Wednesday, May 04, 2005
House. In the UK it's being shown on the Hallmark Channel on a Sunday evening, which in many important ways is worse than if it wasn't being shown at all. At least if it wasn't being shown it might hope to one day be picked up by a station with some credibility, like the Bin Ladin Channel to go between You've Been Fatwa'd and Prophets in Their Eyes.
I've just watched the pilot from the weekend before last and it's threateningly good. Hugh Laurie is Doctor Gregory House. He's permanently stubbly, which denotes that he's a genius and eccentric. He goes around being offhand, bitchy and sarcastic, obviously the very traits I aspire to in my career. Over the weeks to come we'll probably see some obligatory softening of this persona to show that he's hiding some trauma, but at the moment it does seem as if he genuinely hates about ninety percent of the humanity he comes in to contact with which is much more fun. The pilot gives us no real backstory for any of the characters beyond their names, which is something I'll return to momentarily. But a young boy comes in suffering blurred vision and 'night terrors', House is about to give him the brush-off as just suffering from the concussion he received during a lacrosse game he was in just before he collapsed, before noticing muscle twitches which means it's more serious. The rest of the show has him and his staff doing the medical equivalent of a detective story, trying to work out what is trying to kill the boy before it succeeds or their incorrect treatments do the damage.
And I borrowed the DVDs of series one of CSI from my mother. Two episodes in and we've got very little personal information about the characters. Even using the old 'rookie joining the team' ploy, we learnt nothing, just about the newbie so that we give a damn when they kill her off. And to be honest, I like this. In the past, when they take most of the first episode setting up the premise of the series the first episode plot suffers (the new Doctor Who wavers on the edge of this in episode one) but how much do we really need to know right away? That implies we care. They're forensic investigators, they should be forensically investigating, he's a doctor, he should be doctoring, they're cops, they should be... umm. The Sopranos is another example of a show that just goes straight in and fills in the details when opportunity arises.
I don't watch enough ongoing TV shows to know how widespread this method of storytelling is. Babylon 5's pilot had a very small story so that almost each character could give their soliloquy about their story and their races' history back to the Big Bang. Rescue Me did much the same, and I stopped watching after the second week because I didn't care about Dennis Leary living out his fireman fantasies, no matter how much he furrowed his brow.
House is worth watching, if you're fortunate enough not to get the Hallmark Channel it's probably out there in Torrent-land. Catch it now before the American need for 'story arcs' turn House into a defanged teddybear.
I've just watched the pilot from the weekend before last and it's threateningly good. Hugh Laurie is Doctor Gregory House. He's permanently stubbly, which denotes that he's a genius and eccentric. He goes around being offhand, bitchy and sarcastic, obviously the very traits I aspire to in my career. Over the weeks to come we'll probably see some obligatory softening of this persona to show that he's hiding some trauma, but at the moment it does seem as if he genuinely hates about ninety percent of the humanity he comes in to contact with which is much more fun. The pilot gives us no real backstory for any of the characters beyond their names, which is something I'll return to momentarily. But a young boy comes in suffering blurred vision and 'night terrors', House is about to give him the brush-off as just suffering from the concussion he received during a lacrosse game he was in just before he collapsed, before noticing muscle twitches which means it's more serious. The rest of the show has him and his staff doing the medical equivalent of a detective story, trying to work out what is trying to kill the boy before it succeeds or their incorrect treatments do the damage.
And I borrowed the DVDs of series one of CSI from my mother. Two episodes in and we've got very little personal information about the characters. Even using the old 'rookie joining the team' ploy, we learnt nothing, just about the newbie so that we give a damn when they kill her off. And to be honest, I like this. In the past, when they take most of the first episode setting up the premise of the series the first episode plot suffers (the new Doctor Who wavers on the edge of this in episode one) but how much do we really need to know right away? That implies we care. They're forensic investigators, they should be forensically investigating, he's a doctor, he should be doctoring, they're cops, they should be... umm. The Sopranos is another example of a show that just goes straight in and fills in the details when opportunity arises.
I don't watch enough ongoing TV shows to know how widespread this method of storytelling is. Babylon 5's pilot had a very small story so that almost each character could give their soliloquy about their story and their races' history back to the Big Bang. Rescue Me did much the same, and I stopped watching after the second week because I didn't care about Dennis Leary living out his fireman fantasies, no matter how much he furrowed his brow.
House is worth watching, if you're fortunate enough not to get the Hallmark Channel it's probably out there in Torrent-land. Catch it now before the American need for 'story arcs' turn House into a defanged teddybear.
