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

[earlwyn.livejournal.com]

Just because Wilson might be legally culpable for having sex with Grace, that does not mean he is necessarily ethically wrong about it.

The cool thing about morals and ethics is that there is tonne of grey space. It differs situation from situation - despite current laws of the land.

[hry2007.livejournal.com]

The law is there to address concerns that I've pointed out were significantly lessened by the details of this particular situation.

[hry2007.livejournal.com]

A 13 year old is not an adult, Grace was. This would hold true if there was some sign of neurological damage in Grace, but there wasn't.

[hry2007.livejournal.com]

There's no reason to get defensive. We just have different views on the doctor/patient relationship. I don't want to change your views so much as let you see where I'm coming from.

[hry2007.livejournal.com]

Wow. That's fairly presumptous of you. So much for civil discourse.

I work in mental health, was beaten growing up, my mom's mentally ill, my dad died driving drunk and my brother's going down the same path. If you're going to turn this into a who's seen worse shit contest, I promise you, I'll win. Sorry if I can't muster the same sympathy for Grace that I have for a former patient of mine whose autistic, bipolar, knocked up by her dad at 16 and has been having flashbacks ever since.

[earlwyn.livejournal.com]

The credibility of those ethical guidelines could be called into question as well as their reasons for existence. It doesn't provide an end-all-be-all answer to moral or ethical questions, such as this.

[earlwyn.livejournal.com]

As far as law goes, where there cannot be shades of grey, you are right. It is better to err on the side of caution. In a primarily philosophical debate - which is what I am attempting to argue and your ethical codes are providing quite the challege to oppose! - there are many shades of grey. In the true reality of the situation, laws aside, there is a deeper foundation of what, philosophically, is the best choice.

That said, I wonder as to your opinion of friends treating friends in medical situations (emergencies, non-emergencies, etc.) because there could be possibility for abuse there. Yet people do it all the time. Cuddy treated House for his infarction. Wilson prescribes for House. Cameron, Chase, and Foreman handled House's immediate care when he was shot. They could have abused their power over him in those situations. Yet knowing the characters - and knowing that none, besides possibly for House, are purposefully malicious - there doesn't seem to be the likely chance. It'd be the saner, safer choice to let said character treat House in the situation then worry about crossing lines or breaking ethical codes.

It is very scary to imagine accidentally abusing someone whom one loves, but - c'est la vie, oui? It happens. It'd be horrible, yes, but that does not necessarily equate to morally or ethically wrong. There are degrees - just like their are degrees of murder.

The ethical code is there to force lawyers to err on the side of caution, not doctors, in order not to need to judge case-by-case. The interpersonal relationship involved is not mentioned. That is not the intent of the ethics code. It is to cover the hospital/university/etc.'s ass should a lawsuit arise.

I personally like that Wilson has bad judgment. It makes him human; it makes him complex. He draws a nice counterpoint for House as to who is more fucked up. I quite enjoy it. I suppose we differ there, as everywhere.

[earlwyn.livejournal.com]

What is legally wrong and morally wrong are two seperate things. Just because it states something in a policy as being prosecuted under the law doesn't mean it's wrong necessarily.

So no. I don't see how it's that terribly wrong, given specific circumstances.

[earlwyn.livejournal.com]

But... she could consent to sex. She did. And even if there was grey area as far as consent goes (which we have no proof that there was) the fact that it wasn't mentally damaging keeps it from being abuse. That's the definition of abuse.

(And I bander 'ethical' and 'moral' around too freely. I should try to be more precise next time. Apologies.)

[hry2007.livejournal.com]

But she wasn't a kid, she was a mentally functional adult. On medical issues, Wilson was in a position of power. But interpersonally? They're equals.

[hry2007.livejournal.com]

No, in part because we're discussing philosophy, not medicine, but most becaues you attacked me personally.

Re: Apology for personal

[hry2007.livejournal.com]

I apreciate that, and probably should've been a little less Heather From The Block. I have some educational background in psychology (along with work and personal experience), and while I don't have a degree (I dropped out of a psych/pre-med program to go back to my initial goal, acting) I do read a fair bit on the field at my leisure.

I don't think what Wilson did was right, but I'm of the mentality that if no one was at a large risk of getting hurt, that it's water under the bridge. If anyone was at risk of getting hurt in this specific instance, I personally think it was Wilson because of the risk to his career, his relationship with House, et cetera.

[earlwyn.livejournal.com]

Dubious consent aside (because I could argue that but -- hrmg; why bother? It could be argued that as House's prescribing physician, if House and Wilson entered into a romantic relationship, Wilson could be charge with sexual abuse against House. Would that be true? Of course not! But anyway), there is no evidence that the sex was mentally damaging either because of lack of canon evidence. In fact, all canon evidence that is available points to Wilson and Grace having an emotionally satisfying relationship.

[earlwyn.livejournal.com]

I, too, would love to see it dealt with in a slash story. There's real possibility for dark waters explored. That said, would it consist of sexual abuse? Absolutely not. House and Wilson care for each other. They have trust between them. Just because Wilson acts a prescribing physician (which, given the Tritter arc, does not mean he has control whatsoever) in no way would their interactions actually connotate abuse. How could one refute this, given the level of love displayed between them?

But it is not immaterial. Abuse is define by the fact that there is mental damage. If no mental damage exists, therefore abuse does not exist. Simply because there is an ethical code being violated (which House does all the time as far as the hypocratic oath goes, might I add) does not mean there is real dubious ethical implications. Those codes exist to free up grey area during lawsuits. In the true reality of the situation, they are almost inapplicable.