not a viable alternative to Scrubs.
Dr. Greg House, as played by Hugh Laurie, balances bastardism with heart, but without the earnestness to have him wondering what it all means. The pilot – as directed by Bryan Singer (X Men) – flashes quick, catty dialogue in establishing the characters. When the characters catch their breath, Singer shows off with computer-generated effects and enough extreme close-ups to have Wayne and Garth saying “enough.” The camera zooms straight in on guest star Robin Tunney’s nose and straight down the nasal canal and into the body, like Osmosis Jones but with an audience.
Tunney’s nose might have more depth than some of the surrounding characters, however. The pilot succinctly maps out almost every character’s base motivations (Omar Epps is a doctor with street smarts, Jennifer Morrison is hired for her looks, etc.), almost as if to get those pesky things out of the way. In that sense, House plays much more like a CSI: Your Bloodstream than, say, Lost.
Hospital-related television shows, as a genre, inch closer and closer to a new imagining. Scrubs blurs the line between parody and drama, while House revises, realizes and reacts against the ER-ification of what the audience expects. That explains the freshness when Dr. House openly ridicules his psychosomatic regular patients. And maybe why House will stay in the ballgame. |
