Abandon All Research, Housefic Writers!

[deelaundry]

Katie Jacobs recently said (to Ausiello): "Right now, we're just exploring how Cameron and Chase running different departments either helps or hinders House." 

WTF?  How in the hell are Cameron and Chase department heads?  The characters are like 30 years old!  Just got out of fellowships!  This makes no sense whatsoever.  Senior attending (which is also a little unbelievable for their level of experience but I had let it slide) does not equal department head!!!

On the plus side, it's incredibly freeing for me as a writer.  I don't have to research anything or make things logical because apparently House!world is totally unmoored from the real world.  AWESOME! 

(No, it's not a typo.  She said earlier in the interview, "And how is it for Chase to be head of a department?")

ETA:  It has been brought to my attention that perhaps Katie Jacobs has suffered from brain injury of some sort, and is not speaking on behalf of the other producers.  My best wishes for a speedy recovery for Ms. Jacobs.

Comments

[hannahrorlove.livejournal.com]

Suddenly I don't feel so bad about all the crackfic I've done. And plan on doing.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

It's so STUPID! In addition to being unrealistic, it's totally unnecessary for them to be department heads. No narrative reason whatsoever.

Wilson is a bit too young to be Department Head, too, but for the role the writers need him to fill, he has to be equal to House. There's a purpose to it.

Foreman was also too young to be a department head BUT that was a four-person team in a specialty area. Not an already established emergency deparmtent or ALL OF SURGERY.

For Pete's Fucking Sake.

[poeia.livejournal.com]

Step 1 - graduate from medical school.
Step 2 - do a residency.
Step 3 - do a fellowship in Intensive Care (a medical -- not surgical -- specialty.)
Step 4 - do a fellowship in Diagnostics (a medical...)
Step 5 - become the Director of the "Surgery" department at PPTH.

Neurosurgery, Pulmonary, Gynecology, Ophthalmology, Orthopedics, Organ Transplants, etc. All rolled into one department, reporting to Chase.

Works for me.

[poeia.livejournal.com]

You know, suddenly Wilson isn't looking like so much of a "Boy Wonder." He was dept. head when we met him 4 years ago and he was about 35 at the time. Unless he'd had the position for seven or eight years, it's beginning to look like he's actually moving up the career ladder very slowly by PPTH standards.

Maybem Chase and Cameron can be on the Board of Directors in their new capacity as Dept. Heads. Then they can have Board Meetings as an excuse to give them some screen time.

[toolazytowork.livejournal.com]

Chase is head of surgery? (Or whatever it is he's doing, now.)
He wasn't even a surgeon in May.
I wanna work in House-land! I'll be President of the American Folklore Society by Easter.

[poeia.livejournal.com]

I wanna work in House-land! I'll be President of the American Folklore Society by Easter.
You don't want that. You might have to call people on the phone.

[rivers-bend.livejournal.com]

WHAT????????????

I mean, I know I'm not writing the show, only watching it, but it looked to me like Cameron was being a grunt ER doc and Chase was interning in surgical. Which seemed just about right. Clearly I was not paying enough attention. As I hadn't even noticed they were trying to pass Cam or Chase off as senior attending.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

From Ep 4-2 (The Right Stuff):
WILSON: I think Chase followed her. She's been a senior attending in E.R. the last three weeks. A blonde senior attending, to be accurate.

I was very surprised in "Ugly" that Chase was in on the kid's tumor surgery, because you'd think they'd want very experienced surgeons. I wasn't surprised to see him explaining things for the camera, because, well, he's gorgeous, so why wouldn't you have him do that?

Disbelief has to be so suspended, I'm afraid it's going to splat right on the ground.

[asynca.livejournal.com]

You know it's BAD NEWS when the fanfic of a medical show MAKES MORE SENSE THAN THE SHOW EVEN THOUGH IT'S WRITTEN BY AMATEURS WITH NO MEDICAL QUALIFICATIONS.

I've kind of given up on House. It's not going to be the brilliant show it used to be - it's becoming incredibly one-dimensional and all the complexities are dissolving in favour of half-assed plots.

Le sigh.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

I had given up on some things making sense (Tritter commandeering a room in the hospital to do his interviewing in, for example) but as I've said before I HATE it when they do STUPID things that are not even for dramatic license.

I can see a reason for putting Cameron in the ER: to get new cases for House. I can almost see a reason for putting Chase in surgery instead of Intensive Care (which he was trained for!). I can't see any reason to say they're department heads now. SO RIDICULOUS

[xaipw.livejournal.com]

Argh! How the hell can Cam be the Department Head of Emergency Medicine when she just started working there? She has no experience managing any sort of department, let alone one as chaotic as EM.

I know that TPTB play fast and loose with the medicine, but this is just incredible. They are insulting the intelligence of the viewers.

Criminy!

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Absolutely! And for no reason! What is the point of making them department heads? To make them equals to House? No fucking way are they equal to him, character-wise, nor is there any dramatic reason to make them equal.

[aragon-san.livejournal.com]

Come again? Since when has the show shown Chase as a department head?! Even if we all accept the "intensivist-training is enough to simply switch into surgery, what do you mean I wasted 3 years as a diagnostics fellow only to work in another field all-together?" premise, this has never been hinted at.
And now Cameron too has been promoted in a field she knows next to nothing about and hasn't trained for?! As if senior ER attending wasn't weird enough already.

I wonder how PPTH conveniently lost 2 department heads, work environment must really suck. And how their colleagues/subordinates, who actually got certified for the specialties they work in, feel about that...

