GoldbergBlog

“Simple Explanation”

[DO NOT READ BEYOND THIS POINT IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE MOST RECENT EPISODE OF "HOUSE, M.D."]

House has been on the ropes for a while this season.  Turns that were supposed to be dramatic ended up backfiring.  The Foreman/Thirteen relationship is good but it draws attention away from House.  Cuddy’s issue with her biological clock was good but it draws attention away from House.  The one character they introduced to play off House in a fresh way, Lucas the Private Investigator (Michael Weston), was only around as a Wilson-substitute (and in my mind, a superior substitute) and then mysteriously disappeared. It’s a show that lost focus on the reason we all tuned into watch: Hugh Laurie’s unforgettable reinvention of Sherlock Holmes:  Dr. Gregory House.

So the writers tried another dramatic turn and this time it worked beautifully.  I had learned that there would be an unexpected suicide on the show and figured it would be Kutner (Kal Penn) since that’s the last character you’d expect to kill himself (except for one clue that Mich picked up on and while it was never intended since the writers only came to the suicide angle recently, she noticed that at the end of Season Four, while the other characters are engaging in life-affirming relationships or trying to find their own way, Kutner’s home alone eating a bowl of cereal.  At the time I thought it was funny but she noticed that it is kind of a sad image). My concern is that it would seem so random as to be comedic and a transparent ratings grab.  But when I learned that the reason Penn wanted to leave the show was to go work at the White House (which is so cool, BTW), then I think this was definitely the most effective and thoughtful way to write out his character.  It’s not even so much the surprise element as much as how much it fucks with House, a man who has to have all the answers.  As he shouts in this episode, “Either we have all the clues and we’re idiots or we don’t have all the clues!”

House always works best when it takes chances, ditches its formula, and returns to its original tagline, “The Cure for the Common Medical Drama”.  The best episodes, “Three Stories”, “The Mistake”, “House’s Head/Wilson’s Heart” and my personal favorite, “No Reason” are all episodes that eschew the show’s traditional narrative and bring us fresh insight into these characters.  While it didn’t alter the structure of the episode, it blew it wide open as each character struggled to understand the death.  Moreover, Greg Yaitanes did yet another amazing directing job, not only with how he set up his shots, but by having all color drain from the episode after Kutner’s death at the end of the first act.

Even what I expected like Taub eventually breaking down at the end (I thought the development of the Taub/Kutner relationship was more entertaining than the Thirteen/Foreman relationship) and House’s relentless pursuit to find why Kutner killed himself hit me emotionally.  By the time they played Pete Yorn’s “Lose You” at the end, I didn’t even find it all that cheesy (although certainly not the strongest pick they could have made; the best argument I could make for it is that maybe Kutner, with his need to sentimentalize, would have liked the song).

And while I applaud Kal Penn’s move into public service, I wonder what the show will do without him.  The vibrancy and warmth he brought with Kutner tempered the dour attitudes of his fellow characters and that’s part of the reason I think he played so well off the painfully-pragmatic Taub.  He was borderline naive and wanted to believe the best in people but that didn’t make him a bad doctor and while I don’t want another Kutner when they inevitibly bring on a new doctor in the sixth season (to do so any sooner would completely cheapen the death), I hope they keep the dynamic they had with him.

Finally, this was the acting showcase for Laurie.  To watch him struggle his way through a problem with no answer and to leave it ambiguous as to whether or not he’s doing it because he’s in pain from the loss, if he’s doing it for the puzzle, if he’s scared he may be losing his gift because he didn’t notice it coming, or if it’s a combination of all three.  Yes, House’s mannerisms are now highly familiar (he scans the ground when he’s feeling guilty; he stares off into the distance when he’s solved the case) but that’s because Laurie has made House a fully-realized person and one that will hold our attention even when the show is at its worst but is a gift when it is at its best.

(One appendix to this review: kudos to the producers for putting info on a suicide hotline at the end of the episode; to hell with Fox with putting up a “Kutner Memorial Site”; it’s one thing to love the character, it’s another to capitalize on it for web traffic)

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