House Notes
Everyone has his guilty pleasures, and "House" is one of mine.
I suppose one would have to describe it as a "quirky" medical drama. Hugh Laurie as the Vicodin- addicted, brilliant and ornery Dr. Gregory House, cute young Australian guy as the cute young Australian doc, Selena Ward as House's married ex-girlfriend ( a lawyer, of course- all actresses Selena Ward's age seem to play lawyers), other actors I enjoy.
I like it in spite of the silly graphics that supposedly show us what's going on inside a patient's body, but in fact just waste time and money.
I like it in spite of the fact that the scripts have gone downhill lately.
I like it in spite of the fact that when Laurie, a wonderful British actor whom I've admired for years, does an American accent he sounds like he's constantly choking back a sob.
But the other night "House" even got on my nerves. An episode involving a sick nun and her companions from the monastery.
Now we all know that when television writers write episodes involving nuns there are bound to be some howlers.
Like the wide-eyed young nun staring at girls in bikinis on TV for presumably the first time. This is in spite of the fact that the nun is around 30 years old, could only have been a nun since 1995 and bikinis have been around for forty years. Even thongs have been around for thirty.
Like Dr. House hanging out in the monastery kitchen having tea with the Mother Superior. It is possible, I guess, that as a physician he could have been admitted to the cloister. But since his patient was back at the hospital it was hard to see how canon law would justify that one.
But what really got me was the tea set. Dr. Greg and the Big Momma were sipping tea out of cheerful yellow and white glazed earthenware with a cheerful pattern of cartoonish white sheep on a sunny yellow background.
Ceramics that anyone who loves china could spot a mile away.
Those dishes were Campagna, by Vietri. "Montone," if I'm not mistaken. Made in Italy, imported to the US, available online and in a few shops.
And that teacup and saucer the doc was sipping from easily costs , what- 65 bucks?
The dinner plates alone run $29.
If that monastery is dining off $29 plates, remind me to cancel my donation this year.
Hello, "House" staff, props department! Are you listening?
MONASTERIES DO NOT THROW MONEY AWAY ON RIDICULOUSLY EXPENSIVE DISHWARE! You know, that whole "vow of poverty" thing???
All right, so television is written by kids in their 20s who are very talented but don't know very much about anything, especially about the Catholic Church.
But you'd think they could at least get the props right.
I suppose one would have to describe it as a "quirky" medical drama. Hugh Laurie as the Vicodin- addicted, brilliant and ornery Dr. Gregory House, cute young Australian guy as the cute young Australian doc, Selena Ward as House's married ex-girlfriend ( a lawyer, of course- all actresses Selena Ward's age seem to play lawyers), other actors I enjoy.
I like it in spite of the silly graphics that supposedly show us what's going on inside a patient's body, but in fact just waste time and money.
I like it in spite of the fact that the scripts have gone downhill lately.
I like it in spite of the fact that when Laurie, a wonderful British actor whom I've admired for years, does an American accent he sounds like he's constantly choking back a sob.
But the other night "House" even got on my nerves. An episode involving a sick nun and her companions from the monastery.
Now we all know that when television writers write episodes involving nuns there are bound to be some howlers.
Like the wide-eyed young nun staring at girls in bikinis on TV for presumably the first time. This is in spite of the fact that the nun is around 30 years old, could only have been a nun since 1995 and bikinis have been around for forty years. Even thongs have been around for thirty.
Like Dr. House hanging out in the monastery kitchen having tea with the Mother Superior. It is possible, I guess, that as a physician he could have been admitted to the cloister. But since his patient was back at the hospital it was hard to see how canon law would justify that one.
But what really got me was the tea set. Dr. Greg and the Big Momma were sipping tea out of cheerful yellow and white glazed earthenware with a cheerful pattern of cartoonish white sheep on a sunny yellow background.
Ceramics that anyone who loves china could spot a mile away.
Those dishes were Campagna, by Vietri. "Montone," if I'm not mistaken. Made in Italy, imported to the US, available online and in a few shops.
And that teacup and saucer the doc was sipping from easily costs , what- 65 bucks?
The dinner plates alone run $29.
If that monastery is dining off $29 plates, remind me to cancel my donation this year.
Hello, "House" staff, props department! Are you listening?
MONASTERIES DO NOT THROW MONEY AWAY ON RIDICULOUSLY EXPENSIVE DISHWARE! You know, that whole "vow of poverty" thing???
All right, so television is written by kids in their 20s who are very talented but don't know very much about anything, especially about the Catholic Church.
But you'd think they could at least get the props right.
Thank you.
ReplyDeleteAs an aspiring writer (not doing a very good job of "aspiring") I at least know that to write about a subject requires a great deal of research. Oftimes, the subject tends to actually be the most interested audience. ie: the "Lifetime network" formula: women who suffer from cancer, women with children who suffer from various diseases, Muslim women...the list goes on.
But the problem is that Hollywood (used to refer to all popular media) doesn't CARE about being confused with the facts, or their audience. You see, they like to sit back and applaud their own efforts, and anyone else's reaction be damned! Why bother getting facts straight when they can spend time clapping each other on the back while misinforming the ignorant public?
Love me some Dr. House....
ReplyDeleteOh--and it's SELA Ward, not Selena:) Sorry, I couldn't help myself. Love Sela Ward and am happy to see some movement returning to her face in recent episodes. Looks like the Botox is wearing off...
ReplyDeleteI suspect the reason why they have that set of china in the scene because it looks good.
ReplyDeleteRemember, real milk doesn't look like milk on screen... so they have to use something else. It's likely that a simple white set might look too plain, or they wanted to dress up the set, or they wanted more color to look more interesting, etc.
Also, this epsiode of House comes from the first season. (Color me geek.)
I too am a fond fan of Hugh from way back... and while I miss his briliant performance as Bertie, I'm waiting for the two minute cameo by Fry.
(I imagine that a cameo from Rowan is too much to ask for.)
Don't forget to check out "A Bit of Fry and Laurie"... a fairly entertaining sketch-comedy series.
ReplyDeleteI love House, too, but that episode was so bad it was funny.
ReplyDeleteHow about some more idiocy? I nearly blogged on this one, myself. (I had it on DVR and just watched it a couple weeks ago.)
The nuns, supposedly in cloister, wore habits without wimples that were TIGHT. (Remember the part with him in the chapel?)
The nun who met him in the chapel crossed herself wrong. She went right shoulder to left shoulder, which is backwards.
We are all supposed to be shocked that the nun had an IUD, though it was explained in the story that she'd fallen quite far and been very loose. Not sure what that message was, if any.
BUT, the biggest of all was that the name of the nun who crossed herself wrong and wore the tight dress for a habit was...
SISTER EUCHARIST!
Oh, puh-leeze! As if nuns go around naming themselves after Jesus like that?
Like I said, there were so many blatant errors it was actually funny.
By the way, my other guilty pleasure is also on Fox...American Idol. Boy, is that addictive when you catch it from the first show. DVR program number 2. *sigh*
Oh, I was thinking of this episode today (what else to do in between reading and dinner?), and I thought of one other thing. First thing in the show, the sister comes in with bleeding and the younger sisters all excitedly ask if it could be stigmata. I could be wrong, but I thought that would be for the Church to determine.
ReplyDeleteAnyway...the show is typically good (we didn't watch the first season, so we can't compare the writing to earlier), but this episode was pretty annoying for all its inaccuracies.
Wait a minute. Hollywood tolerates inaccuracies and misrepresentations?
ReplyDeleteYou mean Whoopie Goldberg isn't really a nun?
Yeah, who woulda guessed it?
ReplyDelete