Re: a thing on tonight's House

[bironic]

OMG. OMG. I almost wrote that story once. OMG. I still have notes for it in my WIP folder. Now I wish more than ever that I'd been able to finish it.

A million kudos to whoever submitted that prompt a few years ago. (spoiler warning after the link, obv., and for relevant character(s) within the URL)

*looking at the prompt again* Okay, it wasn't gay porn, so not an exact match. But the same potential was there for House, who was watching Wilson in a porn film, to go there in his head.

And Wilson in antlers will never stop being funny.

I liked his assistant. Nurse person. Whoever. She had great delivery. There should be stories about how she was involved in the postering.

Cuddy's glance up at House at her desk was great as well. Understatement for humorous purposes! People being able to hold their own instead of angst about who likes whom! They can sometimes do it!

As I was saying to synn via email, I was not impressed with the blogger's characterization. Preaching to the choir here that being a blogger doesn't mean neglecting what goes on in real life. She could have filled in what happened, what choices she made, afterwards, rather than saying she couldn't make a decision without her readers. But that would not have been as DRAMATIC. To synn's reply about this likely being character development and not blanket criticism, I said I guess I was seeing Blogger as much as I was seeing Character. It's hard, when you have a single representative of a group shown on a hugely popular TV show and the group comes with a stereotype you'd like to see challenged. And then when she got the liver failure diagnosis, there was the whole "Yay, we brought her down! She's crying! And she's crying into the arms of a real person, not on her blog!" thing. Sigh. At least the end didn't go to a terrible place.

Also. HOLD THE $^&!@$% CAMERA STILL.

House & Wilson telling Chase he's that attractive was funny. Would have been one of the two highlights of the episode, had it not been for the antlers.

The other of the two would have been Chase's scene with Thirteen mid-ep. Competent people having a grown-up conversation, a little bit of backstory, a little bit of moral support. Moral support! On this show! Hell didn't even freeze over. Just an exploding appendix.

Speaking of backstory nuggets: House used the past tense about Wilson's mom. At first I thought that meant she isn't around anymore, but on reflection I'm guessing that's because House meant she was hot when she was younger (and not now)?

Weird that neither Wilson nor Chase thought that House might have planted that book for them to find, knowing that Wilson would seek revenge on the DVD. He certainly held the fake James cover up ostentatiously enough.

I confess (pun!) that I was afraid House really was examining religion for answers, given the themes of certain pivotal episodes penned by Shore et al. It has been refreshing to have an atheist (anti)hero.

Wilson lecturing, eh. His hair is too short. These things are not related, except that they are not attractive on him.

I love the guy, but his payback seemed kind of harsh. I'm trying to figure out why it feels that way -- how the show set it up to feel that way. Because it's not as if Wilson doesn't have emotional and social damage control to do after the plastering-up of his porny past all over the hospital. Yeah, it funny, but it's humiliating. Just -- what is it about House that makes his pain seem deeper than others'? Wilson's revenge felt like a more uncomfortable invasion of privacy. *thinky*

Comments

[theninth.livejournal.com]

SPOILER-FREE COMMENT

My very first thought was "I bet there's a fic about this somewhere".

[bironic.livejournal.com]

I just filled the post with spoilers, so worry not. But yes! I think I've read at least one fic with a similar premise, though sans antlers. triedunture, maybe? I will have to track it down. Or maybe I'm thinking of one where Wilson put himself on an upload-yourself porn site, and House watched, and then House reciprocated? It was a while ago.

[theninth.livejournal.com]

This is also the second time we've seen Wilson in antlers. What can it all mean!?

[daasgrrl.livejournal.com]

...porny past?

I haven't seen it, obvs, but dude, WHAT? No, don't tell me... I have to see. But, WHAT?

Yes, I'm being bad about spoiling myself XD

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Come back when you have seen! Though now you know some of the punchline.

[daasgrrl.livejournal.com]

LOL, was that like a DPS thing or what? I was all Puck, how could you? XD

Every time Wilson starts explaining House to himself/the audience, I want to poke him with a very sharp stick. AGH.

[nightdog-barks.livejournal.com]

Heh, opposite reactions are opposite.

I thought Wilson's revenge was incredibly mild -- it looked as if he only shared copies of the book with House's team, not plastering up posters of the book jacket with House's photo next to it all over the hospital. Plus none of the team would know that was House's biological father.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

It was the drilling House for answers part that felt very invasive to me. Feels to me like the way to hurt Wilson is to tarnish his image, and the way to hurt House is to invade his privacy, so those were comparable actions tonight.

[nightdog-barks.livejournal.com]

That part! I don't know ... I just took that as (a) Wilson being Wilson, and (b) Wilson being worried. I do still think that Wilson feels at least partially responsible for his brother's problems because he missed some clues, and he's determined not to make the same mistake with someone else he cares deeply about, so he ends up pushing too hard.

YMMV, of course. :-)

Oh! And I'm still writing (very slowly) on that thing from the other night.

[m-supercomputer.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's me, but I got the impression from the episode that *Chase* spread the book around the hospital - House asks Chase where he got it, and Chase says that he called the author himself. It doesn't sound like Wilson had anything to do with it.

So as far as I can tell, Wilson just asked House about why he was reading it privately.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

HEE! I thought of you and me when the POTW's friend was there, and they were both on their laptops. HEE!

The blogger characterization was mitigated for me by her boyfriend's very true points: 1) He didn't agree to have all his stuff put on the blog; 2) If you're in it for the hit count instead of the connection, that is kind of shallow; and 3) ... well, I just forgot three, but there was a third one.

[elynittria.livejournal.com]

Wilson's revenge felt like a more uncomfortable invasion of privacy.

I got the impression that it was Chase (on his own initiative) who dug up the multiple copies of the book and distributed them to the team, and that Wilson at that point was still thinking about whether (and how) to take revenge. Of course, I could be totally misinterpreting things.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Just -- what is it about House that makes his pain seem deeper than others'? Wilson's revenge felt like a more uncomfortable invasion of privacy. *thinky*

Because Wilson is set up to be the comic relief consistently. Because House is the noble hero and Wilson is the hapless fall guy.

Because the Lord loveth a cheerful giver, and the prodigal son gets the fatted calf whereas the dutiful son gets belittled.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

PS. Just remembered I wrote a short "embarrasment war" ficlet (One Lump or Two) in 2007. Except Wilson manages to keep everything quiet. Hee hee!

[no-detective.livejournal.com]

GAAAAAAAH! My DVR cut off the last minute or so. If you have a minute, can you tell me what happens after House and Wilson get on the elevator at the end of the day?