House Guitar

I've always despised House, the show and the title character.

I may be looking at it wrong, though. It may be a tongue in cheek sendup of doctor shows, presented "straight." It is so bad it's funny.

I started watching the latest series of House (the one where he plays the Gibson in the first episode) but gave up after 30 minutes or so and haven't watched it since.

I think the show's formula just wore very thin with me.

I've always despised House, the show and the title character.

I may be looking at it wrong, though. It may be a tongue in cheek sendup of doctor shows, presented "straight." It is so bad it's funny.

House was originally conceived as a detective show, except in a medical instead of a criminal context. Dr House himself is based heavily on Sherlock Holmes (notice the names: House and Holmes? Holmes played violin, House plays guitar/piano, Holmes did coke, House takes vicodin, Holmes had a sidekick named Watson, House has a sidekick named Wilson). House also has the amazing ability to note all kinds of seemingly unimportant details and draw conclusions that others would've missed. Early audience reaction to the show led to a change in focus from the detective aspects of the show towards the characters. I guess the show is sort of what you would classify as dramedy, but with more "dram" and less "edy" than, say, MASH or Scrubs :-P. I enjoy the humour, especially House's cutting wit, and some of the clinic scenes are hilarious. And compared to other medical shows, the medicine is actually fairly accurate (though not close to 100% of course).

Unfortunately due to the nature of the show, it is very difficult to break the formula, so as the formula gets stale the show becomes more and more a parody of itself until before you know it sharks are getting jumped and shows are getting cancelled. Someone on another forum pointed out that there is also the money factor - when the show started, the budget was smaller and so was the audience. As the show becomes popular and the budget increases, the network demands that it also appeal to a wider audience, which means blunting the edges that made it popular in the first place.

Also, you can tune your guitar visually by plucking, say, the low E string at the fifth fret and adjusting the A string until it vibrates sympathetically (just though I'd better add something about guitars in a guitar forum :P)

Saryu,

That was a terrific analysis. I never saw the analogy with Holmes but now I can't NOT see it!

Dr House himself is based heavily on Sherlock Holmes ... House also has the amazing ability to note all kinds of seemingly unimportant details and draw conclusions that others would've missed.
I always find it amusingly ironic when Sherlock Holmes is held up as a paragon of detective ability - Conan Doyle endorsed the cottingly fairies as genuine, and the whole 50-odd years the hoax was running noone noticed that although the exposure time was very long (as demonstrated by the running water in the background being blurred), the fairies are in mid-jump and crystal clear - ie, not moving and therefore not real. There is proof of the hoax in the pictures themselves, and in the very details that Holmes would have singled out in a mere second. A bit OT, but hey :)

Ric: Shame on you! :)

I've always despised House, the show and the title character.

I may be looking at it wrong, though. It may be a tongue in cheek sendup of doctor shows, presented "straight." It is so bad it's funny.

You may be right on there, Rico. Of course, with popular success, some begin to take what they do seriously and more literally and forget their satirical roots. Alan Alda and writers kinda went that way in M*A*S*H ... though anti-war statements usually have a little more social relevance than guess-the-disease-o-the-day.

My theory on House: The writers are trying to see how thoroughly disagreeable they can make House and still have viewers love him.

All that aside, Hugh Laurie is a bright and talented guy. He's probably having a good laugh about the show's success.

To add to the "House" and "Holmes" scenario, they both live at the address 221B. Don't know if they're both Baker Street...

And, as we all know (not to mention get it back on music), Baker Street is a great song. Laurie could probably play all the parts... :wink:

Peace

David

All that aside, Hugh Laurie is a bright and talented guy. He's probably having a good laugh about the show's success.
You bet!