Deconstructing House MD

[Lark]

Did you all know there's a book on the philosophy of House MD? I have it but I've not read it yet because I've been watching the DVDs and love the show.

I've watched them over a couple of times in terms of pure entertainment it provides the balance of the thematically original and familiar which makes for good viewing. On the other hand it is much, much more than the simple medical investigation drama which an infrequent channel hopping viewer could tune into and enjoy without knowing the show. People are free to disagree but I think that its a little different from CSI or other similar investigation shows with long running plot or story arcs because I think the human drama contained in House is much richer.

There's team dynamics, the dynamics between him and superiors and subordinates, sudden death, loss, paradoxically helping relationships and the sheer amount of rationalisation and analysis of action which creeps into the dialogue make it different. I'm not meaning to rave about the show, I think that beyond entertainment the show teaches too. What do any of you serious philosophers think?

 

[matmos]

I think you should stop inhaling helium.

 

[Qre:us]

 

[Fluffywolf]

I've seen the show, episode for episode. And whilest I enjoy the show for the humor in it, and my respect for Hugh Laurie as an actor. The dynamics in the show are catered towards the expected results, it's not just fiction, it feels like fiction in every way. It's just that.

The plot is actually quite shallow, the characters are superficial, the stories are predictable and there's not enough plot twists.

A few good episodes that manages to slightly get loose of the drag of the series and elevate it to a new height, for example the two episodes in which House comes to senses in a strip bar with memory loss. Is what mainly makes the show worth it for me.


PS: It's a tv show, all tv shows cater towards the 40 something time limit per episode and it shows in every single one of them. They don't go too deep into it and don't take themselves too seriously. And neither should we.

House MD has entertainment value, but it ends there.

 

[Lark]

Do you think Fluffywolf? Perhaps the rest of the TV I'm watching just makes it look good or perhaps the character of House resonates a little better with me, I loved the episode were he met the rape victim in the emergency room/clinic, the one were he was in the plane and hysteria broke out among the passengers, I liked the whole of the "auditions" series which ended with the episodes you mentioned although felt those were a revisiting of some stuff which had happened previously were House dreamt the answers to complex cases and about members of his team and himself.

The next series after the one you've mentioned has at least two sudden shock twists which I liked but didnt anticipate, I dont think the characterisation is that bad or the plots that simplified, considering that the whole thing exists around a core of weekly mystery illnesses requiring diagnosis.

 

[matmos]

ENTJ?

[YOUTUBE="ISXiFJS9D5A"]House. Em. Dee.[/YOUTUBE]

 

[garbage]

ENTJ?

Yeah, I could see how House could be considered ENTJ from this clip of the show.

 

[Magic Poriferan]

Without typing any characters, I must say that the show itself is the most iNtuition biased show I've ever seen. It doesn't matter what character you're dealing with. Use of Sensation comes across dumb and foolish, use of Intution brings magical successes.

More generally, the show seems to press a very overt message, for better or for worse, that one should take chances and defy convention. That's all well and good, but at the same time, if you try to be realistic about it (which is silly with that show) you can plainly see how unlikely House's successes are, or even his continued existence with a job... outside of jail.


EDIT: In general, I've noticed that the American viewing audience loves Pe, be it Ne or Se, and that really ties into the risk taking, convention ignoring part.

 

[milkyway2]

I've found a lot of really philosophical interesting ideas from that show.

 

[onemoretime]

Without typing any characters, I must say that the show itself is the most iNtuition biased show I've ever seen. It doesn't matter what character you're dealing with. Use of Sensation comes across dumb and foolish, use of Intution brings magical successes.

More generally, the show seems to press a very overt message, for better or for worse, that one should take chances and defy convention. That's all well and good, but at the same time, if you try to be realistic about it (which is silly with that show) you can plainly see how unlikely House's successes are, or even his continued existence with a job... outside of jail.


EDIT: In general, I've noticed that the American viewing audience loves Pe, be it Ne or Se, and that really ties into the risk taking, convention ignoring part.

TV is about fantasy, not reality. The "real world" much prefers Pi to Pe.

 

[human101]

ENTJ?

[YOUTUBE="ISXiFJS9D5A"]House. Em. Dee.[/YOUTUBE]

LOL! me and my friends watched that the other night

 

[Lark]

Without typing any characters, I must say that the show itself is the most iNtuition biased show I've ever seen. It doesn't matter what character you're dealing with. Use of Sensation comes across dumb and foolish, use of Intution brings magical successes.

More generally, the show seems to press a very overt message, for better or for worse, that one should take chances and defy convention. That's all well and good, but at the same time, if you try to be realistic about it (which is silly with that show) you can plainly see how unlikely House's successes are, or even his continued existence with a job... outside of jail.


EDIT: In general, I've noticed that the American viewing audience loves Pe, be it Ne or Se, and that really ties into the risk taking, convention ignoring part.

I dont know, I didnt really get the defying of convention so much, House has issues with authority but they have tried to introduce plotlines were he IS the authority, such as the season where he has a huge big team and is slowly cutting away candidates.

I tend to see him as ENTJ because he has a pretty rationalistic out look, there's a lot of cerebration, he positively shuns affect and emotion, the whole "Everybody Lies" theme pretty much indicates the extent to which he believes those things get in the way of diagnostic results.

There's a great episode in which House has to deal with a rape victim and tries everything he can to opt out of doing so because he cant "feel" how they do and he even tries to think his way to the feelings or bluff it all which then provokes their rage in response. There's a lot of dialogue in which he essentially describes, explains, states and narrates in a way which suggest that he either is out of touch with his feeling traits or has them pretty repressed.

Its possible that the game playing, for instance testing out the point at which people will stop loaning him money when its apparent they wont get it back, is an indication of something other than thinking and judging. On the other hand it could be evidence of the same, if you take it at face value. I tend to think he's making a sort of observation study of those around him and the traits they exhibit that he hasnt got.

My reasoning for thinking that is that House sort of knows he's an incomplete character and that incompleteness effects his capacity to diagnose, hence the theme of creating and recreating the balance of personalities and roles in his diagnostic team. When he's caught on a plane without the others he gets a group of people together and tells them how to behaviour in a manner which is similar to the personalities of those in his team.

There's only one episode that I know of were House actually guesses or gambles, like I mean admitting to everyone that that's what he's doing because I think the show tends to employ that plot device a lot before he sits back and does an "elementary my dear Watson" thing. If I'm not wrong its when he's actually not in pain any longer and has a pain killing regime that works. He chooses to ditch it because it makes him sloppy which brings things around to the sense of transcending and important mission or purpose, diagnosis is his raison detre, there's only been one suggestion that he adopted this role to get others to have to deal with him.

Could be too many leaps and bounds there, I'd be interested to hear how others would type House and why.

 

[garbage]

Could be too many leaps and bounds there, I'd be interested to hear how others would type House and why.

have fun reading this 80-page thread

 

[Lark]

have fun reading this 80-page thread

No way! I didnt see that!

He's got a split personality now and hallucinates dead colleagues *really not sure I want to engage with the mega thread*