Family Practice

by Courtney Hilden
Spoiler Alert!: One of the turns in the case is revealed in this review.
On this very special episode of House, Cuddy's Mom was having a heart problem. This meant that House was going to have to help. This meant House would even dress up in a doctor coat. There was something slow about this episode. I still can't decide if it was boring or not.
The highlight of the episode was the possibility that Cuddy's Mom was an alcoholic (which, in fact, turned out not to be true.) Making Cuddy's Mom an addict was a fascinating turn of events. It makes Cuddy's relationship with House all the more fraught with pitfalls, since, as viewers know, House is himself a recovering (and sometimes not-so-recovering addict.) Hopefully, the show will continue to explore this facet of the House/Cuddy relationship and Cuddy's relationship with her Mom.
In the B storyline, Taub attempted to make more money working for his ex's brother. You knew it was going to turn out badly, but it became another attempt by the writers to make Taub likable. By the time the writers figure out how to make that happen, the show's going to be over.

Larger Than Life

by Courtney Hilden

In this latest episode of House, a man, spending time with his daughter, tries to desperately save a random woman from a train. Then he himself begins to have medical problems, opening up another round of cynical House and optimistic Masters.
As someone who lives in New York, I can tell you that the opening sequence, of a man trying to save a woman having a seizure who is stuck on the subway track, is one of my nightmare's. The horror of fellow subway passengers, desperate to know if he was okay and their held breaths at the thought he didn't make it, rang all too true.
House also brought the talent tonight, including Matthew Lillard (how is it possible that he is old enough to play a father?) and Sprague Grayden (from the cancelled-too-soon John Doe). Watching these two was watching a master class on chemistry. The history between their two characters was totally believable. Can someone make a show about this couple?




Other good things about this episode including the cinematography, which took a different take on the show, focusing in on characters as the scene runs. Usually a show this far in does not do anything different, especially for a normal episode, but here it was noticeable because so little else in the episode was.
Sadly, none of these touches could make up for the overall show, which is saddled with an increasingly unlikeable character. House really does not deserve the people in his life. The nice thing about the show once upon a time was watching him struggle with kindness, but here House was, trying to get out of dinner with his girlfriend and her Mom on her birthday and then trying to get out of his best friend's festival. At this point, House is just spinning his wheels. And given Hugh Laurie's phenomenal performance, maybe he should just be teaching acting instead of trying to make something enjoyable out of this poor writing.

The Museum of the Moving Image

This week is the reopening of the Museum of the Moving Image, dedicated to movies, television and other forms of art.
Having been there this week, I can say that there are some wonderful things there to see, especially if you are a film buff of any kind. There are numerous artifacts from various movies, including the mask from The Mask, razzle-dazzle suits from Chicago and even the creepy possessed girl from The Exorcist. The museum has lots of fun bits of pop culture, even with a room dedicated to video games, having numerous old-school arcade games including Space Invaders.
The upstairs is dedicated to various forms of reality, which is actually a little disappointing. Most of things installed there are either rather boring or something most museum goers would already have access to. (For example, there is a video of Second Life and a Wii-like game.)
By far the most artistic and fascinating thing is Dictators Versus Dolls, an eleven minute video. The animation is superb and beautiful, and it depicts battles of various dolls (including Barbie) with various world dictators, including the leaders of Libya and South Korea. It is visually stunning and makes you wish that you could see more films done this way.

Chuck Versus Phase Three

On the most recent episode of Chuck, Sarah tries desperately to find Chuck.  Sarah became, in the words of Casey, "unpredictable."  Casey discussed how he disliked Sarah pre-Chuck, which is really interesting, because it implies that Casey saw something good in Sarah and Chuck's relationship.  It gives Casey's character an extra and interesting shade, since he's never said anything on the subject before and he so rarely says anything positive at all.  The episode also showed off Sarah as emotionally invested and the actress's chops.  She's always a strong character, and that's great, but seeing the intimate moment of her grief was a wonderful quiet moment in a show that usually is about the flash bang.  The episode also featured far more of the other characters and not Chuck himself, again, a nice change up from the usual. 

The best part of this episode is that it acknowledged Chuck's fear for marrying Sarah, who Morgan called "a big fish."  But then we see that Chuck wants to get over that; he doesn't want his fear of a strong woman to stop him from being with her.  It might not quite be feminism, since Sarah felt the need to say that she was nothing without Chuck, but the show positively depicts both a strong woman and the man who wants to be with her.  Sadly, you don't see that on tv too often, so in this way, the show has not only done something unique but positive for how people see gender on tv.  The only thing that isn't okay is that Sarah was in some ways "crazy" without her man.  Casey acknowledged that, given the circumstances, she had the right to be upset, but Beckman still wanted her watched.  It was borderline "hysterical woman" meme, and that's tired. 

The dream sequence that the episode opened up on was delightful strange, especially considering that it featured the show's favorite freak, Lester.  (Does Lester ever wear normal clothes, or is it only work uniforms and costumes for this guy?)

This episode also featured some great villians.  "The Belgian" was so creepy, especially with his glasses magnifying his eyes so he looked like an insect.   


In terms of disappointments, the episode tried hard to skirt around the issue of torture, which was really a pity.  Torture has been such a difficult issue in American politics lately, that it seemed too easy for Sarah to just talk a Thai diplomat and terroritsts into giving pertinant information.  Not that torture needed to happen, but the lack of dialogue over it was a little too American.  The closest they got to dialogue on violence at all was when Morgan suggested maybe they shouldn't use guns.  Again, Morgan has been aware of Chuck's situation for long enough that it seems strange that he is now opposed to guns.  And that the dialogue was limited to Morgan not wanting to be sacrificed, so then of course he's okay with guns.  And then even Casey had to admit that guns were unnecessary when they tried another tactic.  The show only kind of deals with violence in a comical way, almost never in a serious way.  Again, no dialogue on the subject.   

The episode also discussed how as spies, Casey and Sarah didn't have juristiction over certain places.  Why are we several years into this show and only now discussing bureaucracy?  Usually it's the first excuse a show like this would use to justify certain actions and storylines. 

It would also be nice for Casey to actually put his foot down and truly tell Morgan no.  The show has already established how tough Casey is, so why doesn't he just throw Morgan into a cell or tie him up to a chair?  Morgan trailing along on these missions is far too unrealistic.  "I definetely know how to use this, dirtbags"?  I would have riddled his body with bullets if he said that to me. 

And, even though the show had some good pro-women moments, how disappointing that Sarah can't save herself.  I would much rather watch her save Chuck without anyone's help.  And there was no need for her to make herself wet, except for the male gaze.  So even though yes, she's a strong woman, and yes, Chuck loves that about her, why is it her power is always being subverted by other things?  Can't we just have her be a badass without everything els

e becoming an issue?

And wouldn't it have been great if Ellie got exposed to the Intersect when she got into that computer?