Your Help Requested

[deelaundry]

Hi, Dee's left brain here!

Please rec me the most balanced, objective review of the Season Finale for House that you've seen. Major media preferred, but outstanding blog/LJ reviews are also fine.

Thanks.

Comments

[hannahrorlove.livejournal.com]

The extreme end of the spectrum is probably Polite Dissent (http://www.politedissent.com/archives/2480), which focuses on the medical aspect of the show.

cryptictac just put up a good post, too.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[namasteyoga.livejournal.com]

There's the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/arts/television/12hous.html?ref=television) one of course (can't get much more major media than that), and while the writer is a House/Cuddy shipper, she's more pleased with the overall story than merely seeing her 'ship in action).

The Sun-Times/Pioneer Local's review (http://blogs.pioneerlocal.com/entertainment/2009/05/house_finale_review_hallucinat.html) actually incorporates all three of the final episodes for an overview.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

I did see the NY Times review, and thought it was very interesting. I'll check out Sun-Times. Thanks!

[chippers87.livejournal.com]

Okay, so it's not really a review, but Barb Barnett's interview with Doris Egan (http://blogcritics.org/video/article/writerco-executive-producer-doris-egan-talks/) is up for your review. So, once you've read what everyone else had to say, let St. Doris over. :)

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Doris Egan is so awesome. ♥ ♥ ♥

[m-supercomputer.livejournal.com]

I like the AV Club's reviews (http://www.avclub.com/articles/both-sides-now,27875/?utm_source=tvclub_listing) of episodes - I don't know about balanced/objective necessarily, but they are completely disconnected from the world of fannish discourse enough to not know the standard pairing names, so I kind of like that perspective. *g*

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Oh, yay, that's exactly the kind of thing I wanted to read.

The more I think of it, the more I love Carl Reiner in the episode. He was marvelous -- kind of in a class of his own.

[namasteyoga.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the AV Club stuff is pretty good and solid, but the comments can be either fandom wanky or hilarious, depending. It's generally not the same crowd as fandom comment folks, though, which makes it interesting -- or at least it's a wider range. (Zodiacmotherfucker, for instance.)

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I get so caught up, I need to find the perspective of someone on the "outside" to be able to re-focus. stephbass's reviews used to be wonderful that way, but she stopped doing them last season. : (

Even loony new perspectives (which Steph's never were, no way) can be helpful. I found this comment on Hulu in February:

"Kill her Off already
From "The Greater Good," Season 5, Episode 14.
13 is hot sure, but she has gotten way too annoying. Kill her off and bring another Hottie in, but this time dont make her be one of the typical dominant crazy pushy women this show throws on here. Just make her normal.
countryfella068 posted on Feb 10 2009, 7:12:51 PM"

After I quit laughing at this ding-dong, I was comforted by the fact that the loons I know are in many ways better than the loons I don't.

[topaz-eyes.livejournal.com]

The comments in Polite Dissent are similar.

[namasteyoga.livejournal.com]

I have problems dealing with Polite Dissent just because I keep yelling: It's fiction! Stop expecting documentary medicine!

[topaz-eyes.livejournal.com]

The thing is, Scott usually makes some good points about the medicine. When I compare 1st season medicine to now, I see how far downhill the medicine has gone, and I'm no expert. How hard would it have been to actually name the antibiotic that caused the toxic epidermal necrolysis the ballerina developed in "Under My Skin," for example? Details like that are what anchor the show. A lot of us here have written case-based fic, or at least fic with some significant medical details, and we do our research to get the details right. I can't see why the show's technical advisors can do the same thing, as far as they can.

(If you want to say "Your entitlement's showing," I admit that's a fair assessment. I just think we can have both great drama and reasonable medicine. *g*)

[chippers87.livejournal.com]

What I see as the biggest difference in the medicine between Season 1 and now is that back then they actually took the time to slow down and help the audience understand what's going on. And now... I wasn't even aware that the patient in Both Sides Now had had split brain surgery in the first place, they went by it so quickly.

So, while I'm definitely one of those fans who will stand up and yell, "It's fiction! Stop expecting it to make sense!" I do also sympathize with those who miss more of the strictly procedural parts of the show.

[taiga13.livejournal.com]

I rely on the Polite Dissent reviews for my performance reviews blog, but I also like it so that it helps me understand what's going on and, more importantly, what I can believe and what I can't. Is it really possible for your skin to fall off, can you really induce precocious puberty in your children by touching them with testosterone cream on your hands, etc.

[m-supercomputer.livejournal.com]

Ahaha, oh man, I love that guy - I don't even know why, but I do.

[namasteyoga.livejournal.com]

I think my favorite thing on AV Club is the Box of Paperbacks. I wish I had the patience to just sit a read a series of random paperbacks picked up at a garage sale. I'd probably walk right past it, but just the randomness of it is a hoot. (And some of them turn out to be pretty good.) It's a great Internet-style blogging item.

[m-supercomputer.livejournal.com]

That is always fun! My favorites are generally "Commentary Tracks of the Damned" and "My Year of Flops," but that's mostly because of my unhealthy amount of interest in weird and terrible movies.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Have I recommended Andy Warhol's Blood for Dracula and Flesh for Frankenstein to you yet? Dreamy amounts of terrible, plus weird subversion of the Dracula archetype, plus homosexuality defeating the evil scientist's plot. Udo Kier stars in both.

Very CAPSLOCK.

[m-supercomputer.livejournal.com]

Hee, no, I hadn't heard of those, but they sound entirely fantastic. *g*

[hry2007.livejournal.com]

Balanced? Well first, you'll need to get past the killer rabbit...

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

AWESOME ICON! I miss that kitty. I wish they'd bring her back in Season Six.

Maybe a whole episode with just Amber, Kutner, Wilson's brother, and that kitty. And Dwarf Mom. I miss her too.

[hry2007.livejournal.com]

Dwarf Mom would make a good female Wizard of Oz type character.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

You mean her as the Wizard, right? She'd be amazing!

[hry2007.livejournal.com]

Yep, the Oz herself.

[topaz-eyes.livejournal.com]

Wilson's brother has a hallucination where he takes the kitty to the bar and meets up with Amber and Kutner...

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Write it, write it, write it!

[purridot.livejournal.com]

And what is your right brain up to, meanwhile?

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Earlier this week, it handed me this (http://deelaundry.livejournal.com/208360.html).

Today, well, I'll send you a message.

[daisylily.livejournal.com]

Coming by too late :D

(I would have recced Ticcy's, as I've just read it, but someone already did)