House: The Shipper Wars

I have to say, I was pretty surprised by my responses to my review of ‘Lockdown’. I received a lot of angry comments about my view of Cuddy that episode, along with many accusations of being a ‘Hameron’ (despite my lack of ever mentioning Hameron) and being told I was too judgemental, bashing Cuddy… etc. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so surprised, because, as many long-time House fans know, “shipping wars” are a huge feature of the show.

 (Before I receive too much hatemail for this, I’d just like to emphasize that this list is what I view to be a very basic chronological order, and only details those relationships which affect House himself.)

“Hilson”

The Hilson relationship is often defined as the core dynamic of the entire show. The concept of Hilson is so firmly embedded into the show because from the very beginning parallels were supposed to be drawn between “House” and “Holmes” and “Wilson” and “Watson”, and indeed the entire show is loosely based on the Sherlock Holmes idea. House and Wilson’s “bromance” is dysfunctional and one of the strangest friendships ever seen on television, but the off-beat connection between these two men is staggeringly fascinating to watch. Their witty dialogue, childish pranks, yet poignantly touching scenes really make this shipping pair a truly unique one.

“Hameron”                                                                           Hameron, once one of the largest fanbases in the entire House saga, has a devoted following. The Hameron relationship consists of our show’s anti-protagonist, the gruff, older mentor Dr House, and his young and beautiful yet hopelessly naive colleague. Once the golden “it must happen” couple, the word “Hameron” is now used mainly as an insult towards anyone who displays even a slightly un-Huddy or Cuddy view, despite whether or not they actually support the couple. Despite Cameron’s departure midway through season 6, Hameron fans refuse to give up hope that their “eye sex” defined relationship will possibly one day progress into something more concrete, as Cameron’s exit was a shock felt throughout the House community.

“Huddy”

Huddy is undoubtedly one of the current driving forces of the show, and the fascinatingly antagonistic relationship between Lisa Cuddy and Gregory House has always been a core part of the show’s success. As a high-powered career woman, Cuddy is left to deal with House’s illegal, immoral, and sexually harassing antics – which means that the sexual “frenemy” tension between the two is often sizzling with heat. Huddies are currently one of the most vocal and dedicated fanbases, and many agree they usurped the power of the Hameron around season 4, although their chemistry has been present ever since The Pilot and many have been rooting for this ship since the very beginning.

In the beginning the show took a much more Hameron-centred view, exploring the possibility of an amorous relationship between House and Cameron, especially in season 1 with Cameron’s crush. Their obvious feelings of mutual attraction were a completely different feel from the Huddy attraction, with Hameron renowned for its long, intense looks, whereas Huddy more for its witty banter. After roughly three seasons of an on-and-off Hameron focus, the ship eventually seemed to give way to the Huddy arc, which has dominated for the last few seasons, after moving on from a power-play with major sexual tension to a more possible romance. I don’t think Hilson has changed much, as it is solely a brotherhood, and unaffected by House’s romances.

So – are the writers going to continue down the Huddy path? With the departure of Cameron, it seems a distinct possibility, although you never know – fans could get sick of Huddy if they get too happy or boring. Many fans already feel that the writers have made Huddy more into a childish soap-opera, while others feel it is only just starting to reach its full potential.

Thoughts? Who do you support? Who do you hate? Who do you think is never going to happen? And who do you feel must?

House – 6.17 – Lockdown Review

This much-anticipated episode left House fans feverish with excitement for Hugh Laurie’s directorial debut and Jennifer Morrison’s return. But did the episode live up to its hype?

For those of you who haven’t seen it, Lockdown was not your typical House episode. Instead of even having a patient this week, the entire hospital has gone into, well, Lockdown, because a newborn baby is missing.

As unrealistic as this scenario may have been (I mean, what if someone were dying or something? Nobody can leave their room to help them? Sheesh), it was an interesting, if not overdone idea to force the characters to interact, as they were locked into these rooms with each other.

Wilson and Thirteen play a game of ‘Truth or Dare’, which was somewhat funnier than it sounds, as there were a few amusing moments including Wilson getting caught stealing a dollar bill from the cash register, although these were marred by Thirteen’s usual dark, dark secrets and antics. Wow she’s deep. And apparently a total liar about everything – thanks for learning nothing about her character. I guess she’s been forced down our throats so much these past few seasons there’s nothing else to tell.

Foreman and Taub, locked in a storage room, try some of House’s vicodin, and look through each others’ confidential files. I have to say I  did enjoyed the comic relief they provided, and found their scenes to have chemistry, despite the astonishingly fast rate they somehow stopped being stoned, and the predicticality of House’s prank with the files.

Cameron returns to Chase with divorce papers and after an emotional argument about whether she ever really loved him they have some breakup sex. I’m making this sound far worse than it was, because I did find their story to be one of the most interesting – especially considering the actors’ history (I mean – god what if that actually happened when they broke up for real? Awkward…). Anyway, I was glad to see the return of Cameron, and really this episode just made me wonder even more why they ever let her go. I’m definitely thinking she’s going to be coming back full time in the future, as Jennifer Morrison did some phenomenal acting, and really does seem to be a part of the House world. Even though her reasons for breaking up with him were so unrealistic it would have been better for her to just admit the writers fired her because FOX needs to cut budgets and Olivia Wilde’s more famous, this was what they chose to do.

House was left to talk to a dying man (never happened before on House. Ever.) Obviously, this brought on yet another – ‘gosh, let’s talk about my feelings’ conversation – which, I’m sad to say, I found the dullest of them all – and I never find House’s scenes dull. But House’s feelings have been way overdone this season. Like seriously.

Finally, we had Cuddy. Let me begin by saying that Cuddy is possibly now one of the most irritating people in the entire show. Not only does she wear way too much makeup, but she seems to now be impersonating her beau Lucas by playing detective and magically recognizing that there are too many towels in the patient’s bedroom and magically deducing from there that the baby is in a laundry hamper. Right outside the room. That they somehow forgot to check. I mean, seriously, what is with this hospital? They can have helicopters and sniffer dogs, but can’t find a baby 30 feet from the patient’s room? Well, I guess it was some sort of super-human baby that never cries. Despite being basically smothered for three hours.

So you can see I was disappointed.

Surprised? Maybe. This isn’t the first House episode to have a different feel to it – every season there’s usually one that just stands apart from the rest slightly before the finale. (But a third episode with no medicine? Really? Are they running out of diseases or something? Apart from this magic diesase of “absent seizures” Genius!Cuddy diagnosed). But for me, this episode only reminded me further of why House just isn’t the show it used to be, and I kept having images of the episode Three Stories popping up in my head. This just didn’t even come close to comparing.

To me, it felt rushed, unsubtle, with a poor solution and poor character developments, and it makes me sad that people thought it was so great. I’d say a run-of-the-mill season 1 or 2 episode is better quality for the dialogue and character development, but that’ just me. We can only hope for a shocking season finale. That doesn’t involve this “Huddy” crap. Yeah. Dream on.

Agree? Disagree? Think I’m barking up the wrong tree? Or think House is ‘jumping the shark?’ Comment below, or hunt me down.