The producers of the highly rated and critically acclaimed Fox medical-mystery drama House are already facing the same dilemma as the producers of Monk (see entry immediately below), as the Fox program enters its fourth year. The producers are initiating major changes to keep the program from going stale.
Season three included another of those annoying "House gets his comeuppance but doesn’t learn anything or change at all" story arcs, this time with a police detective (played by David Morse) hounding him with drug abuse charges. It was boring, stupid, and unnecessary, but at least the producers had the good sense to drop it after a few weeks. In addition, the story showed the stupidity of many of our drug laws and the stubborn asininity of the people who enforce them.
We should give the show’s producers credit for trying to breathe new life into the program in only its third season.
And there was more change to come. In the final episode of the season, all three of House’s interns left his team, voluntarily or otherwise, although whether the departures are permanent shall remain a mystery for the time being. The producers have signed five new actors and actresses to serve as whipping boys and girls for the irascible medical genius during the next season. The new season begins September 25.
E! Online reports that the performers have been signed for eight episodes, but that has yet to be confirmed.
Whether the scheme works in the ratings wars, of course, will probably determine who stays and who goes and whether any of the previous interns returns.
Fascinating stuff, Rosemary. Thanks for mentioning this.
As a British fan (he needs to know there are actually legions of us) I want to point out that his appealing looks derive from his Scottishness. I went to a Lowland university and his features are wholly Scottish Lowland in origin, along with the dour expression and deeply pessimistic outlook on life.His curse is his ruminative nature, which gets in the way of him fully enjoying anything, because he is worrying about the past and dreading the future.You can learn optimism… but you have to feel that you deserve to be happy in order to bother to learn the ways to be happier…a bit of a Catch-22. Even universal adulation is probably just a curse for him because it is another pressure!
But his sensitive and intelligent portrayal of House is very much appreciated…
House has been one of my favorite shows of the past few years, due to its excellent writing and characters. It has often been surprising, and only occasionally PC in nature; in fact, more often than not it is quite un-PC, usually in the best way possible. It will be quite interesting to see where the show goes. One of the late surprises last year was that both my wife and I found ourselves really liking the character of Dr. Chase, the young Aussie doc on House’s staff, who came into his own not long before he was fired by House. I hope he eventually returns. Laurie has constantly been a pleasure, even if the character he plays is not altogether likeable (although charismatic in a strange and occasonally repulsive way). The creators of the show shaped his character, to some degree, upon that of Sherlock Holmes, who was not, of course, a very agreeable or personable chap in the Doyle stories. So there is a humorous little background connection, I suppose, in that Laurie, an Englishman, is playing an American character based upon a very famous English literary character. And Laurie, in interviews, has said that nailing the American accent is very difficult, and requires a lot of work and concentation. He does a most impressive job.
It’s the same Hugh Laurie, Bob, and the photo above shows how different he looks in the series. It was only after I watched the first couple of episodes that I realized that Dr. House was being played by Hugh Laurie, as I hadn’t bothered to look at the opening credits. His accent is very interesting, especially in that his voice is considerably deeper than what he used as Bertie Wooster and in Black Adder. An amazing transformation, actually.
Hugh Laurie…Hugh Laurie… If I remember correctly, Laurie played Bertie Wooster opposite Stephen Fry’s Jeeves. And he was in the Black Adder series as Rowan Atkinson’s sidekick. Is this the same Hugh Laurie? My sister told me about House and mentioned Laurie’s name, saying that he was “handsome.” “Handsome” I thought. “Bertie Wooster is handsome?”
I’ve never seen House, but I suspect that I had better look in on it while Laurie is still there.
The versatility of English actors never fails to amaze me.
Bob