Damn, suddenly Cuddy's "Well Foreman, since you killed a patient on your own and then promptly scapegoated House because you have the self-awareness of a brick I feel you're now qualified to be promoted and head your own team! Because having two competing departments with the same specialty at one hospital sounds like a wonderful thing - and we here at PPTH swim in money. Hey, why not double your salary while we're at it?"-insanity sounds like administrative genius in comparison. I thought I'd never say that >_<

I don't think the writers have a feasible strategy for Chase and Cameron (or if they do, they're hiding it so well it might as well be non-existent since it'll come out of the blue for everyone). It would make even less sense to re-integrate them back into Diagnostics later: they were fellows which is a temporary position in itself, they are done, at least Chase has grown beyond fellowship, there are 4 people working for House already...

What I don't understand by now is why they don't cut them completely. Those 45 seconds appearances do little for the show, and annoy the CC-fans due to the shortage and the numbers-, Cuddy-, Wilson-fans due to taking time away from their favs. They do little for the characters and probably even less for the actors.
Whether people love or loath season 4 - nobody seems to be content with that aspect of the show as it is.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

You are so right, about all of it. I can accept stretching things for dramatic license, but this particular thing is unnecessary and just plain stupid.

Katie all but said they have no strategy for Chase or Cameron. If you don't mind a teeny bit of spoilerage (nothing specific except the guest star's name for episode 12), the whole write-up by Ausiello is here: http://community.livejournal.com/house_cameron/2605933.html

I hate to see the producers flounder like this! Decide!

[nightdog-barks.livejournal.com]

... wait, what?

But that's (*tries to think of a better word. fails*) insane.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Yes.

[galaxygirl76.livejournal.com]

Ausiello probably just misquoted KJ. She most likely said something like Chase and Cameron have run away to different departments, and Ausiello was only paying half attention, the other half was too busy polishing his ego, and he thought she said that they are department heads now.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it. I don't want to think that what he said is for real, because it makes my brain explodes. It would also mean that non-writer me can probably come up with something more believable than tptb can and that's really scary.

[blackmare.livejournal.com]

I really hope you're right, because I have found Ausiello ... strangely slanted, self-important, and not terribly careful with his "facts."

[kidsnurse.livejournal.com]

you're joking, right? leaving all the other technical and educational aspects aside [which i feel surprisingly comfortable doing, because the writers have done so as well], i've got to point out just. one. thing.

cameron? e.r.?? no. just... NO. her 'insane moral compass' alone would have her screaming and running for the hills. and her uberjudgemental intrinsic nature would have the e.r. patients thinking that house looks like mr. rogers in comparison!

uh... no.

[aragon-san.livejournal.com]

Wasn't it nice and sensitive when last episode she loudly called the people getting treated in the E.R. summarily crack-heads, drunks, hypochondriacs and morons - in full hearing of said patients? ^_^

[inlaterdays.livejournal.com]

Resurrecting a favorite theory from last season, maybe it's STILL a coma.

...I'm kidding. But I really hope it's a misquote.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Maybe Katie was drunk! That's a thought.

[mystcphoenxcafe.livejournal.com]

Greetings!

Well, they already, despite all their consultants, can't tell what a fellowship is, and more importantly, what it is not. So... is this really a surprise?

*sigh*

It gives me hope for myself and my road... and also a touch of fear. What is it that I don't know? They just CAN'T be this out of it on purpose!!! Can they???

*wonders*

-Katrina

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

You're right - I should've seen this coming. Foreman will probably be Surgeon General of the US in Season Five

[bironic.livejournal.com]

I hate to say this about the writer of a show I like, especially a writer who has supported favorable subtext in the past, but: Katie Jacobs can be a moron and clearly does not know (or no longer knows) how to discuss her show with any semblance of rationality, depth or profundity.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Do you think maybe she was flat-out wrong? That none of the other producers/writers thinks they're department heads? Because that would make me happy.

This reminds me of a video on simmysim's LJ of Kevin Smith talking about what a producer wanted him to do with a script to a Superman movie: http://simmysim.livejournal.com/502424.html. If you have a litle time, it's hilarious to watch.

[topaz-eyes.livejournal.com]

Ow. My neck hurts from the whiplash.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Love your icon - absolutely appropriate.

It's so senseless; that's what makes me whine.

[spoopy.livejournal.com]

Sigh. What has happened to my once intelligent, engaging TV show?

I often wonder what people like Hugh Laurie make of the plot and script. Especially lately. As in, what they really think of it.

[simmysim.livejournal.com]

lololol

oh man

can you just imagine how those writer meetings go?

"IDK, I think you have to have special training--"
"PFFFFT FUCK IT."

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

LOLOLOL

Exactly! Checking facts is hard, man. Let's just write whatever and then try to catch Olivia while she's changing.

[hry2007.livejournal.com]

AH HELL NO! I agree with Lid, bring back Coma Theory.

[jouse.livejournal.com]

Where H/W are suddenly just good buddies, Cameron and Chase will be dept. heads.


<--------- bitter.

[daisylily.livejournal.com]

That is extremely annoying and stupid - hopefully Katie Jacobs has just got the wrong end of the stick or something. Maybe by 'running departments' she means 'being very junior members of the team. Or something. *clutches at straws*

She makes me very cross!

[rainsquall.livejournal.com]

Oh man. OH MAN. Amaaaaaaazing, this show.


(By the way, hi! I've seen you 'round on various journals, is it okay if I friend you? If it helps I really like yelling about House with others and with various degrees of coherency so yeah)

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Sure you can friend me. You're a CLHer, right? Always welcome.

[dangomango.livejournal.com]

GAH NOTHING MAKES SENSE WHEN YOU'RE IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY.
What?

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Doesn't make sense here either :