fire all the twits House works with and sign Braugher for the season.

September 29 2009 at 2:09 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
GerryofNorVA

Just an aside here, but did you catch Hugh Laurie on Leno late last week ?! OMG, I didn't realize his natural accent is a very pretentious British one! How horrible it is, thank gahd he doesn't use that on the show.

September 29 2009 at 1:33 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to GerryofNorVA's comment
rdclark

How are things at that rock you've been living under?

September 30 2009 at 7:16 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Loretta Komito

I saw Hugh on Leno and he speaks beautifuly. He is english and his accent is very pure english. He is OK in my book.

October 06 2009 at 2:49 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Rhomboid

He's more than bilingual. They've made references to him speaking a number of languages over the years. In s01e07 he was researching African sleeping sickness in a journal article written in Portuguese. In s02e18 he speaks Mandarin to the mother of a girl that came in the clinic trying to get birth control pills. In s02e12 he's shown brushing up on his Hindi to humiliate a former classmate who has published in an Indian journal. Wikipedia says he also speaks Spanish and Japanese.

September 29 2009 at 10:30 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Kristi

I go through a life cycle with this show. . . I like it, start to get bored, stop watching, they come up with something interesting, I watch again. . .and then it starts all over. Can you guess which stage I'm at now? Hint: It has something to do with Foreman.

http://www.orble.com/teevee-house-928/

September 29 2009 at 10:13 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
johngaltx

Many commentators on this site, and I am sure others, take the episodes one at a time and apply a quick internet style short take on the episode, it is like reviewing a 2000 page Russian novel after every page and deciding that the author did not amuse or entertain them on the preceding page, therefore the rest of the novel had better live up to their expectations or else they are never going to read the book again. I am sure the writers of "House" and many other dramas have sketched out a long arcing story line that is strong enough to last an entire season while keeping their audience engaged week to week. The desire for instant and weekly gratification has been greatly enhanced in the Internet age and something as slow as a weekly TV drama appears to be having a difficult time keeping pace.

September 29 2009 at 9:54 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
mike

The whole Foreman/13 thing would never happen nowadays. There isn't a single company out there that would let Foreman be the boss of 13 given their relationship - and I'm sure Cuddy knows of their relationship. As soon as one of them got a promotion the other would have to move to another department. Instead we get Foreman firing her at the end of the episode. In real life the next scene would be her calling a lawyer.

September 29 2009 at 9:36 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to mike's comment
stg

Foreman is an ass.

September 30 2009 at 9:13 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
stg

Foreman is an ass.

She should dump him.

September 30 2009 at 9:15 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply

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