NOT FEELING THE H/W LOVE

[raietta.livejournal.com]

Well, watched "Top Secret" a couple of times, feeling bummed.

WARNING! Long rambling dissertation under the LJ cut! Possibly TL;DR! Also, spoilers inside!



It’s undeniable now. House and Wilson got divorced.

They were happily, wonderfully married throughout all of Season One (even during the Vogler mess!!). They were totally married throughout Season Two (balcony scenes anyone? House deleting the apartment message from his answering machine anyone? Still the gold standard of H/W love!).

Then along came the "Euphoria" two-parter, and then Season Three, and all my happy slashy dreams were shattered. SHATTERED.

"Euphoria" had open hostility between House and Wilson (or, more likely, hostility from House toward Wilson—here I’m thinking specifically of the scene where House snarls at Wilson, "I’ll bet you you can even have unprotected sex with your patients without even catching a damn thing. Boy I wish I had your job." YEOWCH!), and here we see House considering packing up his things and asking for his magic decoder ring back. Sad. Really, really sad. I started getting a queasy feeling in my stomach right then.

Then, somewhere after House got the ketamine treatment and Wilson started manipulating him (withholding information from House about his paralyzed patient, refusing to prescribe Vicodin, etc), House got a separation from Wilson.

The lovely sexy sparkly chemistry onscreen between House and Wilson just shuddered to a halt. Sad, sad, sad!

Then somewhere after Tritter finally got booted off the show, House filed for divorce from Wilson. Looks like the trial separation didn’t go too well.

Where’d the chemistry go? Where’d all the jump cuts focusing on Wilson and House giving one another sexy, significant looks go?

What the hell is going on, here?

In "Half-Wit," I felt more depressed. Here House is DYING OF BRAIN CANCER, and what do we get from House and Wilson? One half-assed scene with the upright piano in the patient’s room and one sneering, hostile scene in House’s office at the end. Gah!

House actually looks simmeringly angry with Wilson in that last scene. Man. It almost felt to me, on watching that scene, that House has filed for divorce in a fit of betrayed fury—and Wilson didn’t even know they were married in the first place. Bizarre! That scene actually reads to me like House is still furious with Wilson, and Wilson has no freaking clue that House is even mad. Wilson gets House flowers. House throws them out the window. Wilson cluelessly gets House chocolates. House throws them at his head. Wilson’s all like, "Pizza and a movie?" House is all like, "Choke on that pizza and DIE!!!"

Am I the only one who saw that? Just how crazy am I?

Is anyone else not seeing the chemistry?

It’s like the actors are no longer comfortable playing scenes together. It’s awful. I don’t see House and Wilson interacting on the screen any more; I see Hugh Laurie and Robert Sean Leonard pretending to be House and Wilson on a set. Awful.

And so now we come to the latest episode, "Top Secret."

I would have enjoyed this episode much, much more if there had been ANY chemistry between House and Wilson AT ALL. And I’m not even being greedy and asking for sexual chemistry. Just plain old "House and Wilson are bestest buds and Platonically LUV each other!" chemistry would have made my day.

But no. Nothing.

The banter in the bathroom? Not feeling it. Feels forced and half-assed.

The fights about House’s drug use and House’s patient? Feels like the bickering of a divorced couple, sad to say. Seriously. This is how my mom and dad used to fight/argue/bicker with each other, after they got divorced. I know firsthand how post-divorce arguments sound and look, and House and Wilson in "Top Secret" fit the bill.

But maybe it’s not just House and Wilson, HL and RSL.

The scenes between House and Cuddy weren’t all that sparkly with chemistry, either. Or, at least not the sexual kind. The scene in House’s office where Cuddy gives House the patient file for Riley (or whatever his name in the show is), I see ZERO sexual chemistry between Cuddy and House. House looks tired and distracted. He doesn’t even leer at Cuddy’s cleavage. In return, Cuddy looks tired and concerned. More maternal than anything. Odd. It’s that way in the end scene, too, where we finally get confirmation that Cuddy and House had been up to sexy shenanigans years ago, in what appears to be a one-night stand.

