House
Hugh Laurie won the Golden Globe last night for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series (Drama). I didn't actually get to see him receive the award, but my kids said he was delightful in his comments (they didn't actually use the word "delightful"), and we were all glad for his award. Laurie's work in House is wonderful, as is the series. I don't watch much television (I've never sat through a whole episode of Lost or Desparate Housewives), but I recently received the entire first season of House, M.D. on DVD, and am now a big fan.
Dr. Gregory House, simply put, is an Ayn Rand doctor, a brilliant diagnostician who cares little for the small human games that somehow make life more pleasant and more meaningful for most mere mortals. He and Howard Roark (of Rand's The Fountainhead) would be good buddies. House is rude, sarcastic, demeaning, and brutally frank, and somehow, we love the guy for it.
That's because he tells the truth in ways that few of us have the courage to do. "Everybody lies" is Dr. House's mantra, and as a simple prism through which to judge the actions of patients and doctors alike--as the series demonstrates--it's pretty true and works fairly well. The brilliance of the character development is that even though House is right about nearly everything, he is wrong so much of the time. And as the episodes roll on, we are seeing chinks in the man's objectivism, and he, as well as his audience, is seeing that most people lie because of the presence--or the threat of--pain.
In House, M.D., the people are damaged, and the whole notion of what health means is under the microscope. Truth heals, Dr. House seems to think, and in the end, he may end up being more right about that than he meant.
Compelling...
5:45:57 AM
