I would like to talk about House M.D. cause I haven`t seen a movie in a while. I must say that this is the only serial I`ve ever followed completely: from the first episode of the first season to the last one of the sixth. I heard that there`s a book about dr. house “philosophy”, but that’s not interesting, I mean, there`s more to say about the serial, its structure, the reason of its succeed, etc.., than think about what relation can Nietzsche have with Gregory House (who doesn`t have a relation, aware or not, with Nietzsche?)
So, we all know how the story goes: the guy is a genius in medicine because of his ability to make a “differential”, which means an alternative diagnostic that is capable of explaining a rare case of disease. The other side of House`s life are human relations, and it is always suggested in the serial that, emotions, are territories where the doctor seems to be a little less prepared, we can see that hi keeps doing “differentials” but in situations of life that can only work when we don’t pay attention to them (natural egoism, instinct of self-preservation, conscience of loneliness, etc.) But we are making philosophy again.
We have to ask: what does House do to maintain his public? How do you explain that a seven season long serial can sustain itself when there`s not an important change in characters, locations or action? I think that a possible answer can be that the combination of two story lines creates an impressive effect on what people expects. These two story lines are: the short story about the medical case in every episode, and the long and slow story about House relations with himself and other people. The accomplish is to give you something for now and something to expect, so that way, you can feel that the episode have close its self but it has contribute to the main story line.
The secret ingredient is House`s particular personality. You can`t make a serial were the protagonist show himself like an empathic person and sustain that empathy forever. Usually, when that happens, the character starts to lose the capacity of impress, so the story writers focus in action, action must change, and action turns ridicule. Instead of that, what House does is to present the protagonist like someone who is not easily digestible, so you don’t get bored of his sympathy cause he`s always surprising us with new ways to mess around. Normally, all of the characters have more sympathy than House, but watching the serial, we start to understand that hi is in some estrange way, always right, so we have to confront the emotional sympathy that we feel for the normal character, against the rational sympathy that House provokes in us. In fact, that’s the normal ending structure from the first three seasons: we can see that house have solved the case because he realizes that his patience goodness was indeed a symptom and not an emotional and respectable characteristic of personality (for example), and then, we see that after all, his rational mind ends up alone in an always sad (“blue”) moment. That is a plus over the double effect I mentioned: it`s concluded the rational problem (disease), but it`s not enough because it doesn`t solve the relationship problem and it can actually make it worse.
So, we all know how the story goes: the guy is a genius in medicine because of his ability to make a “differential”, which means an alternative diagnostic that is capable of explaining a rare case of disease. The other side of House`s life are human relations, and it is always suggested in the serial that, emotions, are territories where the doctor seems to be a little less prepared, we can see that hi keeps doing “differentials” but in situations of life that can only work when we don’t pay attention to them (natural egoism, instinct of self-preservation, conscience of loneliness, etc.) But we are making philosophy again.
We have to ask: what does House do to maintain his public? How do you explain that a seven season long serial can sustain itself when there`s not an important change in characters, locations or action? I think that a possible answer can be that the combination of two story lines creates an impressive effect on what people expects. These two story lines are: the short story about the medical case in every episode, and the long and slow story about House relations with himself and other people. The accomplish is to give you something for now and something to expect, so that way, you can feel that the episode have close its self but it has contribute to the main story line.
The secret ingredient is House`s particular personality. You can`t make a serial were the protagonist show himself like an empathic person and sustain that empathy forever. Usually, when that happens, the character starts to lose the capacity of impress, so the story writers focus in action, action must change, and action turns ridicule. Instead of that, what House does is to present the protagonist like someone who is not easily digestible, so you don’t get bored of his sympathy cause he`s always surprising us with new ways to mess around. Normally, all of the characters have more sympathy than House, but watching the serial, we start to understand that hi is in some estrange way, always right, so we have to confront the emotional sympathy that we feel for the normal character, against the rational sympathy that House provokes in us. In fact, that’s the normal ending structure from the first three seasons: we can see that house have solved the case because he realizes that his patience goodness was indeed a symptom and not an emotional and respectable characteristic of personality (for example), and then, we see that after all, his rational mind ends up alone in an always sad (“blue”) moment. That is a plus over the double effect I mentioned: it`s concluded the rational problem (disease), but it`s not enough because it doesn`t solve the relationship problem and it can actually make it worse.
Wow Willem. You deserve a medal for such long post. The only inconvenience of this is that everyone's finished by the time you are. Anyway, it is a good post. Some interesting reflextions. I guess you DO have a funny way to approach things. Funny good by he way!! It would have been interestin if you had written about another career in mind. Any ideas?
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