Sexual chemistry? Zip.

Cuddy’s still looking and acting motherly towards House, not sexual at ALL, and House acts like Cuddy is a sister or something.

This is so weird.

So maybe it’s not just House and Wilson that’s lost its zing. Maybe it’s ALL the grownups of the show.

Cameron and Chase were kinda hot in the supply closet together. Foreman was fun and engaging in the ep. Has the end of the world come about? Am I actually enjoying the scenes with the kids more than the scenes with H, Cuddy, and W?

Please counter my arguments ramblings if you can. Please let me know if you DID see any chemistry between House and Wilson in the last few eps. Really. I’d like to know if anyone agrees with my view, that the chemistry is alarmingly absent from H & W these days. I’d also like to know if anyone disagrees, if they DO see chemistry. That would make me feel a lot better.

So. Anyone else with problems with the show and the H/W relationship? Anyone else thinking the thrill is gone? Or do I need to start going to therapy to resolve my issues with over-analyzing a stupid show? (I mean, seriously. It's just a show! This much obsession can't be healthy.)

........send help!



ETA: Removed a few refs to "Top Secret" outside the LJ cut just in case.

Comments

[housepiglet.livejournal.com]

Hello :) Thanks for bringing up such an interesting subject!

I don't wholly agree. I felt there was quite a lot of chemistry between House and Wilson in Top Secret. I felt the old spark was there in the bathroom scenes - in fact, it's felt to me as though the writers have been using bathroom scenes for a few episodes, now, to give House and Wilson a chance to demonstrate their fundamental closeness. Maybe they're using them as a replacement for 'House and Wilson on the couch eating takeout' scenes that we used to get. I also thought the snarkiness in that conversation that ended in Wilson writing House a prescription for the peeing drug (can't remember the name) was a reflection of the old House/Wilson goodness.

I've just felt recently that the writers aren't using RSL enough. I've spent several episodes (well, insofar as I can remember: they've been stretched out over such a ridiculous period) just counting the seconds until Wilson comes on. Top Secret was the first time in several episodes that I wasn't doing that, because (at least in the earlier part of the episode) he seemed to be a fundamental part of the episode setup, in the old way: there in the bathroon, there during a DX, helping with the investigation etc.

I was discussing this with earlwyn recently, and the only explanation I could think of for it was that perhaps they're afraid that if there's too much RSL goodness it might become the 'House & Wilson' show, rather than just House, and they want to avoid that. I really don't know, but it makes no sense at all to me, as - if this community is any sort of reflection of the average viewing audience - RSL's Wilson is much loved and appreciated, and missed when he isn't present.

I have to say that I don't agree about the Cuddy thingy either. I thought there was quite a spark between House and Cuddy in that scene at the end - I didn't get the impression that either of them was sexually disengaged. Add to that the choice that the writers made a few episodes ago to have House taking a strong interest in Cuddy's romantic adventures, and I have the impression that the writers are trying to emphasise the sex between them, rather than play it down. And I've always felt that there's a real and significant chemistry between HL and LE that I've never detected between House and Cameron.

So... if anything, this episode gave me hope that maybe the writers are moving towards reintroducing the House/Wilson chemistry. It was certainly littered with little sub-textual hints of a sort that I don't feel we've seen for a long time.

Just my 10 pence, and thanks again for such an interesting discussion :)

*bursts in singing loudly*

[earlwyn.livejournal.com]

[to the tune of 'It's Howdy Doody Time']

The House and Wilson Show! The House and Wilson show!
You know they like their blow (jobs)
The House and Wilson show!
*jazz hands*

Um. I'll just be *points* leaving right -- *runs*

Re: *bursts in singing loudly*

[housepiglet.livejournal.com]

*grins*

*assumes stern expression* Shouldn't you be writing???

