Monday, May 14, 2007

More House conversations with my brother

No promises for a same-day review this week either-- it's shaping up to be just as hectic as last. In the meantime, more babbles with brother to keep the House fires burning (because there's not enough of that on this blog):

Brother: Another thing I thought was interesting was that House wouldn't let go of the infection theory even when all the evidence appeared to be against it. It would make me wonder if he wasn't a little gunshy after losing last week's patient after missing an infection, if I didn't already know that little things like emotions don't affect him.

I liked House on anti-depressants. It was way different from Happy House with a pain free leg, who was just boring. Happy House on anti-depressants is just like miserable House, only he gets more pleasure out of being sarcastic and nasty.

I took his mentioning the anti-depressants to Honey to be a sign that he was continuing to take them, even showing that he was reluctantly aware they were doing some good, even if he didn't really want to admit it. I don't think if someone spiked my Shirley Temples with Ritalin that I would tell them I was on Ritalin, I would probably phrase it like "Some son-of-a-bitch spiked my Shirley Temples." Although I'd say "double bourbon with a beer back" as code for "Shirley Temples."

Me: Yeah, I took it that way too, but then I second-guessed myself, partly because I'm not sure where they'd go with that long-term. But it was definitely a weird way to say it if he's not continuing to take them so I do believe he is. I just want confirmation before I go too far down the road of what that means. I was going to say "maybe next week I'll get my chance" but since it took me so long to get around to this review, it's more like "maybe in two days I'll get my chance."

Brother: Wilson on speed was great. Probably not a very realistic performance, but funny and entertaining.

I don't think Foreman will be gone for good, but he'll probably be gone over the summer hiatus anyway.

Me: I first took this to be a joke, like they'll all be gone over summer hiatus, but I bet you mean that the season will end with him quitting "for good" and then it will be resolved next season with him coming back? That would be bad, because this ill-defined bet is that by the end of the season I'll be proven right (he might not put it that way). The spirit of the bet is gone for good versus gone for dramatic purposes temporarily, so I don't think he'll object too much to changing the timeframe. I hope.

Brother: I'm pretty sure they wouldn't write him out for the hell of it, even for dramatic purposes. It's a different story if real life intruded though, and Epps didn't want to come back, or asked for too much money or something like that. I know that you'd know if something like that was up, though. I think Foreman will demand a date from House as a condition to coming back.

Me: I haven't been paying as much attention to news about the show, but I still have this feeling that I'd have heard if Epps was leaving. That's part of my certainty. The other part is just knowing the show does this all the time ... goes down the dramatic, series-changing path and then nothing really changes. That's [my betting adversary's] argument for why he's really leaving, though -- because they've already had Cameron quit and come back, and there's already been an episode where Foreman ponders quitting, they can't possibly do it again. But much as I love the show, I think that's exactly the kind of thing they'd do again and again. There's a bit of rumbling out there (and I've done some myself) that they keep hitting the reset button after all these multiple-episode plots.

Also, before this Foreman storyline even came up, [my adversary] had said that at some point he thinks they'll have to shake things up and the easiest way would be to replace a duckling. Though he was talking in another season or two, not now.

Brother: It's too bad Scrubs is coming back, because if Foreman did leave I'd like to see J. D. replace him. Maybe House can relocate to Sacred Heart Hospital. He'd get along great with Cox. "Get along great" meaning, of course, the first episode would end with House's cane up Cox's ass.