A Robo-Tripping Punch of Cough Syrup and Vodka

Season Six, Episode Eight

HOUSE: “Ignorance Is Bliss”

The FOX Network on Monday Nights at 8 pm

By Tyler Weaver, Guest Columnist

Tyler Weaver

Thanksgiving invariably brings out the extremes in people. The best. The worst. And there’s rarely room for a middle ground. In this episode, it brings out the best AND worst in House, the worst in Cuddy, and Team House 4.0 goes back and forth.

Our patient of the week makes for one of the more memorable this season. An über-genius turned delivery man robo-trips on a vicious cocktail of cough syrup and vodka to feel more human and connected to his lovely wife, who trails behind his IQ by 91 points. It’s no surprise that House actually, in some minor way, connects with his new patient; the last major connection I can recall is with the boy who gave him a PSP for some reason or another.

The ever-dependable Hugh Laurie (for whom a nomination for any television award should be a given at this point) turns in a particularly good performance as House this week. Even though he was angling for a Thanksgiving invite simply to break up Cuddy and Lucas (our main goal of the week), Cuddy’s scamming of him clearly hurt – as well it should. His drunken fool act with Lucas was immediately convincing, then even more convincing when it was revealed to be fake (though the question remains of how fake it actually was – part of me likes to believe that there was a little bit of realism in House’s drunken confession – not the cop-out of “I was faking, hahaha”).

And now for the not-so-good. Cuddy’s duping of House, while somewhat understandable, was extremely out of character, to the point of making her completely unlikable. There was always that element of empathy for Cuddy’s actions, and she always showed at least some inclination towards caring about House. Her belief that no one can change, even though she’s spent six years saying people change is grating, to say the least. The last shot of the episode, of Lucas saying, “see, maybe he isn’t that bad after all,” and Cuddy’s look of “oh, you may be right, what am I doing?” inspires no sympathy. In fact, it makes one want to pull a patented Mark Harmon from NCIS smack upside the head on the character. I’m putting it out there – cross-network series crossovers. House with NCIS, just so Gibbs and House can smack people upside the head. Ratings bonanza.

Speaking of smacking, Chase has, in one Cameron-less episode, become a great character. Without Cameron around to enforce moral authority in all who pass by her, Chase has been re-revealed as an interesting character – not the lovelorn Aussie, pining for a relationship he can’t have, a marriage he wants to be in, and for Cameron to have a drawer in his dresser.

The best scene of this episode in fact, belonged to Chase. After being harassed by the team (to see Taub take on the Kutner role of “if you need to talk” was quite fascinating), and finally cold-clocking House, his “apology” in the hallway was masterfully done. That House completely understands his reason for “the punch” (to get people to leave him alone) makes it even better. And the capping off of the moment with a simple “cheers,” made for one of the best interactions of the season.

The return of Taub was extremely welcome. As I mentioned above, his move towards being the “Kutner” of the group, of, in a small way, extending the shoulder, is interesting. As evidenced by his mini-breakdown after Kutner’s suicide last season, Taub was quite effected by the event.  Taub did manage to have the second-best character moment of the night – of snapping a photo of the post-punch House and showing it to his wife, who believes he has returned to “grunt work” and being subservient to the almighty House. “You did this to House?” Brilliant little moment.

Though… it could have used a little more setting up. For those unaware of the relationship with Taub to his wife in the previous seasons, it has been strained. If you didn’t know this, I could see where the interaction this episode would feel off and quite sudden. That said, it is nice to see a member of the Team House not trying to hook up with another member of the team, or someone else in the hospital. The “outsider looking in” role that Taub’s wife fulfills is a welcome one – and one that should be explored and exploited further.

In other exciting developments, Thirteen didn’t annoy me! I didn’t exactly feel one way or another about her this episode. I do foresee another run at a relationship with Foreman (who also had nothing to do this episode), so I’ll reserve any thoughts on both characters until they give me something to have a thought about.

Overall, a fair episode. When I call something good, I base it on the Howard Hawks “goodness” test: Three good scenes, and no bad ones. There were more than three “good scenes,” but every scene with Cuddy and her grating presence this season fell into the “bad” one. They weren’t poorly acted – not at all. They were just grating. Perhaps that could be called a good thing. This characterization of Cuddy clearly instills some form of passion in me, as I’ve been writing about it too much in this review. As I always say, “I’d rather have my audience riot than sit still and clap politely.”

While I’m not planning on storming the Bastille anytime soon, it is a good thing to see a show that genuinely makes one care about (most of) the characters – be it in a good way or bad one. They’re not cardboard cutouts (cough, V, cough) nor wildly eccentric characters for the sake of eccentricity (cough, Fringe, cough – even though I loves me some Walter), but they’re certainly human.

THE GOOD – Hugh Laurie and Jesse Spencer’s performances.  The punch and apology.  The quick photo snap the turning on of Taub’s wife.  A memorable patient of the week.

THE MEH – Foreman and Thirteen. Not much to do.  Snooze.  Was it just me, or did the close-ups of House seem a bit too close-up?

THE GAH – Cuddy is driving me nuts this season.  Bring back Lydia.

Tyler Weaver is a guest columnist for pulptone.com and is an independent filmmaker, currently writing two feature scripts and producing a music video.