Heheh...

Re: *bursts in singing loudly*

[earlwyn.livejournal.com]

*hears the whip crack and jumps*

I'm a-going. I'm a-going.

Old comedy is so under appreciated.

Re: *bursts in singing loudly*

[housepiglet.livejournal.com]

I appreciate it, but not as much as I appreciate your fics :)

*grrr...* Get writing!

;-)

[raietta.livejournal.com]

I don't wholly agree. I felt there was quite a lot of chemistry between House and Wilson in Top Secret. I felt the old spark was there in the bathroom scenes - in fact, it's felt to me as though the writers have been using bathroom scenes for a few episodes, now, to give House and Wilson a chance to demonstrate their fundamental closeness. Maybe they're using them as a replacement for 'House and Wilson on the couch eating takeout' scenes that we used to get. I also thought the snarkiness in that conversation that ended in Wilson writing House a prescription for the peeing drug (can't remember the name) was a reflection of the old House/Wilson goodness.

I don't know why I wasn't feeling the love in the bathroom scenes, except that perhaps it felt very forced and stale to me. I really don't think I'm being picky, I just really think that the shots of Wilson's Village People statement, House's reaction, and Wilson's protestation of unweirdness ("You started it!") were lacking in, well, authenticity. It's like the scenes were faithful to the letter of the H/W law, but not the spirit.

The snarkiness during the scrip-writing scene, however, I'm in agreement w/ you. There was something there. Wilson's exasperation, House's facial expressions, the whole convo, very nice. Still don't feel married to me. That scene felt very H & W Are Divorced to me. Sad, I know. Again, I don't think I'm being picky, I just think... aw, hell. I don't know WHAT I think.

The keys-toss in the DDX room was cool, too--that felt more married to me than anything. Wow, I would go on, but this is getting to be a silly reply to your reply, so moving on....

I was discussing this with earlwyn recently, and the only explanation I could think of for it was that perhaps they're afraid that if there's too much RSL goodness it might become the 'House & Wilson' show, rather than just House, and they want to avoid that. I really don't know, but it makes no sense at all to me, as - if this community is any sort of reflection of the average viewing audience - RSL's Wilson is much loved and appreciated, and missed when he isn't present.

Intriguing point here, on TPTB fears of "The House and Wilson Show." Wilson makes a particular sort of foil for House, one they either abandon completely in an episode or use too "much," by which I mean the pairing kind of takes over the episode. Those are my favorite episodes, though--SoaCG, H vs. G, the cane-filing ep (Sleeping Dogs Lie??).

I have to say that I don't agree about the Cuddy thingy either. I thought there was quite a spark between House and Cuddy in that scene at the end - I didn't get the impression that either of them was sexually disengaged. Add to that the choice that the writers made a few episodes ago to have House taking a strong interest in Cuddy's romantic adventures, and I have the impression that the writers are trying to emphasise the sex between them, rather than play it down. And I've always felt that there's a real and significant chemistry between HL and LE that I've never detected between House and Cameron.

Again, I think the writers, etc. were GOING FOR a Cuddy/House sex-up, but I just wasn't seeing the chemistry. Cuddy looks tired and amused, but there's no sexual tension in the scenes. House kinda looks like he wants to jump Cuddy, but I see no hot looks, nothing. The two are staged to get hot-n-heavy, the shots are set up that way, and of course the actual dialogue is sexy chemistry all the way--but nothing is actually coming across as sexy in that scene. Cuddy's laugh at the end was cute, but not come-hither, not sexy, not anything but amused to me. Big difference from other scenes where they've been making eyes at each other.

Okay. Maybe I really am just incredibly picky. Or maybe I'm just not buying what TPTB are trying to sell. But if you and others are seeing what the show's trying to get across, then maybe I'll just have to accept the show at face value.

Thanks for the reply!